Blow the Man Down

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 308, 18 May 1945, Page 14

Blow the Man Down

HE only one of the "Music for the People" series which I have heard was "Sea Shanties,’ from 4YO. For anyone interested in or familiar with this type of music the programme must have been unsatisfactory. No introduction was given, nor any explanation, general or

particular; and less than half-a-dozen songs were heard. Sea shanties are among the greatest folk songs; they belong to no particular country, but to the cosmopolitan life of the fo’c’sle, and they include every emotion from the ribaldry of "The Drummer and the Cook" to the cynicism of "Whisky Johnny" and "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?" There are also one or two shanties which rival, in breadth of mood and beauty of melodic line, the folk music of any country; such as the restrained sadness of "Tom’s Gone to Hilo" and the sweeping grandeur of "Shenandoah" or "The Rio Grande." Richard Terry, who has made a collection of them, says the "shanty man" or leader sang the verse, while the reiterated refrain was sung by the crew as they marched at the capstan bars or hauled at the sheets. Shanties therefore vary in tempo with the work being done, and are designated accordingly, as windlass, capstan, foresheet, halliards, or pumping-ship shanties. A little such information to introduce a programme of shanties, together with a few details of the famous clippers of old, or a description of the seaman’s life in a windjammer, would have made all the difference to the enjoyment of the average listener.