Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody

Subject: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter
Date: 30 May 17 - 06:18 PM

Has anybody noticed that the tune of "Haul on the Bowline" is pretty clearly a version of the first two lines of the once very popular Anglo-Irish song, "Savourneen Deelish, Eileen Oge"?

(Frankly I think someone has, but can't think who or where.)

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: RTim
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:20 PM

Not so sure myself!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6z3gsACpEU


Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:32 PM

Try this performance, which is closer to the way "Savourneen Deelish" was meant to be played.

It may or may not have been an Irish folk melody. It first appeared (in an opera) in 1783.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:34 PM

Oops. Here's the link:

http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/deelish.html

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:50 PM

Traditional uillean piper Leo Rowsome's version is slower and even more like the chantey.

Hear a snippet of the first two lines at Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=savourneen

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:52 PM

w/ apology for the cut paste, here is someone who made the observation:

1916        Sharp, Cecil J., A.G. Gilchrist, Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Kidson, and Harry E. Piggott. "Sailors' Chanties." Journal of the Folk-Song Society 5(20):297-315.

"This is apparently the opening phrase of a variant of the tune made famous by Tom Moore's arrangement as " The Song of Fionnuala" (" Silent, oh Moyle "). Moore took his air from Holden's Irish Tunes, where it appears as " Arah, my dear Evleen." Holden's version is spoilt by its sharpened seventh; Moore retained this, and Sir Charles Stanford has changed it to what he believes to be the old form (see below). The Irish tune " Savourneen Deelish " (used by Moore for his song "'Tis gone, gone for ever," and by Thomas Campbell for his poem " There came
to the beach a poor exile of Erin "), seems allied to " Arah, my dear Evleen." The opening phrases of the songs are given here for comparison, and very interesting notes on them are in Moffat and Kidson's Minslrelsy of Ireland, pp. 224, 262, and Appendix, p. 341. -L. E. B. "

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:53 PM

1854 is the earliest date in my notes for "Haul the Bowline."

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter
Date: 30 May 17 - 09:30 PM

"Savourneen" sounds closer to the chantey to me.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Jul 23 - 09:33 PM

"Up bound the sails amidst the dangers of a storm, in the bitterest cold, in midnight gales––up they cheerily fly, to the tune of

       “Hang boys, hang!” or,
       “Haul the bowling, the bowling haul;”

the pull and the tug being unanimously given with the utterance of the last word."
[At Sea in a Clipper*, The Leisure Hour, vol.IV, 1855]
* James Baines (clipper)(1854)

Full post here: /mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=4177598

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 01:14 PM

“The singing of the sailors attracted my attention, and is deserving of mention. It may sound rude to those who can not endure any thing short of absolute perfection, but the singing of a chorus in which the manly voices of twenty stalwart men rose in the aire, was more refreshing to me than an Italian opera.

Some of their songs and catches were characteristic; upon weighing anchor the first day, they sang the following:

“Fare you well, my Jeanie dear, far away we go,
So early in the morning, oh!
In the height of summer, ye ho!
We're away, at early day,
O'er the rolling waters.
Then wind her up, my jolly crew, ye ho!”

When they were setting sails, the following was sung:

        “Haul the bowline, the bowline, the bowline;
        Haul the bowline, the bowline, haul!”

With the last word, which is uttered with great vehemence, like an interjection, they all give a tremndous and sudden jerk; and the catch and song are repeated until the rope is tight.”
[Life on Shipboard, Scalpel, Vol.IX, No.III, 1858]