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Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody

30 May 17 - 06:18 PM (#3857960)
Subject: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter

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.)


30 May 17 - 08:20 PM (#3857970)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: RTim

Not so sure myself!!

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


Tim Radford


30 May 17 - 08:32 PM (#3857975)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter

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.


30 May 17 - 08:34 PM (#3857976)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter

Oops. Here's the link:

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


30 May 17 - 08:50 PM (#3857979)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter

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


30 May 17 - 08:52 PM (#3857980)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Gibb Sahib

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. "


30 May 17 - 08:53 PM (#3857981)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Gibb Sahib

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


30 May 17 - 09:30 PM (#3857986)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: Lighter

"Savourneen" sounds closer to the chantey to me.


24 Jul 23 - 09:33 PM (#4177601)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

"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


24 Aug 23 - 01:14 PM (#4179838)
Subject: RE: Origins: 'Haul on the Bowline' melody
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

“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]