New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs

Subject: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 11:04 AM

I directed the creation of an "album" of sailor chanties, which is now released as:

"Songs of the Windlass: Classic Chanties of Shipboard Labor."

It's intended to serve a few purposes, among them:

-To really focus in on the brake windlass, a shipboard device (i.e. at which chanties were regularly sung) whose history and mechanics are quite unfamiliar to most people. That includes today's chanty-singing people. Even when sailor chanties are discussed in relation to their historical work applications, it seems to me that "capstan" and "halyards" get the most recognition while the windlass is only vaguely acknowledged and even though the windlass was where the biggest chunk of chanty singing on ships was happening during the golden years of chanties.

-Not to dredge up nifty "rare," "newly discovered" items but to re-emphasize a core of representative chanties. Representative of what? Of chanties documented to have gone with the windlass, that go *well* with the windlass in their form and style, that represent basic traits of the broader genre, that were popular repertoire and especially during the foundational and zenith time period (1830s-70s, give or take). Tying chanty development to the windlass's development keeps things solid. In a few cases, the _arrangements_ *will* sound new, so far as they try to uncover what source analysis suggested to me might to be more accurate tunes and rhythms (i.e. as compared to some popularized revival melodies that diverged from evidence and/or oral tradition).

-To suggest models for performance in ways that might hew closely to realistic/historical practical aspects, not as a prescription for how someone should perform but as an aide for keeping consideration of the tradition in mind -- and avoiding some accretions produced by in the folk revival-- *so far as* mixing in newer stuff unconsciously can cloud insight into the older stuff. For example, the lyrics stick to the language or specific noted texts of more reliable primary/period documents. Even though I'm a HUGE proponent of people today singing whatever words they want and, better yet, making up new words suiting current things, on the album I sought a more "pure" 19th century language unclouded by lyrics thrown in by collection editors of the 20th century etc.

-To create a resource people can use freely for educational and creative purposes. The recordings are not "public domain" but they are licensed under Creative Commons for people to do whatever they want with them, with the only requirement being to cite the source.

The album can be streamed or downloaded (free) here on SoundCloud.

There's a big "liner notes" packet (PDF) linked from the info box on the album page. It helps a lot to explain the background context as to why the windlass was important and how the chosen chanties fit into its story.

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 01:30 PM

Great stuff, Gibb!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: crism
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 01:30 AM

What a fantastic resource. Thanks for making this!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Harry Rivers
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 04:40 AM

Great stuff - listening now - but I'm having trouble getting to the PDF.

Harry

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 05:37 AM

Harry,

The description on the page begins,

"SONGS OF THE WINDLASS
Classic Chanties of Shipboard Labor

Sung by
Gibb Schreffler & Claremont Colleges Chanty Singers

Download NOTES TO THE RECORDINGS, including lyrics and historical information, here:"

Under that, you should see a little tab that says "See more." Clicking the tab will expand the box to show the full description, including the link to the PDF.

I'll try editing so we can see the liner notes link without having to click the "see more" tab. Thanks.

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Harry Rivers
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 08:07 AM

Gibb,

I have it now. Many thanks!!

Harry

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 10:18 AM

The "album" is now accessible of Spotify as well.

SPOTIFY link

It may also have been put on other "platforms." I'm totally green when it comes to current "music distribution" stuff, since I usually engage music in older-fashioned ways.

But I'm aware that a lot of people do like to use these streaming apps, so there you have it.

It is a shame that, as far as I can see (?), Spotify doesn't allow for rich crediting of people involved, or other metadata like liner notes—which ends up divorcing the sound object from a lot of meaningful context. (But again I'm green and might be wrong about that?)

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: pattyClink
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 10:40 AM

Wow, thanks for compiling and sharing this!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 04:20 PM

Good on you, Gibb!

Musically one of the most satisfying chantey albums.

It's good to hear the songs in the proper tempo too.

And anyone reading this thread should take a long gander at the pdf notes!

Good work! More to come, I hope!.

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: GUEST,Rick Pollay (aka Saul T. Dawg)
Date: 17 Oct 22 - 05:20 PM

Thanks. I am impressed with the speed with which you got this from the recording studio to the public. The pdf material is your usual excellent work, very informative and well illustrated, too.

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Oct 22 - 06:50 PM

Thanks, everyone, for your remarks.

Lighter -- A documentary video is in the works. We will be working on a windlass while singing these songs and capturing, well, whatever we can capture. Looking to see what insights might be revealed from doing it. Stay tuned for the release of the movie!

I have a photo from an old Mystic Seaport magazine of Stan Hugill leading a song at the Charles W. Morgan's windlass at the first Sea Music Festival (1980). I assume (though it's not clear from the photo) that they all had to pretend to use the windlass (i.e. with no old attached).

Hugill's audio recorded remarks from 1980 or 1981 (I forget which) include his statement that he never had an opportunity to use a windlass of that size. He had just used the smaller variety on "coasting" vessels. One such vessel, we can infer, was the (no longer existing) brig Unicorn, which he sailed in during the 1976 Op Sail in New York. Hugill also related a failed attempt to operate Unicorn's windlass while singing on that occasion. However, Tom Sullivan sang a chanty on Unicorn's windlass for the _Salt Atlantic Chanties_ album in 1979.

So, Hugill's various published statements about windlasses, which are good, nevertheless would seem to reflect what he had heard or read as opposed to direct experience of operating this large / 19th c-style device while singing chanties. (The recordings with are on cassette tapes in the Mystic Seaport archive.)

Rick -- One of the side purposes of getting this out was to furnish the examples for practicing by the crew that will be filmed for the documentary, so it's all steaming ahead quickly!

Part of my preparation process for filming.

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 11:20 PM

Here's an example of one of the songs put into action.

https://youtu.be/VZooHvGTlXs

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 07:36 AM

Coolest thing I've seen in a long time, Gibb! How come nobody's done this before?

Seeing the work being done shows forcefully, maybe for the first time, just how well suited to it the songs are.

Give us more!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 07:28 PM

Thanks, Lighter, glad you enjoyed the view. The "how come?" is something the documentary will address, and I'm working on a journal article to lay it out with more detail.

None of it would be possible without the gracious assistance of Gazela's crew. They really are fantastically knowledgeable and I'm lucky they are also receptive. Hopefully the film will allow Gazela and her caretakers to shine, because, as I say, what they are doing is pretty unique: They've got on one hand an original 19th century vessel which they care for AND use. Usually ship stuff these days is either about preserving an old vessel and not using it *or* about sailing newer vessels.

The main points of "how come" are:

Perhaps as few as two of these windlasses exist in our times and one of them, on the Charles W. Morgan, never operates with a load on. I believe that goes as far back as Mystic Seaport has ever been doing demonstrations in the 1970s (but I have to double-check).

Add to that, windlasses of such size were rarely operated by hand after the 1920s. (The Morgan itself got a donkey engine in 1886.) By the turn of the 20th century, this was obsolete tech on most ships outside of whaling and fishing vessels. I suppose that writers about chanties in the early 20th century, even those who had shipping experience, had had little experience with these windlasses. I believe that when people were writing by then about "capstan and windlass chanties," the "windlass" part of the equation was either their way of saying "the windlass driven by a capstan" (which, technically, was known more as a windlass in its earlier days) or kind of BS-ing the windlass part. The character and repertoire of chanty singing, I argue, changed by then with the shift to the capstan.

As a case in point, Hugill, though he wrote about the brake windlass, said he never had any windlass working experience outside of "coasting vessels" (which may imply the smaller versions of brake windlass). There's a little story about what Stan Hugill had on his mind about windlasses at the start of the Mystic Sea Music festivals in 1980, when he first appeared there—a failed attempt to make brake windlass chanties happen during the '76 Op Sail.

I have a photo of Hugill doing a singing demo with the Morgan's windlass at that first festival, and I assume they had to pretend to do work (though I need to check).

So, most of the knowledge of how to do it disappeared over time. I'm pitching the film as a resource to help people revive this (if they want).

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 08:08 AM

Some more windlass outtakes.

Sally Brown

Santy Anna

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 02:52 PM

Great stuff, Gibb!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 04:17 PM

Terrific! It's hard to imagine anyone doing it better!

Believable improv lyrics too!

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 04:45 PM

sally brown seems to be approx 63 beats per minute a normal heart beat rate is apparently 60 to 100 beats a minute

Subject: RE: New Chanties 'album': Windlass songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 10:44 AM

Must be a pumping chanty then;-)