Sea Chanty and Maritime Music at Pomona College
Information and news about Pomona College chanty and maritime music curricula and events. Focus on g
Focus on group singing of songs from the Age of Sailing Ships, in African-American, Irish-American, British, and Caribbean traditions.
11/06/2023
Work with Claremont Colleges students over the years was one of the pieces that helped move this project along—perhaps the first research-based documentary on sailors' chanties.
Songs of the Windlass: Singing Chanties on Gazela (Stormalong Productions, 2023) Gibb Schreffler, dir., 2023Premiered June 9, 2023 *For a subtitled version of this film, see here: https://vimeo.com/809413092PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, & WRITERGib...
09/06/2023
We kick off the Festival on Friday, June 9th with the Symposium on the Music of the Sea, directed for the second year in a row by Faye Ringel. It will be held at the Essex Town Hall, 29 West Avenue, from 9-5 p.m. Parking will be available in the Town Hall lot.
We'll gather for coffee and danish at 8:30 a.m. and enjoy a full day of scholarship and camaraderie (there will be a lunch break!) See the schedule here: https://ctseamusicfest.org/2023.../2023-symposium-of-the-sea
For over 40 years, international academics, independent scholars, and performer researchers have gathered in Mystic and Essex to share their passion for and original research into the music of the sea. Presenters will join us via Zoom as well as in person; all presentations will be streamed and archived online. Sea Music was the first true world music: the Symposium links university scholars and practitioners with enthusiastic audiences, providing scholarship that is entertaining and enlightening. Q&A will follow each presentation. This year, we are honored to present two original documentaries with commentary by the films’ creators.
The Symposium is free to attend, and will be streamed to our YouTube channel for those who are unable to attend in-person. Tune in here: https://www.youtube.com/
For a quick reference guide to the Connecticut Sea Music Festival 2023: https://bit.ly/CTSMF-2023-GridandMap
For more detailed information about the Connecticut Sea Music Festival 2023 see our website: https://ctseamusicfest.org/2023-festival
09/06/2023
Songs of the Windlass: Singing Chanties on Gazela (Stormalong Productions, 2023) Gibb Schreffler, dir., 2023Premiered June 9, 2023 *For a subtitled version of this film, see here: https://vimeo.com/809413092PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, & WRITERGib...
23/03/2023
Chanty at the Windlass: "Sally Brown" Raising anchor at the windlass to the chanty "Sally Brown."This is an outtake from the film "Songs of the Windlass: Singing Chanties on Gazela" (2023). The c...
08/10/2022
"Songs of the Windlass: Classic Chanties of Shipboard Labor" is a collection of renditions of "classic" sailor work-songs from the historical repertoire of the time when a revolutionary shipboard device for heavy lifting, the brake windlass, was in its heyday.
The renditions take a "flexible traditionalist" approach. In order to tell the story of the windlass and its role in the development of chanties, they prioritize consideration of functionality *as* work-songs through appropriate form, rhythm, and tempo, realistic singing style, and language reflecting period texts. The chorus is made up not of older singers but rather young people closer to the ages of historical sailors, and includes all genders—to enable a vision of core values of the art form transplanted and adapted to the environment of today.
The arrangements, a few of which entailed research-based revisions of the current customs when singing this repertoire, emerged from Gibb Schreffler's research into the songs and their intersection with windlass technology. The performers are Prof. Gibb (Pomona College) and Claremont Colleges students, among them individuals with prior experience singing chanties at sea aboard a tall ship.
All the tracks are available for free streaming and download on SoundCloud (other platforms to follow), and may be made use of by anyone who wishes under a Creative Commons license.
https://on.soundcloud.com/KXeCN
Detailed notes on the rationale of the project, historical contexts, and texts of the songs are linked in the description box on the SoundCloud page.
Songs of the Windlass: Classic Chanties of Shipboard Labor SONGS OF THE WINDLASS Classic Chanties of Shipboard Labor Sung by Gibb Schreffler & Claremont Colleges Chanty Singers Download NOTES TO THE RECORDINGS, including lyrics and historical information, h
07/04/2022
Spring 2022 "Maritime Musical Worlds" class trip
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