Song of sailors

The song of sailors is a Chanson entonnée by the sailors on board boats sailing on the sea.

At the time of the navy with veil, the song of sailors had an particular importance: its principal function was of rythmer team work, to synchronize the efforts of each one. One thus finds primarily songs of work, but also of the songs for the relaxation.

Characteristics

Typology

1. Songs of work

songs to hoist
songs to transfer
songs of guindeau
songs to pump
songs to swim (to row in the vocabulary of people of to ground)
songs with déhaler
songs of capstan

2. Songs of relaxation

songs of strong of before
laments
songs to dance
songs of the ports

From which do they come?

On all the boats of the world, the songs of sailors met the need to synchronize the efforts. One thus finds some in all the countries having a maritime tradition and at all the times until the abandonment of the veil at the end of the 19th century and the passage of the muscular force to the mechanized force. Since, the songs of sailors lost their function first of assistance to work. They remain however alive in the areas of maritime tradition, in particular because they are an identity means of recognition.

Musical characteristics

The song of sailors was entonné by people having little or not musical formation. Its structure is thus generally simple (a succession of simple verses intersected with a refrain or a sentence taken again in Leitmotiv), the melody is easy to memorize and the words explicitly refer to the professional environment in which the sailors live. The essential instrument was the voice. Some instruments were used for the songs of relaxation: Accordion, Violin.

The songs of work were rates/rhythms according to the effort required.

Songs to be hoisted: the effort to hoist a sail depends on swingings of the ship. These songs are rates/rhythms by rolling; a singer entonne only one or two worms, a chorus answers him by a sentence which varies little.
Songs to row (or to swim): rythmées by the movements of the oars, they are often slow, which puts up with rather sad words.
Songs to be transfered: to transfer the anchor with the capstan is carried out on a fast rate/rhythm of walk, and the corresponding songs are of a merrier nature.

From its dispersion on all the continents, the repertory is extremely varied. Its diffusion was ensured by the contacts at the time of the stopovers or the foreign sailors embarked in a crew. In the national marine (military), there was a repertory of songs which he was interdict of entonner, often because of their words anti-soldiers or anti-patriotic.

It is current to intend to say that such interpretation " is not the original version of the chant". The songs are in fact transmitted by continuous succession. The words, the melody and the rate/rhythm varied according to the sensitivity of the interpreters and the use that one made some. Such song slow and syncopated for work could become a dance by accelerating its rate/rhythm. The words were often partly impromptu on board, and certain leading seamen were known for their inventiveness. Certain songs existed in several versions: that with very raw words, entonnée only on board, and that " for the compagnie". The sailors re-used the bits of songs older than they had learned how to compose a news of it. It was necessary to await collectings of the 19th century so that the songs of sailors are fixed.

List songs of sailors

It is necessary to distinguish the traditional songs (unknown author, attested use at time of the navy with veil) from the more recent compositions, of which some already passed in the “tradition”. When he is known, the author of a song is indicated. The list also contains some songs which are not specifically sailors but who speak about the sea.

Organization of the list: it presents the songs alphabetically. In the case of songs carrying the same title, the first words of each one are put between brackets. If a song bears several names, the main thing is followed the different ones between brackets.

In Bordeaux have just arrived
At Dunkirk we are unloaded
to hoist the jib {Chant to hoist}
In the Saint Nicolas's Day (P. Coustumer)
In Lorient pretty the
In Lorient has just arrived
At Saint-Malo beautiful seaport
Adieu dear comrade {Chant of forecastle}
Adieu Diego
Adieu Madras, good-bye scarves
Adieu Recouvrance (L. Cunff, L. Merrer)
Allez the sailors (Freddy Breizirland)
Allons to Messine
Aloué lafalaloué
Amsterdam (Jaques Brel)
Anchors aweigh (Written for a play of foot between the navy and the American army)
did you know the Winslow father?
To the 31 of August
At the ocean floor (All at the sea-bed)
With Jean Bart
Away, haul away (song of the departure, song of the good-byes)
Blow the man down {Song to hoist}
Brassons well everywhere square
Brave sailor returns from war
Bugaled Breizh (Black House)
It was a lady of Bordeaux
It was a frigate
Those which named the benches
Chanson to be transfered (Still and hop and transfers!) {Song to transfer/pump}
Chanson of Cap-hornier S
Chanson of the corn carriers
Let us sing to spend time {Chant of forecastle}
Chants cleaning the rains (small refrains)
In the port it arrived
In the prisons of Nantes
As soon as the wind blows
Drunken sailor {Chant to transfer/pump}
rum of the women (Louis Soldier)
Eh boy takes the bar
Encore a rum
Enfant of the voyage
And the first it is a sailor
Fanchon d' Arzon (Rohan)
Fanny de Laninon (Pierre Mac Orlan)
Is necessary to have courage
Gabier, climbs with your top
Grand thirst (Rohan)
Guerre, war, sale, wind (Tri Yann)
rear Gwerz vezhinaerien (Denez Abernot)
Hanging Johnny {Chant to hoist}
Hardi the guy, transfers with the guindeau
Haul away Joe {Chant to hoist/row}
Heart off oak
Henrik
Hourra the girls (Hurrah girls with quat' (ten) sums of money)
It ate its 400 francs
It was a small ship {Complainte}
It is necessary to sing
They were three sailors
I made a mistress
I return
Jean-François of Nantes
Jean-Marie
John Kanak
John Kanaka
Johnny Palmer
Kalondour (Gilles Servat)
the beautiful Francoise
white the hermine (Gilles Servat)
Of Bordeaux the
Carmelite
the song of the crevettier (Rohan)
the lament of Jean Quéméneur (Henri Ansquer) {Complainte}
the lament of the cox {Complainte}
the short straw
Danaë {Song of forecastle}
the woman of the president
the figurehead (Rohan)
the girl of sands
the galère {Lament}
the legend of the vessel of money {Song of forecastle}
Madelon of the sailor
Margot
the Marie Joseph
sea, always the sea (Christian Quéré, Leon Guillou)
Paimpolaise
the hammer of the sailors (Jean-François to go to the ball…, Can you dance the hammer) {Chant to dance}
the tahitienne
the tavern
tramontana
the heart of the sailors (Freddy Breizirland)
the Angelus of the sea
the marine artillery
the inn of the girl without heart (Jean Villard Gilles, song popularized by the Four Bearded ones)
the boat charged with corn (In front of Bordeaux arrived)
the beautiful diver
blues of Gerbord
Bory, the boat
the captain of St Malo
the valve
the clipper Bernica
the corsair of Saint-Malo
the corsair the large runner
the corselet
the crime of the street of Suffren (Henri Ansquer)
the pirate
France
the gabier of Newfoundland
the black gabier (Michel Thunder)
Gallipétant
the mainmast wants road
the husband of large Margot
the marine of Couëron
the drunk sailor
the father Lancelot
the dry land
the Pluviôse (Louis Pouilly 1911)
the bridge of Morlaix (it is while passing on the bridge of Morlaix)
the four mast-boat (Michel Tonnerre)
the submariner
Leave her, Johnny, leave her {Chant port/à to pump}
the sloops escort ships
the caulkers
the corsairs
girls of the La Rochelle (are the girls of the La Rochelle) {Chant of forecastle}
girls of Lorient
girls of New York City
the guy of the Navy
the guy of Senneville
large the dundees
Lorientaises
sailors of Groix (My will tradéritra…, popularized by the Four Bearded ones)
sailors of Groix (we were two, we were three)
sailors of our city
sailors of quarter (Rohan)
the p' tites of boils of the world
the pinks of Ushant
the secrecies of the sea (black House)
the submariners
the Newfoundland fishing boats
the three courses (Michel Tonnerre)
the vessels of stone (black House)
the harmonica {Chant to dance}
Loguivy of the sea (François Budet)
Marin
Marine
Inhabitant of Martinique (Louis Soldier)
Martolod year the East
Matelot
Matelot the wind is good (Satanicles)
Matelot since it makes good wind
Merc' hed Keriti
Mettez the launch at water
My father is tobacconist
My p' tit boy (Michel Thunder)
do not hear you not under your window
We will not leave
We are sailors
Old Maui (Rolling down to Old Maui) {forecastle Chant of port/de}
Paddy West {Chant of port}
Papi
Passing by Paris
Pauvre marine
Petit sailor
Pique the whale
Prends broad the
When the lame one go-T-with the market
Which can be tougher ( No Hay quien pueda )
Fifteen sailors (Michel Tonnerre)
Reagan Dougan
Rio Grande {Song to transfer/pump}
Swindle young people, roll (To the La Rochelle come to arrive)
Saint-Nazaire
Sam' S gone away
Santiano (song popularized by Hugues Aufray, French words of J. Planted)
Satanicles (Michel Tonnerre)
On the road of San Francisco
On the benches of Newfoundland
On the edges of the Loire
Tacoma
are to You my secrecy
The black ball line {Chant to hoist off}
The fiddler' S green
The Greenland fisheries
The leaving Liverpool
Tirer from the cases
Tri martolod yaouank
Three sailors of the wearing of Brest
Heaves at the capstan (Michel Tonnerre)
Virginia, the tears with the eyes
Vogue, vogue my boat
Y' does not have a beer
Y' had ten sailors (Jean-Roger Caussimon)

Vocabulary

The songs of sailors are strewn with perfectly current technical terms at the time of the navy with veil. Some are still used by the sailors of pleasure, but their direction is unknown today general public. Without being exhaustive, this list introduces to the terms the most technical employees in the songs (see also the bonds: maritime Vocabulary and Lexicon of the sailing).

Trades and terms of work

Bosco : Boatswain (at the experts)
to brew square : To direct the Yard S perpendicular to the axis of the ship (pace of wind postpones).
Caulker : nobody in charge of the sealing of the hull of the boat
to clean the runs : to make lines in the salt of the hold before putting at it the cod
Gabier : sailor appointed with the veil and the operation
To transfer : to change course

Life on board

gourgane : bean being used as food on the boats

Some terms of the time of the navy with veil

Capstan : large vertical axis on which one turns of the ropes and being used to multiply the force of traction.
Clipper : fast sailing ship of the end of the time of the navy with veil.
forecastle
Guindeau : winch with horizontal axis having partly the same function as the capstan.
laugh : device allowing to reduce the surface of the veils when the wind forcit, in the bad weather.

See too

Collecting

Admiral Armand Hayet
Jean de Cousemac

Singers and groups of songs of sailors

Many a groups singers amateurs constitute themselves to perpetuate the tradition of the song of sailors. In the same way, much of Chorale S have some songs of sailors to their repertory. One introduces only the singers here having a strong notoriety (discography, professional rounds):

AVURNAV! , group of songs of the sea of Trégor-Goëlo (begun again and compos) - mp3 and video on the site.
Port tack
Barababord, group of the South Finistere (Plozevet) - Several samples to be listened on the site.

traditional Bards, compositions and songs.
Bootland, songs of sailors of Flanders.
Bouline, Songs ligériennes and océanes
Boulinerien, group of Plozévet (Brittany)
Capstan
Hold seicheLe group of songs of sailors of Vern on Cuttlefish close to Rennes
Cap' taine Caux maritime and land songs of the Country of Caux.
Hundred Z' Escales, traditional songs of sea and compositions.
Cré thunder, songs of sailors and composition. (South Belgium)
Djiboudjep
the two gabiers, (Duet of songs of sailors: Compositions: Rohan) localization: * Gabiers d' Artimon
the gourlazous, group with the repertory between traditional songs and contemporary melodies.
Gwern, group bigouden of songs of sailors, traditional and compositions.
Sailors of Iroise, Songs of sea and sailors (Plouzané close to Brest).
Mat' batches of the wind, Songs of sailors (Lorient).
Michel Thunder, singer and contemporary type-setter, author of many songs passed in the repertory " traditionnel".
Mikael Yaouank, singer of the group Djiboudjep
Mourres de Porc songs of sea and pond of the Gulf of Lions.
black Pavillon Groups the Breton ones of Marseilles. Compositions on the sea and the sailors. Last Album: With the four winds. Paimpol 2007.
Quat and one feye, songs of sailors and composition. (Namur in Belgium)
Return, group of Saint-Nazaire.
Dream of Sea, groups songs of sailors and sea.
Crowned Bordered, traditional songs of sea and compositions.
Soldier Louis, recent compositions of songs on current life of sailor.
Stan Hugill, anglophone singer, one of the professional last shantymen of the British navy.
Thunder of Brest, group originating in Brest.
Rohan (song writer and performer and former marine) (singer-accordionist of the duet: the two gabiers) Sings the life of people of water.
Z' Embruns of Counters, groups songs of sailors of Ile de France. Traditional songs, compositions… On this site you will be able to also find a directory of the groups of songs of sailors

Texts

Of the Songs of sailors in music MIDDAY by Yannick BREAKING
Great number of texts of songs of sailors
Texts of songs on the site of netmarine with several samples to still listen to
other texts
Not only of songs of sailors but also of other popular songs
Texts to download
Texts, extracted in format mp3 and notes
Innovations: texts and mp3 to discover
At Papinou - Songs of Sailors
Words of songs of sailors and songs
Songs on the sea and the navy words and extracts musical

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