Not so much a topic as a pun I’ve been desperate for an excuse to use.
But does anyone use whistle in the preformance of nautical material?
I’ve spent a moment wondering why there isn’t a greater association between whistles and sailors; it would seem to be exactly the sort of cheap, portable, largely weatherproof instrument which would be ideal for below-decks music making, yet I know of no references. Historical accounts exist for fiddles and concertinas aboard ship, and one of the Hormblower-clone novels used to have a flute-playing lieutenant, which seems odd now–blowing a flute in any amount of wind isn’t easy.
And that’s all I can think of.
Children’s series Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome had a prominant but offstage role for pennywhistle. In We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, in which a whistle was played badly below decks in order to mislead a ship’s pilot into thinking that the craft had an adult aboard.
When I was learing the whistle I taught myself to play one or two sea-faring songs, come to think of it–Amelia/Across the Western Ocean and Rolling Home. They have lovely tunes.
I seem to recall some superstition about sailors and (lip)whistling, and it being a bad thing to whistle on board a ship. It might also possibly be confused with the sound of the bosun’s whistle, and get all hands on deck for all the wrong reasons.
Cheap mostly metal whistles are not as old as all that, and the British Navy is very conservative. Certainly in the days of Hornblower & Jack Aubrey, it would have had to be a wooden whistle.
It does seem odd that fiddles and concertinas were so popular, being comparatively expensive instruments, and fiddles would have been affected by the damp salty air, but they were certainly played on board wooden ships during the quieter hours. It may be that each ship’s Captain provided the instruments, rather than the crew owning them.
I love playing both English and Irish Hornpipes on my fiddle, and they sound great on anglo concertinas too.
It is kind of funny when you think about it… there are so many different tunes that sound great and are often played on the whistle that are associated with the ocean, Countless films produced that have any sort of voyage on the ocean as their main theme (Titanic, pirate films or otherwise) seem to always have a lone and integrated pennywhistle in their themes throughout…
Never really occurred to me before about there not being any lore to speak of.
Heck, I have a soundtrack collection CD called “Film Cuts” And there are something like 4 or 5 tracks on it from a make of Treasure Island that the Chieftains did the soundtrack for… the lead in title is of course… a pennywhistle. Main ‘fun tracks’ … have pennywhistle. There you have it!!
Depending on how you play it… it can just give you that “out on the ocean” sort of feeling! (no tune title pun intended)
Martin, are hornpipes and sea shanties the same type of song?
A song that comes to mind immediately (mainly because I thought about looking it up and learning it just yesterday ) is “What do you do with a drunken sailor.”
This is a great site for Sea Shanties but I don’t think that there is written music on it just midi’s and the lyrics. You might be able to do a search on the names of the songs somewhere else and find the music, but it is an extensive list of songs. There are also some links there that you might follow to find more.
Hornpipes are a very old tune type, there are old English 3/2 hornpipes that have survived to modern times, and some that have been twisted into 9/8 slip jigs.
The more modern 4/4 hornpipe is very familiar, usually played with a bit of a swing, and usually recognisable by the three long notes at the end of each part.
They were certainly popular with sailors and mariners, but are now usually just another dance tune, so many hornpipes exist that have never been near the old briney!
Sea shanties are a very particular type of song, not merely nautical. Their closest relatives are work songs, like plantation-era “field hollers”.
They were a method of corrdinating the action of a group of men, who might be turning a windlass or hauling on rope. They need to all pull at once, in other words.
A shanty would have a simple verse which would be bellowed out by a chanteyman, following by a simpler refrain (“pull, boys, pull!” etc.) , which would be sung by everyone while they were pulling.
There were also songs for listening sung when the crew was off-duty, sometimes called “forebitters”. These aren’t shanties, technically, aalthough they’re often lovely songs and more complex than the really simple shanties. The two I mention above are the latter.
Hornpipes aren’t particularly nautical, to tell the truth. We associate them with sailors because of the aforementioned conservatism of the Royal navy; they’re a remnant of 17th and 18th century popular dance (ie, English Country Dancing; tunes published in the Playford Collection). Sailors may have gone on dancing them long after 19th century society had moved on to other amusements, so a sailor’s hornpipe because a stereotype of the theatre. I dunno to what extent it was ever true–this is a theatrical trope as much as anything.
47 Ginger-Headed Sailors (not a hornpipe or a Sea Shanty)
Now there’s a good ship,
H.M.S. Cock-Robin.
On her home trip,
Up and down she’s bobbin’
Oh the crew’s pretty tough.
The sea is so rough.
They’re all fed up and say
That they’ve had more than enough.
She’s got a father
He’s an able seaman
And they call him Redhead Tom
I wire to say I’ll meet you
And with your friends I’ll treat you
So who do you think I’ve had a message from?
Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors
Coming home across the briney sea
When the anchor’s weighed
And the jouney’s made
Yes they’ll start the party
With a heave-ho, me-hearty
Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors
You can bet you’re going to hear them when they hail us
An old maid down in Devon
Said my idea of heaven
Is forty-seven ginger-headed sailors!
A great nautical song for whistle is Ewan McColl’s 'Net Hauling Song". Very bouncy and a lot of fun to play. Luke Kelly does a great version with The Dubliners.
out in the ocean is often played on tv for pirates in kids programs.
A good shanty is haul away, i heard it from jon spears and john broady (or john spears and jon broady)
The lyrics go like this
v1: when i was a little lad or so me mother told me
ch: way haul away
we’ll haul away for rosie
way haul away
we’ll haul away for johny o
v2: if i didnt kiss the girls my lips would go all mouldy
ch
v3: king louis was the king of france before the revolution
ch
v4: then he got his head chopped off which spoiled his constitution
I have an LP called Swedish Folk Fiddling (Nonesuch, 1970) that I think has some tunes that are called the equivalent of hornpipe in Swedish. The hornpipe is, of course, an instrument as well as a dance/musical style.
If I ever find my boxes of LPs, I’ll dig it out. It was really interesting to me, because I’d never heard anything like it in the realm of “folk” music. Some of it was quite complex. I’ve seen that kind of music called “living baroque”, which is exactly what I thought of it. It makes me wonder if this kind of folk music was also going on in Germany while Bach was growing up.
First I met a Yankee girl, she was fat and lazy
(Way, haul away, haul away all)
Next I met an Irish girl, she damn near drove me crazy
(Way, haul away, haul away)
Goofy sings to the College Hornpipe on one of the Disney Sing-along vids:
“Oh a sailor’s life is the life for me,
How I love to sail on the bounding sea
And I never ever ever do a thing about the weather
'Cause the weather never ever does a thing for me.”
“And I love the wind a’blowin’ as we leave the quay,
'Til we round the jetty and we let the sail blow free,
'Cause I’ve always had a notion for a life upon the ocean,
Dance the hornpipe to the motion of the rolling sea.”
I always liked Blood Red Roses. From the rhythm, it must be a work shanty:
As we were going 'round Cape Horn
Go down you blood red roses, go down
I wished to the Lord I’d never been born
Oh, you pinks and posies
Go down you blood red roses, go down
It sounds very cool on the concertina, which is how I first heard it.
I’ve always wondered if this is,like Ring Around the Rosie, related to smallpox.
Another is “Santy Ano” (Santa Ana). http://www.windjammers.net/santy-ano.html has the words and a MIDI version. Slowed down a bit, it sounds pretty good on the whistle. From the words, it must have been used while weighing anchor.
There’s plenty of gold, so I’ve been told,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santo Ano.
Plenty of gold so I’ve been told
Way out in Californi-o.
So Heave her up and away we’ll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santo Ano.
Heave her up and away we’ll go,
We’re bound for Californi-o.
