Boxing the Compass

Boxing the Compass: A Century and a Half of Discourse about Sailor's Chanties (Occasional Papers in Folklore, Number 6).

Contents:

1. Observations of Contemporaries (1850s-1880s)
2. Early Collections (1880s-90s)
3. Remembering Across the 19th-20th-century Divide
4. The Emergence of Folklore Studies (1900s-1910s)
5. Resources for Revival (1910s-1940s)
6. Developments in Folklore Studies (1920s-1960s)
7. The Final Seal: Stan Hugill
8. Post-Hugill Studies (1960s-2010s)

This well-researched book offers a perspective on the history and preservation of shanties, from the early print collections through the folk revival. It includes important verses and fragments rather than full songs.

Gibb Schreffler, Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College, has research interests that span diverse musical-cultural areas, including vernacular music and dance of South Asia's Punjab region, historical work-songs of American maritime culture, and the aesthetics of Jamaican popular music.

The author has also provided hundreds of recordings, including setting to song many of the melodies and lyrics collected by Stan Hugill.