"Shanties" Versus "sea Songs"
Shanties are work songs and were originally sung only for work. However, sailors also sang for pleasure in the fo'c's'le (forecastle) where they slept or, in fine weather, gathered near the fore bitts (large posts on the foredeck). While songs with maritime themes were sung, all manner of popular songs and ballads on any subject might be sung off watch. The leisure songs associated with sailors are labeled simply as "sea songs," but they have no consistent formal characteristics. They are also popularly known among enthusiasts, especially when distinguishing them from shanties, as fo'c's'le songs or forebitters. Though those terms were not in great evidence in the 19th century, some literary references to "fore-bitter" and, less so, "fo'c'sle song," attest to their use even prior to the appearance of "shanty." Unlike shanties, during the singing of which one's hands were occupied, sea songs might be sung to the accompaniment of handy instruments like fiddle or concertina.
Examples of sea songs include "Spanish Ladies", first popular in the Royal Navy, and "The Stately Southerner", a ballad about a U.S. war ship. Examples of sea songs that were poorly documented in the sailing era, but which gained great popularity among singers in the revival era, are "The Leaving of Liverpool" and "Rolling Down to Old Maui."
Read more about this topic: Sea Shanty
Famous quotes containing the words sea and/or songs:
“And then the man whom Sorrow named his friend
Cried out, Dim sea, hear my most piteous story!
The sea swept on and cried her old cry still,
Rolling along in dreams from hill to hill.
He fled the persecution of her glory....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The hills are alive with the sound of music, with songs they have sung for a thousand years.”
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960)