Stork Ejlænder Shantykor Fanø
Autentisk shanty tradition med rå mandsstemmer a capella
Korets historie
Hvorfor kalder vi os ”Stork Ejlænders”?
I ”gamle dage”, da skibe var af træ og mænd var af stål (– nu er det omvendt), og hvor en meget stor del af øens mandlige befolkning sejlede langfart med sejlskibene, sejlede en del også indenrigsfart. Sent efterår lagde skibene op, fordi fjordene frøs til og fordi afmærkningen til søs dengang var sparsommere end nu eller helt blev inddraget for vinteren. Så tog de Fanø søfolk af sted (ligesom storken) hjem til øen og kom igen næste forår.
Hvornår begyndte det?
Shantykoret startede i det små i 1993/94, hvor en kreds af øens etablerede musikere og musikinteresserede begyndte at synge shanty. Men interessen fik først tilstrækkelig gennemslagskraft den 24. oktober 1998, da 5 personer fik trommet sammen til en shantysang under en form, som har været bæredygtig lige siden. Fanø Ugeblad skrev dengang
Hvem er vi, som gider synge shanties?
Vi er en samling voksne mænd i vores bedste alder med en kærlighed til havet og livet på søen. Vi samles året rundt så mange som gørligt, hver fjortensdag i Marineforeningens lokaler i Nordby. Her øves i godt to timer.
Hvorfor gør vi det?
Vi synger for vores egen fornøjelses skyld – helt og holdent. Vi synger ikke for at underholde. Måske synger vi også for at pleje en tradition, for på Fanø har man flere museer og bygninger, hvor man kan se på ting fra Fanøs fortid. Man har også levende foreninger, hvor man kan gøre de samme ting som vore forgængere. Man kan danse folkedans, spille Fanømusik, sejle med everten Rebekka eller synge shanties som på sejlskibene.
We are a group of men who likes singing shanties.
Fact sheet on Stork Ejlænder Shanty Singers Fanø Who are we? We are a group of some 45 men in our best age with affection to the sea and life at sea. We gather the year around every fortnight in The Royal Danish Mariners House in Nordby. We here sing for some two hours. A smaller “hard core” group of shanty singers are training very seriously once a week. Why do we sing? We sing entirely for our own pleasure. We do not sing in order to entertain or please somebody. Maybe we also sing in order to continue an old tradition, because on Fanø we have several museums, buildings where it is possible to see old thing s from the past. The also exists many very living societies, where things can be done in the same way as our ancestors. One can dance the traditional dances, play the traditional Fanø music, and sail with the ever ship Rebekka or sing shanties as they did it on the sailing ships.
Why have we chosen the name”Stork Ejlænders”?
The shanty singers on the island Fanø call themselves”Stork Ejlænders”. In the good old days when ships were made of wood and men were of steel (– now it is the opposite), and where major parts of the male population of the island were sailing worldwide with the sailing ships, another part of them sailed domestic. Late autumn the ships stopped sailing because the fjords froze and because the navigational marking were scarcer than now or was removed during the winter period. Then the sailors from Fanø moved away (like the stork) back home to the island and came back next spring. When did it start? The shanty singers started small scale in 1993/94, when a group of the established musicians and music interested people began singing shanties. But the interest became strength enough first in November 1998, when 5 persons created a shanty singing in a form that has been successfully since. The style of singing We sing shanties in English, working songs as they were use onboard the sailing ships and we do it in the rough and brutal way. It is a way of singing we care much about. It may not become too nice – it never did onboard the ships. Sometimes we also sing “sea songs” but we normally do not sing “seamen’s songs – Seemans Lieder”.