Land_of_fish_and_seals - Button-Accordion Tunes 2 Play 4 Fun

LAND OF FISH AND SEALS

Time signature: 4/4

Lyrics based on poem by Margaret Sharp Peace, c1850
Music by Keith Murphy, Album released January 2018

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Everything needs to be checked.

An Accordion Tune to Learn "BY EAR"

Although I really like Keith Murphy's 2018 tune, I also chose this song because of Margaret Peace's 1850 lyrics. My Newfoundland and Labrador male ancestors, back to the 1700's, probably spent 7 to 8 months a year at the fishery (including, for many, sealing), and 4 to 5 months at mill-work and, for many, boat-building. They worked twelve hours a day, six days a week; my female ancestors, even more! No holidays! No early retirement! It was a struggle to survive in a harsh physical and economic climate. Mrs. Peace's poem is a tribute to folks like them.

Learning this tune may be somewhat challenging if your's is a G-C or an A-D button accordion. The B-C button accordion, once popular in Ireland, is the only (non-electronic) one I've seen with a "key of B" row. So, since our only youTube video is in the key of B, you will first need to learn the tune by listening and singing along, and then transpose to a key supported by your accordion.

Those of you who also play the guitar may find my "draft" (guitar) chord notation helpful. It is given, in the key of G, after the embedded video below, and can be transposed to any other key with the aid of a capo.

Lyrics:

Let sunny India her wealth proclaim, her gorgeous glowing sky,
Her silken stores, and golden veins, and flowers of every dye;
We envy not her gaudy show, where death insidious steals,
For wealth's bright diamond deck our brow in the land of fish and seals.

Let Italy and France and Spain their vine-clad valleys praise,
Let Greece and Rome take up the strain and sing of bye-gone days;
Of classic fame and glorious name which fame's loud trump reveals,
But we boast not of past glory in the land of fish and seals.

No great immortal names are ours whose deeds our annals trace,
No sunny skies, nor golden mines, nor vines our valleys grace;
But yet our ice-girt Isle can claim the true, the brave, the leal,
For slave and tyrant we disdain in the land of fish and seals.

And we boast not of our past glories, but of our living brave,
Who the frozen ocean fearless tread, and skim the angry wave;
May Heaven bless their gallant hearts our country's pride and weal,
Who face the perils of the deep in quest for fish and seals.

May plenty cheer our hardy sons and fortune on them smile,
If milk and honey are not ours, may we have lots of oil;
It'll make each face shine bright with joy, each bosom grateful feels,
And bring contentment, joy and peace in the land of fish and seals.

Repeat last two lines at end.

Embedded youTube VIDEOS

Only one video - by Keith Murphy, in key of B. Keith's guitar playing supports the melody beautifully.

Key: B

Singer: Keith Murphy

Posted by: Keith Murphy

From a digital album of the same name (Land of Fish and Seals, released on the 31st of January 2018). If you seek better audio quality than youTube provides here, both the album and the song can be purchased online.

GUITAR (STRUMMING) CHORD NOTATION ( 1st draft )

Key of G: To sound in key of A, B, or C place capo at fret 2, 4 or 5.

Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

Verse 5

G C
Let sunny India her wealth proclaim, her gorgeous glowing sky,
G F C
Her silken stores, and golden veins, and flowers of every dye;
G C
We envy not her gaudy show where death insidious steals,
G F G
For wealth's bright diamond deck our brow in the land of fish and seals.

    G C
Let Italy and France and Spain their vine-clad valleys praise,
G F C
Let Greece and Rome take up the strain and sing of bye-gone days;
G C
Of classic fame and glorious name which fame's loud trump re-veals,
G F G
But we boast not of past glory in the land of fish and seals.

    G C
No great immortal names are ours whose deeds our annals trace,
G F C
No sunny skies, nor golden mines, nor vines our valleys grace;
G C
But yet our ice-girt Isle can claim the true, the brave, the leal,
G F G
For slave and tyrant we disdain in the land of fish and seals.

    G C
And we boast not of our past glories, but of our living brave,
G F C
Who the frozen ocean fearless tread, and skim the angry wave;
G C
May Heaven bless their gallant hearts our country's pride and weal,
G F G
Who face the perils of the deep in quest for fish and seals.

    G C
May plenty cheer our hardy sons and fortune on them smile,
G F C
If milk and honey are not ours, may we have lots of oil;
G C
It'll make each face shine bright with joy, each bosom grateful feel,
G F G
And bring contentment, joy and peace in the land of fish and seals.

Dictionary Note - In verse 3: "leal" probably means "loyal".
In verse 4: "weal" probably means "well-being".
In verse 5: "oil" probably refers to cod-liver oil.

Background Information & Links

Margaret Sharp Peace wrote the Newfoundland poem "Land of Fish and Seals" in late1850. Click HERE (the GEST site) for a variant that was printed in James Murphy's sealers' songbooks (both 1905 and 1925). It was apparently written later than the 1850 publication of her book "The Convict Ship and Other Poems" containing several dozen of her compositions, mostly religious.

Click HERE for a short historical note about Margaret and her husband Robert Peace, a tinsmith, both originally from Greenock in Scotland. In 1847 they moved, with their infant child Andrew, to Newfoundland, where Robert set up the City Stove Establishment at 100 Water Street. Here they had eight more children, though three did not survive.

In the early 1860s there was a down-turn in the Newfoundland economy. So, in 1864, with their six surviving children, they undertook an arduous six-month 25,000 km sailing-ship voyage across the North and South Atlantic oceans to Cape Town, South Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, along the South coast of Australia to Melbourne, and finally on to Auckland, New Zealand. Click HERE for a fascinating description of that voyage.

Keith Murphy, an outstanding composer, musician, singer and music teacher, grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland. Keith and his wife, musician Becky Tracy, live in Vermont. They are on the faculty of the Battlebro Music Center, and both are prominent members of the New England folk-music scene.

In her 2018 article on Canada and Music, writer Kerry Dexter described Keith as "a top class guitarist who has worked with a range of leading musicians of the Celtic tradition" and "a fine singer with a nuanced sense of ways to integrate word and note as he sings and plays."

Click HERE and HERE for more about Keith and the album and song "Land of Fish and Seals", released in January of 2018.