"Shanties From Seven Seas - Part One" - Reconstruction Completed


This is the end of the fantastic chapter of my research on shanties and the beautiful maritime tradition, from the time when sails reigned supreme on the seas. It is a part of the, project that coincides with the most famous work in the subject of shanties, I mean Stan Hugill's "Shanties From the Seven Seas". This book is the most important source of basic and expert knowledge on the subject of shanties. Why I wrote that the basic and expert, well, certain information that Stan Hugill gives us seems to be basic information, however, more than sixty years after the first edition of this book (1961), observing discussions about shanties and listening to music that without blinking an eye is called shanties, gives me the reflection, is that book should definitely be rediscovered. When it comes to expert knowledge, I can only write that, in the first chapter of this work, I found information that I have not found anywhere else.
   What is my method of research on shanties?
   Namely, I try to reconstruct every single song from the book "Shanties From the Seven Seas", that is, every song is read, rewritten, I also try to reach sources for every single song, that is cited by the author, which made me the owner of one of the largest in the world of a private library containing shanties (the collection includes over 40 songbooks and other sources from the 19th and 20th centuries, most of them are first editions). These volumes allow me to find information about the original shanties, often simple descriptions that allow me to spot tiny, almost elusive pieces of the puzzle. The next stage is the musical one, I do manually transcribes the score presented by Stan Hugill in his book, and insert into a computer generator, in addition, I have almost all the official albums of The Last Shantymen, where I first look for the song understudy, the original singing always takes precedence before the score from the book (taking into account, of course, a lowering of the speed and tempo, which is naturally accelerated to the requirements of the stage). After getting acquainted with the music and the text, I start rehearsals that consist of learning roughly the text and rhythm, then I add hand and body movements imitating work to better understand the dynamics. After a few days, I'm ready to record. Worth noting, is that in the first edition of "Shanties From the Seven Seas", Stan Hugill gives us shanties in various different languages, so I reconstructed the shanties and forebitters in French, Swedish, Norwegian, Two dialects of German, English, and I know that the next parts will add their international brick to this list.
Because of these reconstructions, I also became interested in other forms of exploring knowledge about shanties, so I use the help of my mentors, who thank you very much for helping me in my research, Gibb Sheffler - who was the first, who recorded all the songs from Stan Hugill's book, and is an undoubted authority for me in the field of shanties, Jim Mageean - whose three books along with music, advice, and answers explain important things to me in the field of shanties. Another person is Caitlín Nic Gabhann, who is my concertina teacher (playing at the concertina allows me to get closer to the original sound of the forebitters). Finally, I would like to mention the two most important people, and at the same time the most important people helping me in my research, both of them are equally milestones of my shanties knowledge, so it will be alphabetical: Simon Spalding - expert in the field of shanties, shantymen, experienced sailor, (he sailed on so many tall ships which, due to the number, it is impossible to name) , also a musicologist and multi-instrumentalist who gifted me by his friendship, his expert knowledge of all kinds of shanty and more onboard work really helps to understand the intricacies of the rhythm of the sea work songs; the second person is the Polish National Shantymen Marek Szurawski, his long, personal friendship with Stan Hugill, and several decades of work on shanties, gives him undeniable knowledge in the field of shanties, recognized all over the world, I have the privilege of participating in two parts of the Maritime Workshops under his leadership, the value of which is cannot be overestimated. The scope of knowledge and materials in the field of Maritime and Shanties, as well as the personal friendship I received from Marek Szurawski, is an irreplaceable source of practical and theoretical knowledge.
The reconstruction of the first part of Stan Hugill's "Shanties From The Seven Seas" was successful for me, I reconstructed ninety-nine songs, not missing a single one, in the, as most as possible close to the origin. The second part of the book is in front of me, and my next achievement. If anyone likes what I do and wants to support me, please subscribe to and like my YouTube channel where you can find all 99 shanties and songs from Stan Hugill's book and more. Also, if any of the readers, have any materials related to the original shanties and would like them to donate to my library, I would be grateful. Below is the link to the playlist with the first, complete part of "Shanties From The Seven Seas".

Part One Playlist