Where do Fish Stories Come From?

         Where do fish stories come from? How do we find the vehicle to tell a story and make it compelling for the listening experience.  I am a performance storyteller for all ages, my current project is for a curriculum guided school based program. Whose voice should the story represent and what message do I need to focus on? Will children grasp the complexities and what new vocabulary will be introduced and  explained via the storyline. Do I have adequate research on my topic to tell the story?

          I was inspired by Mark Kurlansky's book Cod to delve further into the world and history of fishing and fishermen. Then an opportunity presented itself to construct a story for performance to  third grade children around the  topics of  Wildlife, Water, People and more specifically immigration and the ecology of the sea. Cod would be the perfect vehicle to  help tell this story. At the outset I was not even aware of the children's version of this book and was so excited to find it! Here is a look at that version from Amazon http://amzn.to/Q4xdcL 

        That was just the beginning, a story is a complex intertwining of facts from multiple sources. Cod gave me my background knowledge. Then I needed characters, I found mine on the list of passengers on the Mayflower voyage to the New World in 1620. Here I researched the children of the Ancient Time as it was called and selected two. The characters themselves required more research as they are historical not fiction. My characters are Remember Allerton and Richard More, each have left a long lineage and a place in the history of the founding of our nation.

My next question to answer was, What does Cod fishing look like? How do you fish for Cod in the old ways and the new?

      I journeyed into the realm of salt water fishing and the life and habits of Cod. Here is where You-Tube came in handy to give me some visual reference. Here is a link to a story about the decline of Cod populations. http://youtu.be/cLE56imBjJs  This next link is a moving video full of the visuals I needed to be able to tell my story with an accuracy and  true representation. http://youtu.be/Git-48_CPww  From you-tube it as a long read in several nautical history books and a visit to  Mystic Seaport http://www.mysticseaport.org/  and the Essex Shipbuilding Museum  http://www.essexshipbuildingmuseum.org/  . I got to know the Cod itself by drawing and painting them so I would remember their distinctive fins and chin barb.

Cod Watercolor on textured paper by Carolyn  Stearns '14

      This is heavy material and  my focus audience for the premier of this story is third grade. I need a way to take the  depth of history and content and make it memorable and fun to hear and retain. I have added music to the story, interspersed to introduce new sections of the story and as a culminating piece to  spark conversation about the ecological and financial damage done to the Cod legacy by over fishing the waters. The music I chose for this is an old sea chantey "Cape Cod Girls", hear a version at this link; http://youtu.be/VQ_rFz9djz4  As with all chantey music there are many versions and arrangements so I took the liberty of adapting this song to fit the story a bit more and have our sailors/ fishermen bound for a "New World". The music to close this piece is one verse of a sea ballad called " Peter's River"  by Mary Garvey (c) 1995 and used with  her permission. The sheet music and lyrics are available here: http://www.timberheadmusic.com/disc/boatspetersriver.htm      I heard this song  a few years ago and it haunted my mind but in a weekend filled with music I could not remember the melody. Then in June 2012 I shared the stage at Mystic Sea Music Festival with Mary Garvey, it was from that meeting that I learned the song that has become one I hum often when working.

      Spring of 2014 this story will debut and be added to my regular repertoire of stories to tell. The story has such depth I will be able to offer an adult version with more content as well.

My review in 2013 of the book Cod is here: http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/09/rape-of-sea-book-review-cod.html

Interested in booking this story and other sea tales? www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com
    
     

 

Musical Bones

We continue  in nautical mode for at least this post. I have been on a  four week adventure to learn sea chantey music through a class at Mystic Seaport www.mysticseaport.org  It has been so much fun!!!

Any day that starts out looking this nice, well you just know it will be a good one!!  Today, our final class we were prepared to show off what we have learned. Each of us had a lead in  at least one chantey. I added playing Shenandoah on my harmonica to mix. Most of us joined Don Sineti on banjo playing bones.

                                                                      
              This image shows the bones in hand ready to play. This pair came with the class and are made of Rosewood. The are slightly convex and look like over sized tongue depressors. The bone nearest the thumb is anchored ( held still in place) by the middle finger an the second bone taps out the rhythm through motion of your hand and snap of the wrist. Think of using a fly swatter and you will get the motion.    
         Here is a video clip ( under a minute) of our first attempts at the bones, the banjo background music really helped.

            
 Wikipedia has info on bones and some pictures:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bones_(instrument)

There is a Festival for bones players: http://www.rhythmbones.com/

Nautical Storytelling and Sea Chantey Music

Sea Chantey Demonstration at Mystic Seaport

    I have immersed myself in nautical research for a forth coming nautical epic storytelling. I willingly signed on to Mystic Seaport's Sea Chantey class. www.mysticseaport.org  Four weeks of singing sea chanteys and learning about the music of the sea and the work it was created to support. It is not enough, the seven of us in the class are having such a good time! There are so many sea chanteys which are a combination of tales, legends and ship terminology all colored by the  wide variety of languages and nationalities of the sailors and set to rhythms of work on sailing vessels.

Here is some video of the Mystic Seaport Demonstration Crew at work April 7, 2012 on board the L. A.Dunton. A cold spring wind whipped across the Mystic River that day to remind us of how tough work would be out in the elements. The last portion shows an example of chantey music used to work the windlass.

                               Click follow to read the next post on using "bones"* in Sea Chantey music.

Bones: a rhythm instrument made of bone or wood

Similar posts:
http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/04/chasing-story-up-hill-and-out-to-sea.html
http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/03/mystic-seaport-sea-chantey-class.html

Mystic Seaport Sea Chantey Class

I tried ignoring the posting for this class.  I went back and looked again. There is definitely something to this music that made me sign up for class for 4 Saturdays in the spring! I have always felt the draw of the sea, that remaining salt water in the veins from  generations of family who loved and worked the sea.

First class was so much fun. We sang many  of the songs and now are choosing a song we will sing the lead on. My intent of learning some of these is to be an addition and understanding for a nautical epic I'm working on.

                                                     I am drawn to the images and scenes of the nautical world. The simple knots and coiled ropes, the ships at dock the ripples on still water and the gull overhead.

Against a gray sky two crew members climb aloft to tend a ship in port at Mystic. After class I wandered the village for a few minutes snapping pictures. It was a call of a gull that made me look up, as if to say you didnt see this and I took the quick moment to focus and capture the image. Somehow with the singing of the music and understanding the kind of ships work that the songs were created for makes it all seem much more alive.

other sea posts:

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2011/12/rye-beach.html

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2011/10/bosuns-pipe-calling.html