The binding topic for British Autumn 2016, organised by SPECHEL (Angol-Magyar Kulturális Egyesület) is Britain Goes to America. Its main guests from the United Kingdom celebrate the centenary of the journey in 1916 to the Appalachians by English folksong collectors Cecil Sharpe and Maud Karpeles.
Jim Mageean is commonly acknowledges as the world’s finest exponent of the sea shanty, a genre of song that rose into prominence during the brief era of the fast ocean-going commercial sailing ships. These were streamlined to create the greatest speed with the least weight. Discarding heavy cannon and unnecessary crew, their best means of defence was escape, and so they had to be faster than any potential hostile vessel. To aid them in this, the crew devised songs that echoed the rhythm of their work, and the member with the strongest voice sang a lead while the rest joined in. Often the refrains were as long as, or even longer than, the solo lines, and kept the work speed regular. The length of any song on any occasion depended upon the length of the task in hand.
Although ships might fly flags that represented a particular country, crews were typically international, and the shanties can be said to be truly stateless, referring one minute to Liverpool and the next to Shenandoah.
Jim Mageean will give an open talk at Pécs University at 10.00 on November 16, and a concert the same evening at 19.00 at the Művészetek és Irodalom háza (House of Arts and Literature).