Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T08:32:30.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making music on the march: sledging songs of the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2016

Carolyn Philpott  and
Elizabeth Leane
Carolyn Philpott
Affiliation:
Tasmanian College of the Arts, Conservatorium of Music, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 63, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia ([email protected])
Elizabeth Leane
Affiliation:
School of Humanities/Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 41, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the so-called ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration (c.1897–1922), various parties of men invented songs to aid the act of sledging and to provide a mental diversion from the monotony of the task and the physical demands it made on the human body. Songs composed in this uniquely polar musical genre typically included rhyming lyrics that were highly motivational and expressed a united identity. The lyrics were usually set to the melodies of popular songs of the day. When voiced in unison by men out ‘on the march,’ sledging songs could help to promote team synchronisation and cohesion, and give the act of sledging (as well as the expeditions as a whole) a stronger sense of purpose and meaning. The singing of such songs, therefore, contributed in a very practical way to the overall success of many Antarctic expeditions of the ‘heroic age’. This article examines three sledging songs dating from this period of Antarctic exploration and investigates the historical context in which they were created and performed. It also considers what these songs reveal about the experiences of the men who participated in the sledging journeys and their earliest perceptions of the Antarctic environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 52 , Issue 6 , November 2016 , pp. 698 - 716
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldrich, P. 1876. Sledging journals (2), British Arctic Expedition, 1875–1876, entry from 28 May 1876. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 286/2.Google Scholar
Andrews, M. 1909. Widdicombe Fair. In: The modern series of part songs for all voices. New York: The H.W. Gray Co.Google Scholar
Averill, P. 2014. Camp songs, folk songs. Bloomington: Xlibris.Google Scholar
Baring-Gould, S. and Sheppard, H. Fleetwood. 1891. Songs and ballads of the west: a collection made from the mouths of the people. London: Methuen. URL: http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/a/a1/IMSLP41486-PMLP90430-songs_ballads_of_the_west_Baring_Gould.pdf (accessed 28 September 2015).Google Scholar
Behrisch, E. 2003. Far as the eye can reach: scientific exploration and explorers’ poetry in the Arctic, 1832–1852. Victorian Poetry 41 (1): 73–92.Google Scholar
Catalogue of books of the ‘Discovery’ 1901. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. 2004. The worst journey in the world: Antarctic 1910–1913. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press.Google Scholar
Clark, A.H. 1970. The clipper ship era: an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843–1869. 2nd edn. Riverside, CT: 7 C's Press.Google Scholar
Gammond, P. and Wilton, P.. 2015. Shanty. In: Latham, A. (editor). Oxford companion to music. Oxford music online. URL: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e6137 (accessed 7 May 2015).Google Scholar
Hevner, K. 1935. The affective character of the major and minor modes in music. The American Journal of Psychology 47 (1): 103–118.Google Scholar
Hooper, M. 2010. The longest winter: Scott's other heroes. Berkeley: Counterpoint.Google Scholar
Hugill, S. 1961. Shanties from the seven seas: shipboard work-songs and songs used as work-songs from the great days of sail. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hurley, F. 1912–1913. Sledging Diary 10 November 1912–10 January 1913. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales ML MSS 389/1/1.Google Scholar
Hurley, F. 1925. Argonauts of the south: being a narrative of voyagings and polar seas and adventures in the Antarctic with Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Kløver, G.O. 2012. The South Pole expedition of Roald Amundsen – how did he prepare for the expedition and what do his crewmember's diaries tell us about it? Nimrod: The Journal of the Ernest Shackleton Autumn School 6: 28–53.Google Scholar
Leane, E. 2012. Antarctica in fiction: imaginative narratives of the southern continent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leane, E. 2015. The poetry of Antarctic sound and the sound of Antarctic poetry. In: Hince, B., Summerson, R. and Wiesel, A. (editors). Antarctica: music, sounds and cultural connections. Canberra: ANU Press.Google Scholar
Leane, E. 2016. South Pole: nature and culture. London: Reaktion.Google Scholar
McIntyre, S. 2014. Songs of the south: for mezzo soprano and piano. International Journal of Contemporary Composition Scores (20). URL: file:///C:/Users/cjphilpo/Downloads/McIntyre%20Songs%20of%20the%20South.pdf (accessed 28 October 2015).Google Scholar
MacLaren, I.S. 1992. The poetry of the New Georgia Gazette or Winter Chronicle 1819–1820. Canadian Poetry 30: 41–73.Google Scholar
[McLean, A.] 1916. Handwritten notes regarding possible content of the revised Adelie Blizzard. Adelaide: South Australian Museum Mawson Collection 184AAE/6[28].Google Scholar
Manhire, B.C. 2000. Tourism benefits from a personal creative perspective. In: Proceedings of the Antarctic Tourism Workshop, Antarctica New Zealand, 23 June 2000. Christchurch: Antarctica New Zealand: 31–35.Google Scholar
Markham, A.H. 1894. The great frozen sea: a personal narrative of the voyage of the ‘Alert’.’ 7th edn. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.Google Scholar
Marks, G. (Swift, J.F.). 1888. Sailing. In: McCaskey, J.P. (editor). Franklin Square song collection: two hundred favorite songs and hymns for schools and homes, nursery and fireside. No. 5. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Moyes, J. 1996. Exploring the Antarctic with Mawson and the men of the 1911–1914 Expedition. West Gosford, N.S.W.: John L. Moyes.Google Scholar
Moyes, M. 1964. In: Dovers, G. and Niland, D.. 1964. Season in solitary. Walkabout 30 (10): 20–3.Google Scholar
Nielsen, H. 2013. The wide white stage: representations of Antarctica in theatrical productions (1930–2011). Unpublished Master's dissertation. Canterbury: University of Canterbury.Google Scholar
Northcote, R. 1908. Devon: its moorland, streams, and coasts. London and Exeter: Chatto and Windus/James G. Commin.Google Scholar
Osborne, S. and McDougall, G.F. (editors). 1852. Facsimile of the ‘Illustrated Arctic News’, published on board H.M.S. ‘Resolute’: Captn. Horatio T. Austin, C.B., in search of the expedition under Sir John Franklin. London: Ackermann and Co. (Issue No. 5, 14 March 1851). URL: https://ia600408.us.archive.org/9/items/cihm_42416/cihm_42416.pdf (accessed 30 June 2015).Google Scholar
Oxford University Press. 2015. March. In: Kennedy, M. (editor). The Oxford dictionary of music. 2nd edn. Oxford music online. URL: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e6511 (accessed 6 October 2015).Google Scholar
Philpott, C. 2012. Notes from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration: Gerald S. Doorly's ‘Songs of the “Morning.’ Context: Journal of Music Research 37: 3–35.Google Scholar
Philpott, C. 2013. The sounds of silence: music in the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The Polar Journal 3 (2): 447–465.Google Scholar
Philpott, C., McIntyre, S. and Leane, E.. 2014. Songs of the south: a song cycle for mezzo soprano and piano based on lyrics from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. International Journal of Contemporary Composition 9: 1–43.Google Scholar
Pinchot Kastner, M. and Crowder, R.G.. 1990. Perception of the major/minor distinction: IV. Emotional Connotations in Young Children. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 8 (2): 189–201.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1910–1911. Journal kept during the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–1913; 26 November 1910–7 January 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 198 BJ.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1911a. Journal kept during the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–1913; 15 March–11 July 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 298/14/2; BJ.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1911b. Journal kept during the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–1913; 12 July–24 December 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 298/6/5; BJ.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1912. Journal kept during the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–1913; 26 May–22 September 1912. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 298/14/3; BJ.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1960. Sledging song of Scott's Northern Party. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1097/27/3.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1915. Antarctic adventure: Scott's Northern Party. New York: Dutton.Google Scholar
Priestley, R.E. 1974. Antarctic adventure: Scott's Northern Party. Melbourne: C. Hurst.Google Scholar
Rose, K. 2012. Nostalgia and imagination in nineteenth-century sea shanties. The Mariner's Mirror 98 (2): 147–160.Google Scholar
Schwandt, E. and Lamb, A.. 2015. March. In: Grove music online. Oxford music online. URL: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40080 (accessed 10 September 2015).Google Scholar
Scott, D.B. 2001. The singing bourgeois: songs of the Victorian drawing room and parlour. 2nd edn. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Scott, M. 1909. I've got rings on my fingers; or mumbo jumbo iijjiboo J. O'Shay. Words by Weston, R. and Barnes, F.. New York: T. B. Harms and Francis, Day and Hunter.Google Scholar
Service, R.W. 1907. The law of the Yukon. In: Songs of a Sourdough. Toronto: William Briggs: 5–10.Google Scholar
South polar times . 1907. London: Smith, Elder 2(8): 44–45.Google Scholar
Stuster, J. 1996. Bold endeavors: lessons from polar and space exploration. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. 1979. The Griffith Taylor collection: diaries and letters of a geographer in Antarctica. Hanley, W. (editor). Armidale: University of New England, Geography Department.Google Scholar
Terry, R.R. 1914–1915. Sea songs and shanties. Proceedings of the Musical Association 41: 135–140.Google Scholar
Webb, E. 1912–1913. Sledging diary, 10 Nov. 1912–11 Jan. 1913. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Library MSS 2895/1.Google Scholar
Webster, G.D. and Weir, C.G.. 2005. Emotional responses to music: interactive effects of mode, texture, and tempo. Motivation and Emotion 29 (1): 19–39.Google Scholar
Whates, H. 1937. The background of sea shanties. Music & Letters 18 (3): 259–264.Google Scholar
Yelverton, D.E. 2000. Antarctica unveiled: Scott's first expedition and the quest for the unknown continent. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar