Mixed choir
(SSSAAATTTBBB) -
difficult
SKU:
HL.49043945
For
mixed choir. Composed
by Steve Martland. This
edition: Saddle
stitching. Sheet music.
Choral. Softcover.
Composed 2011-2012. 106
pages. Duration 23'.
Schott Music #ED13369.
Published by Schott Music
(HL.49043945).
ISBN
9790220133503.
8.25x12.0x0.3 inches.
English.
Sea Songs,
commissioned jointly by
Ars Nova Copenhagen and
Glasgow Concert Halls, is
a kind of sequel to
Martland's Street Songs
(originally written for
the Kings Singers and
Evelyn Glennie). As with
the earlier piece,
Martland made use of to
the library of the
English Folk Song and
Dance Society at Cecil
Sharp House in north
London.I wanted
specifically to find
texts that were not just
the usual nautical
heave-ho sort of thing,
but instead explored the
dangers and hardships
still being experienced
by sailors as recently as
the early 19th century. I
was also very happy to
see in these texts the
sense of camaraderie and
mutual support that
existed between the
sailors. (Steve
Martland)Dance to your
Daddy sets the scene of a
sailor's wife at home,
dandling her baby son and
singing to him about his
daddy away fishing, and
about the future. Both
the tune and the words
come from the
Northumberland area
around Newcastle. This
song is very well known
in the UK and gave the
title to a famous
television series When
the boat comes in.Fire
Down Below is about the
effects of fire - a
constant danger on board
wooden ships. At the end
of this song the words
take on an extended
meaning: Fire in our
hearts for the friends
that we love.The Dead
Horse is about the
initial month of work
without pay in which all
seamen had to take part.
They referred to it as
the dead horse - hence
the expression to flog a
dead horse when something
is a waste of time. The
seamen resented this
unpaid time, and the text
expresses their
frustrations
metaphorically by listing
what they would do to the
horse! The music's
frantic gallop alludes to
the horse's
desperation.Although The
Sea Martyrs presents
itself as a ballad, this
text has a more literary
feel, and unlike the
other songs it doesn't
include a chorus refrain.
It concerns the sailors'
lack of pay, the
consequences of asking
for pay (being hanged!),
and the poverty of their
families at home. The
poem portrays the
sailors' deaths as an
almost religious
sacrifice to help future
seamen.At the end of the
work, the opening of
Dance to your Daddy
returns as a kind of
descant, sung by an angel
calling to the hanged
men. Paul Hillier,
2012.
Wooden Ships
