"Three Fishers" is a poem and a folk song written in 1851.[1] The original poem was written by English poet, novelist and preacher, Charles Kingsley. It was first set to music by English composer John Hullah shortly thereafter.[2] Some more recent recordings of the song follow a musical arrangement created by Garnet Rogers in the 1980s.
The poem tells the story of three fishermen who sail out to sea, and lose their lives when overtaken by a storm. It describes the tragic loss of the fishermen's lives to their families. Hullah's music is described as a "plaintive air" which enhances Kingley's poem.[2]
Contents |
When Charles Kingsley was a boy, his father was rector of a small parish on the English coast. Kingsley was often present when the herring fleet was put out to sea, an event often accompanied by a short religious ceremony for which the fishermen, their wives and their families were all present. Kingsley recalled the story at the end of a weary day and wrote the poem.[2]
Musicologist Derek B. Scott credits Kingsley as one of the founders of the Christian Socialist Movement in the United Kingdom, noting that the line, "Men must work and women must weep," became a catchphrase. Also according to Scott, the line sung as a refrain after each stanza, "And the harbor bar be moaning," refers to, "the belief that it was a bad omen if the tide made a moaning sound as it receded over the sand bar that kept the harbor waters still."[1] A performance by Scott using Hullah's musical arrangement is available online.[1]
The song was quite popular during much of the Victorian era. In 1883, English painter Walter Langley created "For Men Must Work and Women Must Weep", a watercolour painting based on Kingsley's poem.[3] The song (as arranged by Hullah) was a frequently sung by popular vocalists such as Antoinette Sterling and Charlotte Sainton-Dolby, each of whom gave distinctly different interpretations. Sterling once explained: "Although I had never been to sea in a storm, and had never even seen fishermen, I somehow understood that song of ' The Three Fishers' by instinct. On reading the poem over for the first time no one could know from the opening that the men would necessarily be drowned. Therefore it was a story. But there is a natural tendency to anticipate an unhappy ending; hence it was customary to begin the song so mournfully that everybody realised from the very start what the end was going to be. Madame Sainton-Dolby, for instance, used to sing it sorrowfully from the first note to the last. I had never seen or known of anyone who was drowned, but that mysterious instinct was so strong that I could not foreshadow the finish. When, therefore, I started, I always made the first verse quite bright. I must believe it was the true way, since both the poet and composer endorsed my rendering of it."[4] According to a text by Harold Simpson, when Sterling finished performing the song at her London debut, "there was a tumult of applause ; people rose in their places and cheered, waving hats and handkerchiefs in their excitement."[4]
There have been a number of modern recordings of the song since the American folk music revival. At that time it was recorded by Richard Dyer-Bennet for his 1955 album, Dyer-Bennet, Volume 1, and later by Joan Baez for the 1963 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2. They each performed a version using Hullah's arrangement.
In the 1980s, Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers recorded a version with a musical arrangement by his brother, Garnet Rogers, for the album, For the Family. Many more recent recordings closely follow the arrangement by Rogers, such as The Duhks on their Migrations album (2006), and The Once on their self-titled 2010 release, but each giving their own rendering.[5][6]