Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?

Subject: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: matt milton
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 07:12 AM

Playing a folk gig this Friday night on the (replica) Golden Hinde at Pickfords Wharf in London.

Not much time to learn any new songs between now and then, but feel obliged to sing at least one song that's historically relevant/ties in.

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 07:43 AM

Drake's Drum

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 07:58 AM

Au Deer What can the matter be ?


Sorry - I've got my coat already !

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 08:05 AM

Matt-

I don't know, the 16th century was so long ago. Grog wasn't even invented.

Perhaps, you should sing a couple of Shakespeare nautical ditties.

Or "The Wreck of the Lady Washington."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: Ged Fox
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 09:16 AM

"We be sailor's three"

"In eighty-eight, ere I was born etc."

Or how about using one of the 1540ish chant/refrains from Wedderburns "complaint of Scotland" extract below?

****
I sat down to see the flowing of the foam,, where that I looked far forth on the salt flood. There I beheld a galiasse … fast at anchor, in which I heard many words among the mariners, but I wist not what they meant. Yet I shall report their cries and calls.

First the master bade the boatswain to pass up to the top, to look far forth if he could see any ships. Then the boatswain looked out until he saw a white sail. Then he cried out, with a yell. Quoth he, "I see a great ship."

Then the master whistled, and bade the mariners lay the cable to the cablestock (capstan or windlass?) to wind and weigh. Then the mariners began to wind the cable with many loud cries, and as one cried, all the rest cried out in the same tune, like an echo in one heave ho. And, as it appeared to me, their words were as follows.

"verra VERRA verra VERRA,
gentle gallants, GENTLE GALLANTS,
wind I see him, WIND I SEE HIM,
porbossa, PORBOSSA,
haul all and one, HAUL ALL AND ONE,
haul him up to us, HAUL HIM UP TO US."

Then, when the anchor was hauled up above the water, one mariner shouted, and all the rest followed in the same tune,
"caupon caupona CAUPON CAUPONA                      (caupon=capstan?)
caupon hola CAUPON HOLA
caupon hold CAUPON HOLD
sarabossa SARABOSSA"

Then they made fast the shank of the anchor, and the master whistled, and called, "Two men above to the fore yard!   Cut the ribbons and let the foresail fall! Haul down the starboard luff hard aboard! Haul aft the foresail sheet! Haul out the bowline!"

Then the master whistled and cried, "Two men above to the main yard! Cut the ribbons and let the mainsail and topsail fall! Haul down the luff close aboard! Haul aft the main sheet! Haul out the mainsail bowline!"


Then one of the mariners began to haul and to call, and all the mariners answered in the same sound.

"hoo HOO
pull pella PULL PELLA
boullena BOULLENA
darta DARTA
hard out stiff HARD OUT STIFF
afore the wind AFORE THE WIND
God send GOD SEND
fair weather FAIR WEATHER
many prizes, MANY PRIZES
God for land GOD FOR LAND
Stoo STOO
MAKE FAST AND BELAY"

Then the master called and bade them "render a bonnet! wire the trusses! Now Hoist!"
Then the mariners began to hoise up the (bonnet) sail, crying,

"hoist-a HOIST-a
worse-a WORSE-a
wow WOW
a long draught A LONG DRAUGHT
more might MORE MIGHT
young blood YOUNG BLOOD
more mud MORE MUD
false flesh FALSE FLESH
lie-a-back LIE-A-BACK
long swack LONG SWACK
that that THAT THAT
there there THERE THERE
yellow hair YELLOW HAIR
hips bare HIPS BARE
to them all TO THEM ALL
windfalls all WINDFALLS ALL
great and small GREAT AND SMALL
one and all ONE AND ALL
hoist-a HOIST-a
Now make fast the ties [theyrs]"
****

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 09:55 AM

I googled 'songs from 1580' and got one result - Greensleeves.

Not a bad idea. It's melodious, has easy chords, and the public knows it. People like what they already know.

I folk-processed the lyrics for that lately. Double-click on my name.

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 12:01 PM

Bugger. I have just spent a couple of hours going through Simpson's "The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music" and found dozens of tunes that were used for songs in Drake's time. I typed them into this window as I went and something made them all disappear just as I was nearly finished.

No way in hell am I doing all that again. Look it up.

Greensleeves is probably not appropriate, it was obviously new in 1580.

One tune that seems a cast-iron cert to be one Drake knew very well indeed, given its political associations - "Crimson Velvet".

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: matt milton
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 03:19 PM

oh, well, thanks Jack for putting in the effort anyway! I'll follow that up.

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: Ged Fox
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 04:22 PM

Oh! Duhhbrain! I meant, above, "We be three poor mariners" - not "We be sailors three."

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 06:13 PM

Jack, what terrible luck! You have my sympathy.

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 11:19 PM

In Praise of Saylors
I use the tune for Lord Willoughby
Julia L

Subject: RE: Songs to sing aboard the Golden Hinde?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 10:29 AM

I second Howard Jones' suggestion of Drake's Drum. Words and MIDI are in the DT and the Mudcat MIDI's. if the tune's got any awkward spots, you can change them.

The idea of it is that Drake's ghost waits to save England again. (Maybe he's having a beer with King Arthur in the afterlife.)