The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126347 Message #2822599
Posted By: Lighter
27-Jan-10 - 10:59 AM
Thread Name: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Charley, the tune is so good that its ability to attract migrant verses is no surprise.
Q, the fact that Alden gives only a single stanza (and just one repeated line of solo) suggests that this was the way he heard the song. Anything is possible, but I doubt very much that he could have forgotten the actual words of "Away, Rio!" and replaced them with words from a completely different song ("The Boston Come-All-Ye") which he does not mention. The melodies of the two songs, while clearly disntinguishable, seem to me to have a similar contour. A shantyman knowing one and starting to sing the other could, I think, easily import verses. And as we know, shantymen generally had little motivation to stick to a "prescribed" text.
The only thing that bothers me about Alden's recollection of "thirty years ago" is that he says nothing at all of how or when he actually learned the shanties. The theme of the article is that shantying is almost extinct and that some one needs to preserve them before steam-power exbtinguishes them completely. (I find it significant that the anonymous writer in 1868 seemd to have no concern that shantying might be dying out, and that the first two published books of shanties appeared about 1888.)
It is just possible that Alden learned the shanties in the 1860s or '70s, knew they were old, and innocently dated his texts to "thirty years ago" without worrying whether that was strictly accurate. Harper's was a sophisticated magazine but not an academic journal, and no one would have objected to that sort of fudging. "Thirty years ago" (i.e., 1851-52) also suggests the California Gold Rush, which Alden may have thought of the Golden Age of shanties.
I will find out what I can about Alden and report back. His article suggests careful observation and consideration of shanty-singing. He even mentions Hugill's "hitch" though he doesn't use that word!