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Thread: Music Aboard Old Ironsides

  1. #1
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    Default Music Aboard Old Ironsides

    The USS Constitution museum's most recent installment is about music onboard Old Ironsides. Here's a link to a YouTube from the museum where you can sing along with a period Broadside piece of music (with advance apologies to my friends across the pond):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11oW...ature=youtu.be

    If nautical music is an interest of yours, here's a link to items from the museum's collection regarding music on Old Ironsides (scroll to bottom of page for complete inventory of artifacts):

    https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/co...on-items/fife/
    Last edited by Wentworth; 08-29-2020 at 08:19.

  2. #2
    Admiral of the Fleet.
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    A very apt song for my current activity, Bill.
    I'm just looking at which ships I can incorporate in my new American Squadron and Hull’s capture is one of the ones which DB highlighted in his chart of American actions in the Med.
    Thanks for another entertaining five minutes.
    Rob.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  3. #3
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    Glad you enjoyed it Rob-- I thought I heard your rich baritone (or is it soulful tenor?) wafting across the Atlantic as you sang along.... BTW -- please see the link below for a really good 2 CD set I have in my collection. Disc one is a one hour radio program on broadside music of the period from both perspectives of the events of the War of 1812 with singers accompanied on period instruments. Disc Two is a compilation of songs from the period concluding with the US Naval Academy Glee Club singing the Star Spangled Banner. I found the radio program very instructive.

    https://www.amazon.com/Music-War-181.../dp/B00ADKWVX6

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    More soulful than tenor these days I'm afraid Bill.
    I will listen to your Broadside music on the morrow. it is getting quite late here for this tonight.
    Thanks again for your input.
    Rob.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  5. #5
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    Here's one you can listen to without ordering the CD (although I have the CD in my collection as well): It is called "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay." They are nautical songs of the Hudson River sung by Pete Seeger, a lifetime Hudson River resident and founder of the educational sloop Clearwater that still sails the Hudson. If you follow the link and click on the title of the song you should be able to listen to the music. The first song is an Iroquois song of the river -- Native Americans have lived and fished the Hudson for 2,000 years. This is followed by several songs of the American Revolution including one about the burning of Kingston (then the capital of New York) by a Royal Navy raid. Other songs include one about the Erie Canal -- goods shipped from New York City were sailed up the Hudson to Albany and then shipped on barges to Western New York via the Erie Canal. During the 19th Century, many whaling ports were on the Hudson River -- Tarreytown, Poughkeepsie (an English spelling of an Iroquois word), Newburgh, among others. There is whaling music on the CD as well. The Hudson River Valley was a popular route on the underground railroad -- helping escaped slaves to get to Canada. "Follow the Drinking Gourd" was a song that told the escaped slaves how to get to Canada -- the drinking gourd was the Big Dipper constellation containing the North Star. The final songs are about steamboats on the Hudson (I actually remember the paddlewheelers from when I was young).
    Enjoy the music!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrYJ4WmuAo0

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    Thank you for introducing us to the maritime music of the 19th century, Bill. I was interested to notice in the Iroquois song the words "Yo Ho". Is it just a coincidence that they appear in so many sea songs or did sailors copy the Iroquois? I don't suppose that you know.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Naharaht View Post
    Thank you for introducing us to the maritime music of the 19th century, Bill. I was interested to notice in the Iroquois song the words "Yo Ho". Is it just a coincidence that they appear in so many sea songs or did sailors copy the Iroquois? I don't suppose that you know.
    What I can find on this is from the Cree Tribal language: yoho translates as "awe"

    https://www.lensaltiel.com/blog/yoho-yoho

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