The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 12:18 PM

Gibb, it would be too easy to miss the significance of the French "voix" from 1780. I believe it's a quite a discovery.

It would be most interesting to know more about how widespread the term was and precisely what songs it was applied to.

It would be striking indeed if French had a *technical word* for "shanties" long before English - and that that word had nothing to do with French "chanter"!

Any serious French scholars out there who can add to our understanding?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 10:48 PM

And another rowing reference from a Britisher visiting the Charleston area, from June 1819

1823        Faux, William. _Memorable Days in America_. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.

//
I noticed to-day the galley-slaves all singing songs in chorus, regulated by the motion of their oars; the music was barbarously harmonious. Some were plaintive love-songs. The verse was their own, and abounding either in praise or satire, intended for kind or unkind masters.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 10:42 PM

This is very similar to the experience of Basil Hall in the 1820s:

1849        Lyell, Sir Charles. A Second Visit to the United States, in the Years 1845-6. Vol. 1.

Going down the Alatamaha river from Darien, GA on Dec. 31, 1845.

//
...He came down the river to meet us in a long canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a single cypress, and rowed by six negroes, who were singing loudly, and keeping time to the stroke of their oars. …
…For many a mile we saw no habitations, and the solitude was profound; but our black oarsmen made the woods echo to their song. One of them taking the lead, first improvised a verse, paying compliments to his master's family, and to a celebrated black beauty of the neighbourhood, who was compared to the "red bird." The other five then joined in chorus, always repeating the same words. Occasionally they struck up a hymn, taught them by the Methodists, in which the most sacred subjects were handled with strange familiarity, and which, though nothing irreverent was meant, sounded oddly to our ears, and, when following a love ditty, almost profane.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 02:40 PM

"Oh, the times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
And there's sick(SIC) foot of water in the hold,
Oh, it's time for us to leave her."

Typo alert?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 12:44 PM

This source was mentioned in the "SF to Sydney" thread, but I don't think it has been listed here so I will add it. John Mason's BEFORE THE MAST IN SAILING SHIPS recounts his experience on a cruise in 1884, from Newcastle in New South Wales (Australia) to San Francisco, with a cargo of coal. At one point he mentions and quotes from three chanties: "The Banks of the Sacramento", "Santy Anna", and "Sally Brown". The songs are being sund by "Campbell's men" as they load wheat at Port Costa.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JirozwWDDaMC&pg=PA66&dq=Campbell's+men+were+splendid+chanty+men&hl=en&ei=j3wXTfrMN4K0lQfZy4TLCw

Later on, in Liverpool (I think), they hove up the anchor and made "the Mersey ring", singing "Leave her, Johnny, Leave her," and "Sally Brown". Mason gives us quotes from those two songs.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JirozwWDDaMC&pg=PA118&dq=we+fairly+made+the+Mersey+ring&hl=en&ei=0H0XTYSYCYT7lweTwP3_Cw&sa=X&oi

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 11:57 AM

Here is an entry from 1886, by Robert C. Leslie, entitled SEA PAINTER'S LOG. There are two mentions about maritime work songs. The first has to do with fishermen hauling their boats ashore with the use of a capstan. Here is the link (p. 174):

http://books.google.com/books?id=7DY9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Sea+Painter's+Log&cd=1#v=onepage&q=An%20Old%20Sea%20Song&

In the second reference on page 242, Leslie discusses some specific chanties and gives us the words for: "A Hundred Years Ago", "Storm Along, Stormy", and "Good Morning, Ladies All."

http://books.google.com/books?id=7DY9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA242&dq=the+old+Black+X+sailing-liners&hl=en&ei=CHMXTcu-DoOBlAevp8S3DA&sa=X&oi

Here, Leslie is recollecting an earlier time about the "old Black X sailing-liners", who were "notable for their musical crews".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:24 AM

Oops, here's an earlier appearance of the same, in Boyer's 1780 DICTIONNAIRE ROYAL FRANCOIS-ANGLOIS ET ANGLOIS-FRANCOIS. Lyon: Jean-Marie Bruyset.


"Voix, (en termes de mer.) The fong employed by failors, as in hauling hoifting, heaving, &c."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:16 AM

BOYER'S ROYAL DICTIONARY, abridged, by Abel Boyer, additions by N. Salmon. London: Meffra, etc.1802.

Entry for French "voix":

"...Voix, Mar. fong employed by failors in heaving, hoifting, hauling, &c...."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:00 AM

THE NEW AND COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Vol. 2, (London: Edward and Charles Dilly) by John Ash, 1775...has this entry:

//
Ve'a (s. a fea term) The cry made by failors when they pull or heave together.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:48 AM

Another 18th century reference to maritime work-singing--

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for October 1775 has this note,in an unsigned "Essay on Musical Time," pg. 465:

//
Seamen at the windlafs, and on other occafions, fing, that they may all act together.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:27 AM

And as for the songs in the non-shanties section of Luce 1902, here are the ones I find notable:

Sailing by the Lowlands 41
Rolling Home 47
Song of the Fishes 53
The Yankee Man-o-War 56
The Dreadnought 67
High Barbary 77
Good-Night Ladies 106
On Friday Morning We Set Sail (The Mermaid) 118
The Merman 130
The Black Ball Liner Shanty Song 155
Homeward Bound 179
The Flash Frigate 183

These differ from the 1st edition in:
1) Adding The Merman
2) Removal of the "Stormy" song set to Goodbye Fare you well form. Perhaps he thought that was an irregularity that needed revising.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:05 AM

Luce 1902 cont.

He then injects POOR OLD MAN with some words about it -- still in misleading quotation marks.

"Knock a Man Down" is repeated from the first edition, but with this new note:

//
"There is another song very much like the above, called 'Blow the Man Down.' The melody will be found under the head of the 'Black Ball.' 'Knock a Man Down' was one of the negro songs of the southern cotton ports, while 'Blow the Man Down' was one of the regular breezy Western Ocean Shanties, and is one of the best specimens of the shanty to be found. It makes a fine topsail halyard shanty.
//

Luce indicates here, haphazardly, what are some of the forebitters that were also chanties: HIGH BARBARY, YANKEE MAN-O-WAR, ROLLING HOME.

//
"There are other songs of similar character which will be found in the body of the book; they are frequently used as working songs at sea: Such as ' High Barbary,' 'The Yankee Man-o-war,' 'Rolling Home,' etc.
//

Moving on to "heaving" shanties, he gives RIO GRANDE as in Adams, but adds a note about the "milkmaid" lyrical variation that I feel may have come from reading LA Smith.

He has HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES in a form that corresponds to an article in THE SEA BREEZE of 1900 -- thought that article did not supply tune! The Characteristic phrase is "Sometimes we're bound for England...," along with the fact that he gives "heave away, my bullies."

LOWLANDS AWAY is here, in a form not yet noted. Minor mode.

//
I thought I heard the old man say.
Lowlands, lowlands, my Johnny,
That this would be our sailing day,
A dollar and a half a day.
//

He gives A-ROVING as in the first edition -- but now he actually calls it "A-Roving" and says it is "A favorite pumping shanty."

Next comes CLEAR THE TRACK, taken from Smith.

His version of SANTIANA has now be changed to as follows:

//
SANTA ANNA.
Oh, Santa Anna's dead and gone,
Away, oh, Santa Anna,
Oh, Santa Anna's dead and gone,
All on the plains of Mexico.
//

Luce also revises his "Old Storm Along" (MR. STORMALONG) by correcting his flip-flopped past version, and adding this note:

//
"'Old Storm Along' was a favorite pumping shanty and was considered to be a song of triumph over the storm fiend, notwithstanding which fact it is a somewhat dismal song, being sung in slow time and usually with many embellishments.
//

Instead of "Across the Western Ocean," he puts a new LEAVE HER JOHNNY in this edition:

//
Oh, the times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
And there's sick foot of water in the hold,
Oh, it's time for us to leave her.

"In this song the shanty-man rehearses all the miseries of the crew, and though 'Growl and go' is considered a 'good man,' the singing of this song was often the forerunner of trouble, and was never sung by a contented crew.
//

The last new thing to be found here is a version of BLACKBALL LINE. It has a melody that I'd not encountered before.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 09:05 AM

Gibb-

Got to love the multiple editions. The story never ends.

"Lee-gangway chorus" certainly conjures up an image of a crew marching in line as they haul along the lee rail as the haul, as in stamp-an' go" or "roll an' go."

My image of "haulin' on the lee fore brace" is one of hauling in place, the line moving back while the gang is securely braced.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 03:49 AM

Luce's 1902 edition has some differences.

The "shanty-songs" in this edition are placed in an appendix at the end. There is new text with it, that is not just copying of Adams.

//
SHANTY SONGS.
{Folk Songs of the Sea.)

Shanties, sometimes spelled "Chanteys" are peculiar to the Merchant Service. The word is doubtless derived from the French word chanter, to sing. These songs are essentially working songs, and have been used from time immemorial to cheer the seaman in his labors of pulling, hauling, and heaving. This class of songs has been mentioned by some of the modern writers about the sea, Mr. Richard II. Dana in " Two Years Before the Mast" being perhaps the first. Clark Russell, Rudyard Kipling, and several others have also written on the subject. There is an excellent dissertation on shanties in an interesting book, entitled " On Board the Rocket," by Captain Robert C. Adams, from which, with the kind permission of the author, we take the liberty of making a few extracts. Shanties are generally classed under three heads, viz., the Short Drag, the Long Pull, and the Heaving shanties. The latter may be subdivided into windlass, capstan and pumping shanties. A few of these songs have several verses, such as the "Dreadnought," "High Barbary" (capstan shanty), and "The Black Ball," sometimes called "Blow the Man Down" (a long drag shanty), and have, on that account, been placed in the body of the book; but, generally speaking, each shanty has but one or two lines peculiar to it; just sufficient, in fact, to identify it with its melody. After those are sung, the "Shanty-man" is relied upon to improvise, or to use some of the stock phrases which are well known to sailors. Captain Adams says:...
//

So, he is also influenced by Russell now.
We get the idea that DREADNOUGHT and HIGH BARBARY were capstan shanties. And he add the "Blow the Man Down" title -- something I'll bet he became aware of only in the interim between editions.

He starts to quote Adams again...with quotation marks...but it is not verbatim. Weird. He seems now to be trying to work all the chanties from the first edition into one narrative. He adds the organizational terms "short drag" and "long drag," which were not used by Adams. (Who introduced these?)

After the short drag examples, he makes as if quoting Adams, but this never appeared in Adams:

//
"Among the short drag shanties may also be classed one which was very popular and is used for tossing the bunt of a foresail up on the yard. A foresail is very heavy; and a ship is generally short handed,— moreover, the foresail is seldom furled except in the worst weather, unless the ship is coming into port (when of course all sails are furled). So when the men have succeeded in gathering the sail up close to the yard, the shanty-man leads the following ditty; and at the last word every man gives a mighty pull. Two or three verses are generally enough to bring the sail up on the yard, when the gaskets are passed and the work finished.

FOR 'ROUSING UP' THE BUNT OF A SAIL....
//

AFter going through "long drag shanties" as per Adams, Luce throws in BLOW BOYS BLOW:

//
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow,
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, my bully boys, blow

A Yankee ship with a Yankee skipper, Blow, etc.
A Yankee crew and a Yankee clipper,

Oh, how d'ye know she's a Yankee clipper?
Because the blood runs from the scuppers.

What d'ye think they have for dinner?
Monkey tails and bullock's liver.
//

He follows this with his version of ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN from the first edition.

Then adds HANGING JOHNNY. Then a new one for this edition: HANDY MY BOYS.

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 03:07 AM

Finishing up with Luce,

In the middle of the collection there are two chanties. Strange that he uses the "CH" spelling here, and the "SH" elsewhere. It's as if he is getting them from some particular (?) source.

The first has the "Stormy" lyrical theme, but the tune and chorus belong to GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL:

//
OLD STORM ALONG.
"CHANTY SONG."

Old Stormy was a good old man,
O good-bye, fare you well, Good-bye fare you well.
Old Stormy was good old man,
Hurrah! my boys, we're homeward bound.

I wish I was old Stormy's son
"

I'd buy me a bark of a thousand ton
"

I'd fill her up with New England rum
"

And my old shell-backs they'd have some
"

Now if ever again I get ashore
I'll wed the gal that I adore

And if ever childer we should have
I'll bring him up as a sailor lad
(Gruffly) Belay.
//

And the second is BLOW THE MAN DOWN. This would be the first literary mention of the shanty with "blow" in it. That "Blow the Man Down" was not necessarily well known (or, not outside of merchant sailors) is suggested in that Luce merely names it after the Blackball line theme of the solo.

//
BLACK BALL. "CHANTY" SONG.
Sung in the merchant service in heavy-hauling. No interval between verses.

Come all ye young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeao, ho! blow the men down;
And pray pay attention and listen to me,
Oh! give me some time to blow the men down.

'Twas on board a Black Baller I first served my time,
To my yeo, ho! blow the men down;
And in the Black Baller I wasted my prime,
Oh! give me some time to blow the men down.

'Tis when a Black Baller's preparing for sea,
You'd split your sidea laughing at the sights you would see,

With the tinkers and tailors and soldiers and all,
That ship for good seamen on board a Black Ball,

'Tis when a Black Bailer is clear of the land,
Our boatswain then gives us the word of command,


"Lay aft!" was the cry "to the break of the poop!"
"Or I'll help you along with the toe of my boot,"

'Tis larboard and starboard on the deck you will sprawl,
For "Kicking Jack Williams" commands the "Black Ball,"

Pay attention to orders, yes, you, one and all,
For see right above you there flies the "Black Ball,"

'Tis when a black bailer cornes back to her dock,
The lasses and lads to the pier-head do flock,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 02:18 AM

Luce 1883...

Starting on pg. 129, Luce gives several "SHANTY SONGS".

It begins with the first mention of HOGEYE as a shanty:

//
OH, THE HOGEYE MEN ARE ALL THE GO
Oh the hogeye men are all the go when they do come from Callao
In a hogeye,
railroad nigger in a hogeye
Row the boat ashore in a hogeye
All she want's a hogeye man.
//

Next is SANTIANA. Interesting with this and other shanties, Luce does not give the commonly accepted (at least nowadays) titles.

//
OH! GEN'RAL TAYLOR GAINED THE DAY
Oh Gen'ral Taylor gained the day,
Down on the plains of Mexico;
And Santa Anna ran away,
Hurray! Santa Anna.
//

The melody phrases in this seem to be flip-flopped. Next is ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN.

//
OH! LIVERPOOL JACK
Oh! Liverpool Jack with a tarpaulin hat;
Amelia, Where're you bound to,
The Rocky Mountains is my home
Across the Western ocean
//

Then, MR. STORMALONG:

//
I WISH I WAS OLD STORMY'S SON
I wish I was old Stormy's son.
Aye, Aye, Aye, Mister Stormalong;
I'd build a ship of a thousand ton.
To my way stormalong, Way hey, Stormalong.
//

I think the following is the first shanty reference to HANGING JOHNNY:
//
OH! THEY CALL ME HANGING JOHNNY
Oh! They call me hanging Johnny,
Hurray! Away;
Because I hang for money;
So, hang, boys, hang.
//

Then a version of GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL that is apparently for halyards:

//
FOR "SHEETING HOME" TOPSAILS
We're outward bound this very day.
Goodbye, fare you well, Goodbye fare you well.
We're outward bound this very day.
Hurrah! My boys we're outward bound.
//

The following looks to be the first reference to A-ROVING as a shanty (someone please correct me if i am mistaken):

//
LEE-GANGWAY CHORUS
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid,
And her you ought to sea.
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid,
And making baskets was her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
//

What's a "lee-gangway chorus" by the way? Is it a stamp 'n' go chanty?

This also appears to be the first reference in literature to the bunt shanty PADDY DOYLE:

//
FOR "ROUSING UP" THE BUNT OF A SAIL
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll all drink brandy and gin.
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll all shave under the chin.
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
//

Good stuff! Lots that seems to be original and new.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 01:32 AM

1883 Luce, (Admiral) Stephen Bleecker. Naval Songs. New York: Wm. A. Pond.

Luce's collection is full of a variety of sea songs, with score. I can only find the 1902 edition on line right now, but I have the 1883 with me. The editions are not the same. First I'll deal with the 1883.

At the end of his introduction, Luce breaks into a discussion of shanties. He praises Adams' ON BOARD THE ROCKET, and then launches into a series of long quotes from it. As it goes along, he reproduces all of Adams' shanties (all of the ones in the section of his books that was specifically about shanties), but actually corrects the notation! I believe that in most cases one can correct Adams' notation just on what musically makes sense. But I wonder, too, if in some cases one might have to be previously familiar with the songs.

Then, the collection proper begins, with non-chanties for the most part. There are several forebitters tht I will note, only for reference and because they are songs that, in works like Hugill's, at some point have also been said to have been used as chanties. Luce also has a couple real chanties in this section. Here are the songs that I would note:

THE FLASH FRIGATE - 9
HIGH BARBARY (minor mode) - 16
ROLLING HOME - 17
SONG OF THE FISHES - 19
SAILING BY THE LOWLANDS - 25
GOOD-NIGHT, LADIES - 34
HOMEWARD BOUND ("to Pensacola town I'll bid adieu")- 38
"OLD STORM ALONG. "CHANTY SONG"" - 41
THE MERMAID - 42
THE DREADNOUGHT - 68
BLACK BALL. "CHANTY" SONG. - 79
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY - 90

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 12:10 AM

Wow, 400 posts on this subject/thread!

My personal aim at this point (it changes slightly now and then) is to get through the 19th century, to kind of create a nice, round, pausing-point. That includes both texts written in the 19th century (my main priority) and those referencing events in the 19th century.

I am sorting the material according to both chronology of reference and chronology of publication. At this point, I've posted the more or less complete reference chronology up through the '70s. That one is to get a picture of the development of chantying, and I'll continue to update it as part of this discussion.

I've also been creating a publication chronology -- an annotated bibliography of texts referring to chanties -- which is a personal thing that I'll use in he future. The reason why I mention this one is because it explains why I am so interested in recording the specific details: it aids in later constructing the bibliography. The thread becomes something that is a "one stop" source where it's easy to search and see, for example, who first said "chanteur" or who first mentioned Dibdin.

I'd like to write some sort of article about this stuff eventually.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 11:58 PM

Happy Christmas, friends!

Cool, John, it's always good to see more travelogues; they usually have some 'gems' that are not in the deliberate articles.

The schooner MONTAUK was out of New York. This part of the voyage, between Bermuda and St. Kitts, was in March 1884.

McQuade seems to have read Adam's 1879 ON BOARD THE ROCKET, I think. He is not noting these chanties because he heard them, but rather knows of them from elsewhere (and noting that he did not hear them). Adams' text is the only one that had the "Knock a Man down" at this point (well, along with Luce 1883, who got it from Adams). That, and the way he invokes Dibdin as Adams did, suggests that he read it.

For recording purposes, here is the passage:

//
Since the general employment of steam in navigation, the habits of sailors have naturally changed so as to conform, in some degree at least, to the existing condition of sea service. The old Jack tar, with his natty blue jacket, immaculate white trousers, flowing neckerchief, and jaunty tarpaulin hat, is being merged in the greasy stoker. The dust, smoke, cinders and soot of the steamship make sad havoc with the purity of white duck; the stiff tarpaulin has no place in the sweltering confines of the boiler-room and coal-bunker; everything is done by machinery; the anchor is hoisted by steam, the sails set by steam, and even the vessel steered by steam. William and Black-eyed Susan belong to the stage, and the oil-stained sailor of to-day is but a grimy representative of the airy and romantic jolly tar, who danced the sailor's hornpipe, wielded a heavy cutlass as if it were a toothpick, and blasted his 'eyes, and shivered his timbers, and avasted, and ahoyed, in days of yore. As steam has so largely superseded manual labor, the sea-songs with which sailors used to keep time when pulling and hauling in combined and simultaneous effort, are dying away in faint echoes, and soon they will only mingle with the discredited strains of the nearly forgotten mermaid. True there are navies to keep up the old standard, and sailing vessels and yachts to maintain the recollection and traditions of the blue jackets, but they are fast being smothered by steam. Occasionally we hear some of the familiar chants, but " Ranzo," " Haul Away, Joe," and "Knock-a-man-down," rarely animate the sailor in this period of maritime degeneracy. Of course seamen have to be educated in their vocation, but the sailor has become something like the mechanic. Large manufactories and mills, with complex labor-saving apparatus, have done away measurably with the journeyman who served his time as an apprentice to an experienced master. Machinery not only works, but thinks, and the machine-feeder takes the place of the skilled mechanic.

The sea-songs of Dibdin and others were really made for landsmen, and are different from the sailors' chants proper, which were of other material; like their working toggery, expressive and matter-of-fact. Prosody received but scant consideration, but the rhymes were a sort of rugged doggerel, with a refrain strongly accentuated, which served as a signal for all to pull away together. They were called Shanty songs, from the French word chanter, to sing, and many of them are familiar, having been incorporated in magazine articles and published in books.
//

But then we have the new chanty!: LARGY KARGY, attributed to the West Indies.

//
One of the sailors aboard the Montauk, who has been in the West Indies, furnishes the following example of a Shanty song, which is evidently the composition of some one possessed of a better ear for rhythm than the ordinary chanteur, as the measure is reasonably accurate. The refrains, Largy Kargy and Weeny Kreeny, are evidently corruptions of Spanish words, probably intended for Largo Cargo and Buena Carina—big cargo, and good little girl:

We're bound for the West Ingies straight,
    Largy—Kargy, Haul away O—h.
Come lively, boys, or we'll be late,
   Weeny—Kreeny, Haul away O—h.

We'll have rum and baccy plenty,
    Largy—etc.,
Cocos, yams, and argy-denty,
    Weeny—etc.

No more horse ' and dandy funky,
But St. Kitten's roasted monkey.

We'll go fiddle with black Peter,
Dance all night with Wannereeter.

At Kooreso we'll get frisky,
Throwing dice with Dutch Francisky.

When we've found the pirate's money,
We'll live on shore eating honey.

Wear big boots of allygator,
Taking Nance to the thayayter.

We'll bunk no more with cockroaches,
    Largy—Kargy—Haul away O—h,
But ride all day in soft coaches,
    Weeny—Kreeny, Haul away O—h.
//

I love it!

Charlie-- Yes, I love that one, too. It is such a cool example to have -- a song in a minstrel context that does not disguise its work song roots (?). No, we're not forgetting that one -- I think somewhere along the line we found that it could be dated to at least as early as 1848, so it is "filed" there at present. The same text also had a version of the "Sailor Fireman " (stoker's chant) and "Fire Down Below". Cheers!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 02:45 PM

Hate to have this old minstrel song that I posted above ignored in the discussion of where and when "stormy" first surfaced:

As sung by J. Smith of White's Serenaders at the Melodeon, New York City, from White's New Ethiopian Song Book, published by T.B. Peterson & Bros., Philadelphia, US, © 1854, p. 71,

Storm Along Stormy


O I wish I was in Mobile bay,
Storm along, Stormy.
Screwing cotton all de day,
Storm along, Stormy.
O you rollers storm along,
Storm along, Stormy.
Hoist away an' sing dis song,
Storm along, Stormy.

I wish I was in New Orleans,
Storm along, Stormy.
Eating up dem pork an' beans,
Storm along, Stormy.
Roll away in spite ob wedder,
Storm along, Stormy.
Come, lads, push all togedder,
Storm along, Stormy.

I wish I was in Baltimore,
Storm along, Stormy.
Dancing on dat Yankee shore,
Storm along, Stormy.
One bale more, den we'be done,
Storm along, Stormy.
De sun's gwan down, an' we'll go home.
Storm along, Stormy.

This minstrel song is clearly inspired by a stevedore song, sung while the worker gangs were rolling burlapped-wrapped bales of cotton down the dock.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:05 AM

&printsecGibb, I don't think this source has been mentioned, but I confess to not having done a thorough look-through. It doesn't show up in the Mudcat search system. The book is THE CRUISE OF THE YACHT MONTAUK, by James McQuade. This cruise took place between February 21, 1884 and May 3, 1884, and was a trip to the West Indies. As near as I can tell, the book was written in 1884. Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=7jEn_Inpb6wC=frontcover&dq=James+McQuade&hl=en&ei=jrMUTZqBJsXflgfh09DADA&sa=X&oi=book_

On page 102, McQuade mentions shanties and lists "Ranzo", "Haul Away, Joe" and "Knock-a-man-down" specifically by saying that they "rarely animate the sailor in this period of maritime degeneracy."

http://books.google.com/books?id=t2QXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA102&dq=%22Knock+a+man+down%22+shanty&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=%22Knock%20a%20man

And on page 103, he gives the words to an unfamiliar chanty he calls "Largy-Kargy", of West Indian origin:

http://books.google.com/books?id=t2QXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA103&dq=Largy+-+Kargy&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Largy%20-%20Kargy&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:42 AM

Some good reading and fine analysis here, Gibb. I am enjoying this very much. I appreciate the way you are tracing out the historical lineage of these works and untangling the possible borrowings and sources. This transition period seem to sum up the fragmented past and to lay the foundations for future "interpretations". I like the care with which you go about this work and also your willingness to put forth your own theories and conclusions. Keep up the good works.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 05:33 AM

The remaining 1880s publications on chanties, that I know of, are:

1883: Luce - I think most of the chanties are taken from Adams 1879
1887: Davis and Tozer
1888: L.A. Smith

Right now I want to mention Davis and Tozer. The vagarious editions (each quite different) are hard to come by. Once Lighter put up the table of contents for the first edition. Here it is:

1. Sally Brown
2. Away for Rio
3. We're All Bound to Go
4. The Wide Missouri
5. Leave Her, Johnnie ###
6. Can't You Dance a Polka? ###
7. The Black Ball Line
8. Hoodah Day ###
9. Homeward Bound
10. Whiskey for My Johnnie
11. Reuben Ranzo
12. Blow Boys, Blow
13. Blow the Man Down
14. Tom's Gone to Ilo ###
15. Hanging Johnnie ###
16. Haul Away Jo'
17. Haul the Bowlin'
18. Paddy Doyle's Boots
19. A-Roving
20. Storm Along
21. Mobile Bay
22. Salt Horse
23. The Dead Horse
24. Eight Bells

I won't have access to this edition (unless I fly to Dublin), but I am going to get a later edition and assume that the earlier shanties were unchanged. For now, I thought I'd take note of which of these songs had appeared in literature already up to this point. I don't mean the same lyrical versions, I just mean if the song had been mentioned at all.

So, all the chanties have turned up in some form (A-Roving not as a chanty). The songs with ### after them, however, have a significantly different or original phrasing.

In all, the book appears to be quite original (despite the common songs, they look like they'd be original versions). What intrigues me more is the possibility that many of these forms set the mold for future interpretations.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 04:21 AM

OK, so I went through the rest of this painful Dickens edited article, and it's all culled from LA Smith. Here are the rest of the chanties noted:

HANDY MY BOYS
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
UP A HILL
PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN (orig. from the 1858 Atlantic Monthly)
HILONDAY
BONEY
HAUL AWAY JOE
SHENANDOAH
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (another variation)
and some forecastle songs like THE MERMAID

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:42 AM

LOWLANDS AWAY comes from Smith (orig. from Alden)

//
One of the most beautiful in a musical sense of all the chanties, is that known as "Lowlands Low." The words are nothing, and, as usual, many versions are used; but the air is singularly wild and mournful, and is an immense favourite with Jack It generally begins somewhat like this:

(Solo) I dreamt a dream the other night.
(Chorus) Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John.
(Solo) I dreamt I saw my own true love.
(Chorus) My Lowlands, aray.
//

HOME DEARIE HOME also is from Smith 1888.

//
The most sentimental and also the most poetical of all the capstan chanties, is "Home, Dearie, Home ":

Solo.
Oh, Amble is a fine town, with ships in the bay,
And I wishwithmy heart I was only there to-day;
I wish with my heart I was far away from here,
A-sitting in my parlour and talking to my dear.
Chorus.
And it's home, dearie, home, oh, it's home I want to be,
My topsails are hoisted and I must out to sea.
For the oak, and the ash, and the bonny birchen tree,
They're all a-growin' green in the North countree.
Oh, it's home, dearie, home, it's home I want to be.
Solo.
Oh, there's a wind that blows, and it's blowing from the west,
And of all the winds that blow, 'tis the one I like the best;
For it blows at our backs, and it shakes the pennon free,
And it soon will blow us home to the North countree.
(Chorus as before.)

The next verse refers to the ei arrival of a little stranger:

Solo.
And if it be a lass, she shall wear a golden ring;
And if it be a lad, he shall live to serve his King;
With his buckles, and his boots, and his little jacket blue.
He shall walk the quarter-deck as his Daddy used to do.
(Chorus as before.)
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:35 AM

RIO GRANDE here is from Smith:

//
Here is another very favourite outwardbound chanty:

(Solo) The ship went sailing out over the bar.
(Chorusl O Rio! O Rio!
(Solo) They pointed her nose for the Southern Star.
(Chorus) And we're bound for the Kio Grande.
(Together) Then away, love, away, away down Rio.
Then fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for tho Rio Grande.

(Solo) Oh, were you ever in Rio Grande?
(Chorus) Away, you Rio.
(Solo) Oh, were you ever in Rio Grande?
(Chorus) We're bound to the Rio Grande.
Away, you Rio; away, you Rio.
Fare you well, my pretty young girl,
I am bound to the Rio Grande.

As capstan work is long, we may take this as only the beginning of the song, the rest of which will depend on the chantyman's ability to weave in some narrative. Failing that, the words of the old song, "Where are you going to.my pretty maid?" will be utilised, each line being sung twice by the soloist, followed by the Rio Grande chorus. The effect is curious, but very pleasing.
//


The next again, STORMY ALONG, is the author's interpretation of Smith.

//
Another capstan song is sacred to the memory of a certain mythical being called "Old Stormy" or " Old Storm Along":

(Solo) Old Stormy he is dead and gono.
(Chorus) To me, way, hay, storm along John.
(Solo) Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
(Chorus) Ah ha, come along, get along, storm along John.
(Solo) Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
(Chorus) To me, way, you storm along.
(Solo) Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
(Chorus) Way, hay, storm along John.

There are several variants of this chanty, and one of the versions gives to the soloist these curious words:

When Stormy died I dug his grave,
I dug his grave with a silver spade,
I hove him up with an iron crane.
And lowered him down with a golden chain,
Old Storm Along is dead and gone.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:22 AM

The idea of variability and improvisation is there:

//
The airs to which the chanties are sung are pretty much common property—that is to say, you will hear thom all the world over. Miss Smith has scored many of them, and musical readers cannot do better than consult her pages if they want to test the quality of Jack's music. But the words of the chanties vary very much. There is a sort of general range of subject for each air, while a great amount of latitude is exercised by the chanty-man. In fact, a clever "improvisatore" who can adapt the lives and the peculiarities of officers and crew to the metre of the chanty he is leading, is very much esteemed. Like everybody else, Jack enjoys hearing the foibles of his fellows humorously hit off. and he does not object to being "dressed" a bit himself in turn.

Thus, then, the words of a chanty may be altered according to the ability of the chantyman and the opportunity afforded by the incidents and personages of each separate voyage. All that is wanted is that hauling chanties shall be short and lively; that windlass chanties be more measured; that pumping chanties be adapted to the monotonous movement of the work, and that capstan chanties be in long metre, and of a more tender character in general. Thus it is, that in the capstan chanties, when the men run round and round from slow to quick as the anchor comes "home," we find usually both more sentiment, and more of the semblance of part-songs.

Here is one capstan chanty:

To the Liverpool Docks we'll did adieu,
To Suke, and Sally, and Polly, too;
The anchor's weighed, the sails unfurled,
We are bound to cross the watery world.
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!

The first four lines may be either sung as a solo, with the last two in chorus, or the four lines by divisions of the men, and the last two in unison. Of course, for "Liverpool Docks" will be substituted the name of any other place from which the ship is parting.
//

This OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND evidently comes from the 1869 Chambers's Journal article. It is verbatim. Smith had another version of the shanty, w/ Catherine's Dock, which probably led the author here to his/her idea about substitution.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:10 AM

continuing with the ALL THE YEAR ROUND article...

//
While the sailors are "making poetry" their lives are neither bright nor comfortable; but they are infinitely better than they would be without song. It is song that puts spirit and "go," into all their work, and it is often said at sea that a good "Chanty-man" is equal to an extra hand. The chanties, or working songs, are the real sea songs of sea life. It may be that they are going gradually out of use nowadays, when so much is done by steam; but, wherever the concentrated strength of human muscles is needed, even on a steamship, there is nothing like a chanty for evoking the utmost motive power.
//

The "extra hand" bit comes from Smith.

//
Chanties are of various kinds, adapted to the different varieties of work on shipboard, and without a chanty a crew is as listless as a gang of South Carolina darkies without their plantation songs. In truth, there is a good deal in common between the working songs of sailors and of niggers, and it is curious that many of the most popular sea-chanties are wholesale adaptations of plantation airs, and often of the words also.
//

Let us not this observation of comparability between chanties and African-American worksongs.

//
For quick haulage, working at the sails, and so forth, one of the most favourite chanties is this:

We'll haul the bowlin' so early in the morning.
(Chorusl We'll haul the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the fore and maintop bowlin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the packet she's a rollin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the Captain he's a growlin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.

There is not much poetry in this, you will say. Well, there is not; but there is an immense amount of vigorous music when ten, or twelve, or twenty strongthroated seamen give voice to the hearty chorus, and with each recurrence of the word "haul," strain every muscle of the body in combined effort. That is where the chanty is invaluable—in timing the moment for the concentration of force. It makes all the difference in the world in the working of a ship, and the chanty will often be changed several times at some special job, until the right one is got, which sends the men together like the beat of a conductor's baton in an orchestra. A good chanty-man—that is, the soloist who starts the songs, and gives the time to the chorus —is one of the most popular, as well as the most useful, men on board a ship.
//

BOWLINE here has the format of Alden (with "We'll") while combining the lyrics to Smith's two versions.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 02:45 AM

Thanks, Steve!

Well, I was able to see a preview on-line of Chappell. I was just trying to find out when Chappell published "Spanish Ladies" for the very first time. There were some misleading links suggesting that "Music of the Olden Time" existed as early as 1850, however, I guess the actual publication dates of the volumes range from 1855-59.
In mentioning "Spanish Ladies," however, Chappell says that he had it in his earlier work, which must be his "Collection of National English Airs." Those volumes range from 1838-1840. I have not been able to see the text to verify. Marryat gave "Spanish Ladies" in his POOR JACK of 1840, and Chappell implies that that came after his own offering. For now, that is close enough for me -- since I am not trying to track down the origins of the song.

Steve, according to Wikipedia, the Erie Canal "was under construction from 1817 to 1825 and officially opened on October 26, 1825."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 05:11 PM

Gibb,
Have copies of Chappell if you need it, including his own personal copy.

Paddy Works. There is no broadside as such. There are broadsides possibly related with this title and similar c1850 all mentioning Greenock in Scotland. There is useful info on it in Folk Songs of the Catskills where they mention a sheet music copy seemingly written by J. B. Geoghegan in the Levy Collection. It mentions tunewise the connections to 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' which is also claimed by Geoghegan. 'Paddy works on the Erie' about canal building may be older. When was the Erie Canal built?

I'm pretty certain it must be an American song of Irish navvies inspired perhaps by the Scottish song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 04:24 PM

My last article source for the 1880s is one called "Sailors' Songs" starting on pg. 592 in Charles Dickens' edited ALL THE YEAR ROUND, no. 1047, 22 December 1888. The name of the author is unknown.

This postdates LA Smith's collection, which I suppose it would make sense to critique first...however I feel like getting all the articles out of the way first! Nevertheless, I am sure that much will reference Smith's text.

S/he begins with the idea that true sailors' songs are unlike the parlour songs represented as sailor songs on shore. I don't get the sense, however, that chanties had actually yet been appropriated and transformed as parlour songs.

SPANISH LADIES is first mentioned with a tip of the hat to Marryat, as did Smith. The lyrics more resemble Smith than Marryat. And the idea is added that it was used as a chanty.

//
You may also still hear, sometimes as a forecastle song, but more often adapted, in time and metre, as a Chanty, a song which was popular in Captain Marryat's time:

Now, farewell to you, ye fine Spanish ladies,
Now, farewell to you, ye ladies of Spain,
For we've received orders to sail for Old England,
And perhaps we may never more see you again.

We'll range and we'll rove like true British sailors,
We'll range and we'll rove all on the salt seas,
Until we strike soundings in the Channel of England.
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five degrees. ["leagues" in original source]

There are four more verses given in "Poor Jack," and the whole song has been incorporated by Mr. Chappell in his "Music of the Olden Time."
//

Ah, so it looks like this author and Smith both copied their versions from Chappell. Chappell's work, in which Spanish Ladies is not represented as a chanty, dates from 1850 or earlier. Gotta get it.

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 12:40 AM

I've found the only (???) reference to chantying in the 18th century, so far. It's basically something we've seen, but an earlier version with a much earlier date.

1784[1769]        Falconer, William. An Universal Dictionary of the Marine. New Edition. London: T. Cadell.

Falconer died 1769. He had sailed in British merchant ships from 1748 or '49 through the 1750s. I was not able to access the first, 1769 edition of this, but it seems to have had the same content as the 1784 (he was dead, and it doesn't look to have been revised). The passage is as follows.

From the entry on "WINDLASS":

As this machine it heaved about in a vertical direction, it is evident that the effort of an equal number of men acting upon it will be much more powerful than on the capftern; becaufe their whole weight and ftrength are applied more readily to the end of the lever employed to turn it about. Whereas, in the horizontal movement of the capfrern, the exertion of their force is considerably diminifhed. It requires, however, fome dexterity and addrefs to manage the handfpec to the greateft advantage; and to perform this the failors muft all rife at once upon the windlafs, and, fixing their bars therein, give a fudden jerk at the fame inftant, in which movement they are regulated by a fort of fong or howl pronounced by one of their number.
        
The moft dexterous managers of the handfpec in heaving at the windlafs are generally fuppofed the colliers, of Northumberland: and of all European mariners, the Dutch are certainly the moft aukward and fluggifh in this manoeuvre.

So, he is making the distinction between working the spoke windlass versus capstan. In his capstan entry, incidentally, no songs are mentioned. Capstan did not need coordination as, he explains, the spoke windlass did. He does not call it a "song" but rather a "SORT OF song or HOWL." Doubtful if this was any kind of "chanty" as we know them, however it was a similar practice. The question is whether it was anything more notable than a "yeo heave ho." Speaking of which...in his French dictionary, he later gives this entry:

UN, deux, troi, an exclamation, or fong, ufed by feamen when hauling the bowlines, the greateft eftbrt being made at the laft word. Englifh failors, in the fame manner, call out on this occafion,—haul-in—haul-two—haul-belay!

In a way, this is "negative testimony" suggesting that the French and English of that time did not have songs for hauling. True, that is not necessarily the case, and only the "bowlines" are discussed here. But I think it is reasonable to infer that if there were songs he would have mentioned them, no?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 04:42 AM

//
It may be imagined that the specimens of sailor songs already given illustrate the highest possible achievements of man in the direction of vocal idiocy. This would be a mistake. There are songs which in elaborate unintelligibility and inanity of chorus are so appalling that it would be unkind to lay them before the sane reader. The following song is bad enough in this respect, but there are others which are infinitely worse. It has, moreover, the redeeming trait of true melody, and was once, perhaps, the most universally popular of its class.

O the wildest packet you can find--
Ah he, ah ho, are you most done?
Is the Marg'ret Evans in the Black X line.
So clear the track, let the bulgine run.
To my high rigajig in a low-back car.
Ah he, ah ho, are you most done?
With Eliza Lee all on my knee.
So clear the track, let the bulgine run.
//

It seems to be the first reference to CLEAR THE TRACK. The only earlier thing that might be related is a corn shucking song, mentioned in 1848 (AMERICAN AGRICULTURALIST, above) called "Clear the track when Sambo come."

//
It is not the purpose of this article to give the entire repertoire of the shantyman. If he was an artist of any real cultivation, he had at least seventy-five songs at his tongue's end. Those which have been given will afford a fair idea of the best of the sailor songs which will bear translation from the windlass to the columns of a magazine. It must be admitted that, in spite of the simplicity and purity of character ascribed to the sailor by novelists, not a few of the songs which he sang were highly objectionable on the score of morality. They were, however, no worse in this respect than the songs which one occasionally hears in the smoking-car of an excursion train, and were decidedly better than certain opera-bouffe songs which some ladies seem to enjoy when the song-writer's indecency is picturesquely illustrated by a clever French-woman. But both the good and the bad songs ceased when the sailor disappeared, and to revive them on the deck of an iron steam-ship would be as impossible as to bring back the Roman trireme.
//

Clearly, Alden knew more chanties than what he has given.

With the end of the article, another lament for the end of sailing ships...and chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 04:17 AM

//
But one sailor song has ever been tamed and made to do land service. The song of the "Railway" was caught by some negro minstrel, and with sundry improvements made to do duty as a comic song on the minstrel stage. It is still occasionally sung by street boys, who fancy that it is an Irish national air.

In eighteen hundred and fifty-three I sailed away beyond the sea.
O! I sailed away to Amerikee
(Cho.) To work upon the railway, the railway.
O! I'm wearied on the railway.
O! poor Paddy works on the railway.
//

Huh! Interesting theory about PADDY ON THE RAILWAY. However, I believe there is a broadside of this about, right? I wonder what evidence he had -- or recent observation -- to claim that the song began as a chanty. Well, we've got references for the chanty to/from the 1860s. Any of the broadsides predate that?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:55 AM

//
In another song, which is chiefly concerned with the celebration of the great deeds of the first Napoleon, we find the expression "hi-lon-day." It has been held by learned nautical commentators that this word should be written ''Allan Dale." It is a good theory, and the only fault to be found with it is the fact that there is not a particle of evidence in support of it. This song departs from the usual pattern of windlass songs in having but one chorus; but that chorus is so elaborate that it fully satisfied the artistic desires of marine vocalists.

O Boney was a warrior.
(Cho) Ah hilonday.
O sigh her up, my yaller gals, a hi, hilonday
//

First appearance of HILONDAY. Note that it is ascribed to capstan use and especially that the entire bit after "warrior" is the chorus. So, the form is diffferent from the hauling form that Hugill later describes.

//
The most pretentious, though not always the most meritorious, of windlass songs were those in which the second chorus was greatly extended, and made in some instances longer than all the rest of the song.
//

He is referring to a 'grand chorus'.

//
Of these there is one in which the chorus rises and swells with the crescendo of the heaving Atlantic swell.

I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Rolling Rio.
I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
To my Rolling Rio Grande.
Hurrah, you Rio, Rolling Rio.
So fare you well, my bonny young girls,
For I'm bound to the Rio Grande.
//

The by now well documented RIO GRANDE.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:33 AM

continued...

//
Quite as popular as Stormy was another mysterious person--Randso. Of this person it is alleged in an unusually coherent narrative song that "he was no sailor"; that, nevertheless, "he shipped on board of a whaler," and as "he could not do his duty," he was brought to the gangway, where "they gave him nine-and-thirty." Obviously Randso was not a model for sailors.

O Randso was no sailor.
Ah, Randso, boys, ah, Randso.
He shipped on board of a whaler.
Ah, Randso, boys, ah, Randso.
//

It's REUBEN RANZO with the regulation verse.

Then he gives HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING

//
In the following song not only is the mysterious Randso mentioned, but a word of fathomless meaning and of very frequent recurrence in sailor songs is introduced. Perhaps Max Müller could attach some meaning to "hilo," but in that case he would do more than any sailor ever did. It will not do to suggest that it is really two words--"high" and "low." It occurs in too many other songs as an active verb to leave us any room to doubt that to "hilo" was to be, to do, or to suffer something. It can not be gathered from the insufficient data at our command whether or not the act of "hiloing" was commendable in a sailor, but from the frequency with which the fair sex was exhorted in song to ''hilo," it is evident that it was held to be a peculiarly graceful act when executed by a young girl. The syllable "yah" which appears in the first chorus of this song is not necessarily the negro "yah." The best nautical pronunciation gave it a long sound, something like "yaw," whereas the negro, who is popularly believed to remark "yah I yah I" whenever he is amused, really says " yoh! yoh!"

I've just come down from the wildgoose nation.
To me way hay E O yah.
I've left my wife on a big plantatlon.
And sing hilo, me Randso, way.
//

This is there first time it appears as a chanty, though the song is known in minstrelsy since the 1840s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:05 AM

Continuing my logging/break-down of Alden 1882...

We continue with a version of NEW YORK GIRLS.

//
Another Santa Anna song is more unmistakably negro from the fact that the expression "my honey," so common among the negroes of the South, occurs in it. It is a cheerful song, in spite of the painfully mercenary spirit expressed in the second chorus:

As I was lumbering down the streets of bully London town,
I spied a Yankee clipper ship to New York she was bound.
(Cho.) And hurrah, you Santy, my dear honey; Hurrah, you Santy, I love you for your money.
//

Hmm, I really didn't know the phrase "my honey" would tip off an African-American influence. But while we haven't seen NEW YORK GIRLS for sure yet up to this point, we've seen a reference to a Black rowing song from Ohio with similar solo lyrics--though no full semblance of the chanty we know.

Alden goes on to give two different Stormy chanties.

//
"Old Stormy" is a mythical character often mentioned in sailor songs. Who Stormy was, and why he received that evident nickname, even the most profound and learned shanty-men always confessed themselves unable to explain. The oldest of these songs is rather the best of them:

Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
To me way hay storm along, John.
Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
Ah, ha! come along, get along, stormy along, John.

Here is another "Stormy" song that contains a hint of negro origin in the word "massa," and suggests that perhaps the legend of "Stormy" is an African rather than a nautical myth:

Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
To me way you storm along.
Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
Fi-i-i, massa, storm along.
//

As far as I can tell, this is the first time that these *particular* Stormy chanties, what I have been tagging as STORMY ALONG and MR. STORMALONG, are mentioned in literature.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 11:00 PM

//
Of the same general character as " Lowlands," though inferior to it, is the song that was usually known as " Across the Western Ocean." There were, however, several variations of the second chorus, none of which could be called improvements.

I wish I was in London town.
O say where you bound to?
That highway I'd cruise round and round.
Across the western ocean.
//

There were 2 (probable) mentions of ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN early, but this is the first to call it by that name, and to supply the music. "Several variations of the chorus" might include Nordhoff's "across the briny ocean."

//
It may be assumed that the predominance of Santa Anna's name in sailor songs is due to the Southern negroes, who still sing songs of which the name of the Mexican general is the burden. We may therefore class the "Plains of Mexico" with those sailor songs which are of African descent.

Did you never hear tell of that general?
Hurrah, you Santy Anna
Did you never hear tell of that general?
All on the plains of Mexico.
//

The first instance of music for SANTIANA.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 10:39 PM

"Aray" is almost certainly a misprint for "away." At least I've never seen it anywhere else.

If Alden had meant "hurray," he'd have written it.

So yes, I'd say at this point that all later writers must slavishly have copied "aray" from Alden.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 10:13 PM

What is the "aray" supposed to be? A typ-o of "away"? Is it a phonetic rendering of "hurray!" as it would sound coming after the word "lowlands"?

When it appears in later literature, is it pretty safe to assume that those authors have copied Alden? What did *they* think it meant (i.e., why just copy verbatim)?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:53 AM

Great detail on performance practice! And stringing-out.

//
It was in the windlass songs that the accomplished shanty-man displayed his fullest powers and his daintiest graces. When he began a song, he usually began by singing the first chorus as an announcement of what he expected of the men, who, being thus duly warned, joined in the second chorus. He was always careful to rest his voice while the others were singing, and it was considered the proper thing for him to begin his lines so closely after each chorus as to make his first note a prolongation of the last note of the preceding chorus. His lines were expected to rhyme, but he was prudently economical of them, generally using only one line, repeated twice, for each verse.

One of the best known of the windlass songs was the " Shanandore":

You Shanandore,I long to hear you.
Hurrah, you rollin' river!
You Shanandore, I long to hear you.
Ah, ha, you Shanandore.

This is clearly of negro origin, for the "Shanandore" is evidently the river Shenandoah. In course of time some shanty-man of limited geographical knowledge, not comprehending that the "Shanandore" was a river, but conceiving that the first chorus required explanation, changed the second chorus. Thus the modified song soon lost all trace of the Shenandoah River, and assumed the following form, in which it was known to the last generation of sailors:

For seven long years I courted Sally.
Hurrah, you rollin' river!
I courted Sally down in yon valley.
Ah, ha! I'm bound away on the wild Missouri.
//

I'm going to assume for now that by "windlass" he means "capstan." SHENANDOAH would be awkward at the brake/pump windlass, no?

//
Perhaps the wildest, most mournful, of all sailor songs is "Lowlands." The chorus is even more than usually meaningless, but the song is the sighing of the wind and the throbbing of the restless ocean translated into melody.

I dreamt a dream the other night.
Lowlands, Lowlands, Hurrah, my John.
I dreamt I saw my own true love.
My Lowlands aray.

Much care was evidently given to "Lowlands" by the shanty-men. It has often been improved. In its original form the first chorus was shorter and less striking, and the words of the second chorus were, "My dollar and a half a day." It is to be regretted that no true idea can be given on paper of the wonderful shading which shanty-men of real genius sometimes gave to this song by their subtle and delicate variations of time and expression.
//

It's the first text of LOWLANDS AWAY. (The title was mentioned in 1868.) Note the "aray."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:13 AM

Next he mentions halyard shanties.

//
Closely resembling them, but nevertheless advancing a step in the direction of windlass songs, were those pulling songs which consisted of four lines instead of two, the words of both the choruses being the same, but the melody of each being different. Of these the two following were often heard:

I'm bound away to leave you
Good-by, my love, good-by
I never will deceive you
Good-by, my love, good-by...

Come get my clothes in order
Shallow, Shallow, Brown.
The packet sails tomorrow.
Shallow, Shallow, Brown.

Finally there were pulling songs with a double chorus, each chorus differing both in words and melody from the other. These were in structure precisely the same as the windlass songs, but it was very "bad form" to use them except for pulling purposes. It is one of these that is the sole surviving song which steam-ship crews ever use. They would have shown better taste had they chosen for preservation the ballad of Jean Francois, whoever he may have been.

O drive her, captain, drive her!
Way-a-yah!
O drive her, captain, drive her!
To my Johnnie Franswaw.
//

GOODBYE MY LOVE was mentioned once earlier (1877).
This is the first time for SHALLOW BROWN.

BONEY was also in Adams, however he says it referred to Bonaparte (whereas Alden is not positive).

He never mentions "the sole surviving song which steam-ship crews... use". ?? What was it, and what did they use it for?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:42 PM

//
Let us suppose ourselves on board a Liverpool packet thirty years ago. The maintopsail has just been reefed, and the men are vainly trying to hoist the heavy yard, which refuses to move. Presently some one says, "Oh, give us the 'Bowline,'" whereupon the shanty-man's sharp clear voice is heard, the men join in the chorus, and as they sing the last syllable they haul on the halyards, and the stubborn yard yields. Verse follows verse until the yard is up, and the virtue of the pulling song has been vindicated. This is the "Bowline," one of the purest of generic pulling songs:

We'll haul the bowline so early in the morning,
(Chorus) We'll haul the bowline, the bowline haul!
[w/ score, throughout]

Another pulling song of almost equal popularity in old days was the following one:

Way, haul away, haul away, my Josie.
Way, haul away, haul away, Joe.

These have, as is seen, but a single chorus. Their purely nautical origin is manifest and they are undoubtably very old.
//

SO he begins with the same two sheets shanties (though not identical forms) as Adams, BOWLINE and HAUL AWAY JOE. He attributes "Bowline" to raising a yard, which is a plausible use -- momentarily if it gets stuck -- but not typical.

The melodies for these here and as given in Adams are, to my mind, conspicuously similar. Sure, they didnt vary much perhaps, but my intuition is telling me to wonder.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:13 PM

I forgot to mention that the inclusion of music notation in Alden makes it the first collection to have that (after Adam's briefer exposition, also with musical examples). It does a lot to add to the originality of the article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:08 PM

Alden, 1882, cont.

He begins by speaking of the decline of sailors, and thus their songs. He presents it as a salvaging project. This is very different from the tone of previous articles. As I can see, only Adams, so far, has made a comment about steam's effect on things, and even he (3 years earlier) says that chanties are still going along well. Perhaps we can begin to see the early 1880s as the "beginning of the end" for chanties.

//
Let us, then, in the interest of archaeological science, make an effort to preserve the memory of his songs before the last man who heard them, and can give testimony in regard to them, is gone.

The present race of marine brakemen who form the crews of steam vessels can not sing. There is but one solitary song that is ever heard on board a steam-ship, and that one belongs to the least artistic class of sailor songs. The "shanty-man"— the chorister of the old packet ship—has left no successors. In the place of a rousing "pulling song," we now hear the rattle of the steam-winch; and the modern windlass worked by steam, or the modern steam-pump, gives us the clatter of cogwheels and the hiss of steam in place of the wild choruses of other days. Singing and steam are irreconcilable. The hoarse steam-whistle is the nearest approach to music that can exist in the hot, greasy atmosphere of the steam-engine.
//

Alden was first to use the orthography "shanty-man."

He reinforces the idea of Black origins of chanties, which seems to be tied up with this consistent idea that they (or their melodies) are "wild." Funny that he thinks Emmett's minstrel songs were so evocative of "African melodies." I suppose nowadays we are so accustomed to these musical forms as "American" or even global popular music style that they don't stand in such contrast to supposed "non-African" melodies.

He says other chanties were the work of English sailors, but cites only CHEERLY. This is important because, as we have documented, "Cheerly" seems to have been one of the very early chanties that existed, at least as I allege, before an influx of African-American songs to the trade that exploded the genre.

//
The old sailor songs had a peculiar individuality. They were barbaric in their wild melody. The only songs that in any way resemble them in character are "Dixie," and two or three other so-called negro songs by the same writer. This man, known in the minstrel profession as "Old Emmett," caught the true spirit of the African melodies—the lawless, halfmournful, half-exulting songs of the Kroomen. These and the sailor songs could never have been the songs of civilized men. They breathe the wild freedom of the jungle, and are as elusive as the furrow left by a ship on the trackless ocean.

Undoubtedly many sailor songs have a negro origin. They are the reminiscences of melodies sung by negroes stowing cotton in the holds of ships in Southern ports. The "shanty-men," those hards of the forecastle, have preserved to some extent the meaningless words of negro choruses, and have modified the melodies so as to fit them for salt-water purposes. Certain other songs were unmistakably the work of English sailors of an uncertain but very remote period. Of these the once famous " Cheerly, men," is a typical specimen. They were, however, frowned upon on board American ships because of their English origin, and no American crew would ever ape the customs prevailing under the flag of an effete monarchy by singing "Cheerly, men."
//

Of course, he is wrong about "Cheerly" in American ships. Perhaps this is a clue about what he *hasnt* read.

Next, basic features of the genre that ring true today. The emphasis on variability and improvisation remains.

//
Sailor songs may be divided into two classes—pulling songs and windlass songs. The former were used merely to aid the men, when pulling on a rope, to pull at the same precise instant. The latter were intended to beguile the men, while getting up the anchor or working the pumps, into temporary forgetfulness of their prosaic labor. As might be expected, the latter are much the more elaborate and pretentious. The one class, however, passes into the other by subtle gradations. There are pulling songs which approach so closely the structure of windlass songs that they were sometimes made to do duty at the windlass or the puinp by shanty-men whose artistic consciences were somewhat dull.
All sailor songs consist of one or more lines sung by the shanty-man alone, and one or two lines sung by the men in chorus. Windlass songs always have two choruses, while pulling songs should have but one. The choruses are invariable. They are the fixed and determinating quantities of each song, while the lines sung by the shanty-man were left in a measure to his discretion. It is true that custom wedded certain lines to certain songs, but the shanty-man was always at liberty to improvise at his own pleasure. He was also permitted to slightly vary the melody of his part, and the accomplished shanty-man was master of certain tricks of vocalization which can not be reproduced in print, but which contributed vastly to the effectiveness of his sinking. Those who have heard Irma Marie in Barbe Bleu may remember that in some of her songs, notably in the first act, she had a trick of slurring from a note in her proper register to another in her head voice. This was one of the favorite mannerisms of the shanty-man.
//

Some mention at the end of vocal technique. To my mind, this sounds like normal scooping or gliding in singing that any non-classical singer would do unconsciously today?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:37 PM

It's come time....*drumroll*....to break out the source that may be "ground zero" for much of what is now contained in the shantying collections. It is Alden's July 1882 article in HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, "Sailor Songs." It has been mused over quite a bit in the Sydney/Frisco thread. Now to look at its details in relation to what came before it and to see if it indicates anything about the trajectory of chanty development.

Before starting, I will include Jon Lighter's sketch/remarks on Alden, back from Ja. 2010, for easy reference:

Born in Williamstown, Mass., William Livingston Alden (1837-1908) was just old enough to have learned his shanties in the 1850s, but neither _Who's Who_ nor his obituary in the N.Y. Times suggests that he took a sea voyage before 1885, when he was appointed U.S. Consul- General in Rome by Pres. Cleveland. He held the post till 1889.

Wiki warning: Despite the authoritative sources, Wikipedia's brief bio claims he held the office of Consul-General for the rest of his life - another indication of Wikipedia's unreliability. (If they could get that wrong....) What he did do was to remain in Europe, living in Paris and London while writing professionally.

Alden practiced law during the Civil War, then became a journalist and editorial writer. He wrote humorous editorials for the Times for
a number of years, and was well known for his books for young people and a biography of Columbus. He helped introduce sport canoeing to the United States in the early 1870s.

Unfortunately, we know nothing about when Alden learned his shanties. His Harper's article suggests that he'd heard them sung often - quite possible for an interested journalist living in New York City.

On the other hand, he didn't move to NYC, apparently, till the 1860s.
Until then, all his residences seem to have been landlocked.

It seems as though "thirty years ago" was a literary device and that none of Alden's shanties can be dated that far back on the basis of his 1882 article.

And a warning: I'm keeping my skeptic's / Devil's-advocate's hat on for now. This is the first focused article on chanteying after the similar 1868 and 1869 articles from ONCE A WEEK / CHAMBERS'S. I expect to see some correspondences.

ok...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 05:07 PM

Going back a bit, here is relevant reference to non-maritime work-singing. RH Dana evidently took a trip to Cuba in Feb. of 1859, and the result is his travelogue, TO CUBA AND BACK (1859). At one point he visits a sugar plantation and observes the round-the-clock slavery of converting the cane into raw sugar. Here is is description of the singing.

//
The smell of juice and of sugarvapor, in all its stages, is intense. The negroes fatten on it. The clank of the engine, the steady grind of the machines, and the high, wild cry of the negroes at the caldrons to the stokers at the furnace doors, as they chant out their directions or wants—now for more fire, and now to scatter the fire—which must be heard above the din, "A-a-b'la! A-a-b'la!'" "E-e-cha candela!" "Pu-er-ta!", and the barbaric African chant and chorus of the gang at work filling the cane-troughs ;—all these make the first visit at the sugar-house a strange experience. But after one or two visits, the monotony is as tiresome as the first view is exciting. There is, literally, no change in the work There are the same noises of the machines, the same cries from negroes at the same spots, the same intensely sweet smell, the same state of the work in all its stages, at whatever hour you visit it, whether in the morning, or evening, at midnight, or at the dawn of the day. If you wake up at night, you hear the "A-a-b'la A-a-b'la!" "E-e-cha! E-e-cha!" of the caldron-men crying to the stokers, and the high, monotonous chant of the gangs filling the wagons or the trough, a short, improvisated stave, and then the chorus;—not a tune, like the song of sailors at the tackles and falls but a barbaric, tuneless intonation.
//

In 1859, Dana is still using his terminology of "song at tackles and falls". I wonder if, while away from sea, his vocabulary has been updated or not. Probably not, and it's not surprising he doesnt say "chanty."

But what is more deserving of careful thought: He says that these short, improvisated [intoned] staves, followed by chorus were *not* like the sailors' songs. Well, not like them for their lack of "tune" -- though his definition of "tune" is certainly subjective. One presumes he means that they didnt have much in the way of melodic leaps and they had a very narrow ambit, though they were still tunes at some level if ~intoned~. I think what he is saying is fairly clear, but I do wonder if he is comparing this to the "songs at the tackles and falls" of *his* day -- remembering that we are unclear what the songs/chanties were like in his day.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 06:14 AM

I take back what I said about Dixon. Looks like his stuff, and some of his ideas are from Alden's 1882 article (not yet dissected in this thread), which would have just come out recently before. He even talks about "Lowlands" as the "wildest" chanty, like Alden, and uses Alden's "shanty-man." And he refers to two versions of Shenandoah in the same way. The tunes are the same as Alden.

The exception is Coal Black Rose. I don't know where that came from.

Also -- Comparing Russell's work to Alden, his titling is conspicuously similar. "Across the Western Ocean" had not been mentioned until Alden. "Plains of Mexico". Russell and Alden have "bound TO the Rio Grande," where elsewhere it is "for." Use of the title "Old Stormy."

The unique phrases in Russell so far are 'Run, let the Bulljine, run!' and "I served my time in the Blackwall Line". I am skeptical of the rest, and I won't include it in any tally.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 05:21 AM

The March 5, 1887 issue of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL contains an unsigned article about a trip to North Bimini (Bahamas) at the end of 1881. The travelers meet with some boat rowers, who sing a work song:

//
One of the large island boats, rowed by twelve stout blacks, took us the three miles to the landing-place, as, though we were only about two miles from the island then, we had to circumnavigate the reef which projects across the narrow strait dividing North from South Bemini, and which strait, sheltered by the reef, forms a most excellent harbour for the schooners and smaller craft of the island. These black rowers then started a chant, of a more Anglican than Gregorian tone, the music of which was prettier than the words, though this is not high praise, the words being:

Oh, I wish I was in Mobile Bay—
   Sally, get round the corner;
Loading cotton all the day—
   Sally, get round the corner;
//

This reads like a passage from the 1830s! Funny that the author doesn't connect this 'chant' to 'chanties,' but I suppose s/he didnt have the experience.

Is this ROUND THE CORNER SALLY?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:39 AM

This collection of STUDENTS' SONGS (13th edition, ed. W.H. Hills, 1887) has a parody version of RIO GRANDE. It is by Hills and copyrighted 1881. Just goes to show how well known the chanty must have been by then.

http://books.google.com/books?id=U68QAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA34&dq=%22heave+away%22&lr=&as