Sea shanties

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 35. Chapters: Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, Barnacle Bill (song), Barrett's Privateers, Blow the Man Down, Dead Man's Chest, Don't Forget Your Old Shipmates, Down to the Sea in Ships (album), Drunken Sailor, Fisherman's Friends, Frank Thomas Bullen, Good Ship Venus, Go to Sea Once More, Greenland Whale Fisheries, Hamborger Veermaster, Oh Shenandoah, Pay Me My Money Down, Poor Paddy Works on the Railway, Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, Rolling Down to Old Maui, Santianna, Sea shanty, Sons of the Sea (song), South Australia (song), Spanish Ladies, The Saucy Arethusa, The Song of the Volga Boatmen, The Sweet Trinity. Excerpt: A shanty (also spelled "chantey," "chanty") is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire, however in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and characteristics, or to refer to a ¿maritime work song¿ in general. Of uncertain etymological origin, the word shanty emerged in the mid-19th century in reference to an appreciably distinct genre of work song, developed especially in American-style merchant vessels that had come to prominence in decades prior to the American Civil War. Shanty songs functioned to economize labor in what had then become larger vessels having smaller crews and operating on stricter schedules. The practice of singing shanties eventually became ubiquitous internationally and throughout the era of wind-driven packet and clipper ships. Shanties had antecedents in the working chants of British and other national maritime traditions. They were notably influenced by songs of African-Americans, such as those sung whilst manually loading vessels with cotton in ports of the southern United States. Shanty repertoire borrowed from the contemporary popular music enjoyed by sailors, including minstrel music, popular marches, and land-based folk songs, which were adapted to suit musical forms matching the various labor tasks required to operate a sailing ship. Such tasks, which usually required a coordinated group effort in either a pulling or pushing action, included weighing anchor and setting sail. The shanty genre was typified by flexible lyrical forms, which in practice provided for much improvisation and the ability to lengthen or shorten a song to match the circumstances. Its hallmark was call and response, performed between a soloist and the rest of the workers in chorus. The leader, called the shantyman, wa