The singing fishermen
March 2007
by Frances Wilkins
Until recent times, sacred singing was regularly heard in people’s homes to the accompaniment of piano or harmonium; at sea, and over the radio waves with fishermen transmitting ship-to-shore via trawler band receivers.
It was also common to sing gospel music whilst working, and many people recollect the sounds of hymns and psalms coming from gutting and ship-building yards during the height of the fishing industry. Bill Sangster, a member of the Kedron choir in Peterhead, recalls his mother and two aunts who worked as gutting quines and were well-known for their singing.
“There was the two gutters and the packer, and they were all singers, and they were famed. The three sisters was best known for working and singing at the same time. They would have just been singing hymns. Wheelie’s quines, that’s what they were kent. My grandfather was William. You see? William Buchan.”
As well as the events related to religious organisations, such as social evenings, guild and open air meetings, one tradition which became firmly established in the 20th century, and is still active today, is that of the gospel male voice choirs.
The movement began in Glasgow in 1934, and was led by the conductor and arranger James McRoberts. He called this movement the ‘Festivals of Male Voice Praise’ and it spread throughout Britain and overseas to Canada. McRoberts arranged many gospel hymns into four parts for male voice choirs: first and second tenor, and first and second bass, with the melody often changing between the two tenor parts.
There are five such groups in the North-East, at Aberdeen, Peterhead (the Kedron Male Voice Choir), Fraserburgh, Moray, Inverness & District, and until recently in Wick. Surprisingly, most members have strong connections to the fishing industry and there seem to be no equivalent inland choirs.
Any new recruit must be a Christian with strong conviction, which was pointed out by Peterhead’s conductor, Walter Brown.
“You don’t have to be a good singer to join the choir. There’s only one stipulation, that you’re a born-again Christian and that you have accepted Jesus as your saviour and your Lord. That’s the only stipulation for really joining the choir.”
Although the choirs are interdenominational to an extent, the majority of members are evangelical Christians, and many, especially in Peterhead’s Kedron choir, have roots in the Baptist church. Because of the strong ethos of the choir, the members are also required to be teetotal and smoking is not encouraged. Although the singers are all male, it is usual for the accompanist, usually on piano, to be a woman.
The choirs never charge for their performances, but if a donation is offered this is used to fund their activities, as Peter Coull, a member of the Kedron choir, explained.
“We’ve just got our own little bank account which helps with our books and things like that. But there’s nothing personal that comes out of it. If we need a bus and there’s money in the kitty, it pays the bus. If there’s none, we pay our own fares. Fine. The Lord’s always blessed us everywhere we’ve gone. It’s great.”
Choir practices are usually held once a week: the Kedron choir meets on a Monday night and the Fraserburgh choir on a Tuesday.
At the annual Festivals of Male Voice Praise, each of the five choirs plays host to a one-day event. The Peterhead festival is the first this year, on 17 March. This is followed by Fraserburgh in April, then Inverness in June. After a break for the summer, the Moray choir holds its festival in September, followed by Aberdeen in October. At these occasions, the choirs join to form one large group, singing perhaps 12 pieces during the evening. There are solo singers, and congregational hymns are dispersed throughout the evening.
There are also national and international festivals of male voice praise in which North-East choir members participate. In 2006 a number of the singers travelled to the all-Britain festival which was held in Cardiff and accommodated singers from as far away as Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the USA.
Locally, choirs serve a valuable function in their community, two or three joining together for the Inverallochy & Cairnbulg temperance walk socials which take place during the winter. They sing at women’s guild meetings and church anniversaries, and sometimes abroad, including a tour of the United States.
Since the founding of the gospel male voice movement, the music has changed. At first, men sang from the Sankey repertoire and more traditional English and Scots material, such as that of Charles Wesley. Then choirs moved on to singing from Robert F. Beveridge’s 1921 collection, Celestial Songs, Sankey and Redemption hymns arranged for lead, tenor and bass. They progressed to four-part singing from the collections made by James McRoberts during the Forties, though these have been eclipsed by modern compositions and two-part arrangements emerging from the United States.
Walter Brown explained: “It’s easier for people who can’t read music, because a lot of it is in unison. They’re all singing the same, and then they split into some parts.”
Choir members read sol-fa before staff notation was adopted. This change-over was not popular, as one former member of the Kedron Gospel Male Voice Choir, pointed out: “At the time I was reading staff notation and the older guys would say, ‘I don’t like that thing with the birdies on the wires’. The little dots were like birds you see. They like the ‘do re mi’.”
Now some books have been published with both types of notation, as many of the older members have never learned to read staff.
Unfortunately male voice singing is experiencing a decline in the North-East. In the Fifties many members were under 30, but now most of the singers belong to a much older generation.
As Peter Coull said, “The younger people don’t have the same interest in male voice singing as the older ones. The old fishermen, they’ve spent their lives singing, singing from boats. You’ve heard them on the trawler waveband and that’s just been our life. So the choirs are going down, which is a pity.”
But on a worldwide scale gospel singing is growing, especially in English-speaking countries, and it has recently emerged in Australia. Perhaps this international interest will spark a local renaissance in the years to come.
The author wishes to thank members of the North-East gospel choirs for their generous help and kindness, especially Walter Brown, Peter Coull and Bill Sangster.
FRANCES WILKINS is working on a PhD in Folklore & Ethnology. She plays concertina in Danse McCabre and the Pictones, and teaches mixed instrument evening classes for the Scottish Culture & Traditions association.
This is an article from the March 2007 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.