Claremont may be a rough 40 miles from shore, but, even so, Thatcher Music Building will soon resound with the hearty sailor songs of yore. This fall, Visiting Professor Gibb “Ranzo” Schreffler leads the Sea Chanty and Maritime Ensemble, a half-credit course in which students will learn history and technique from a man who has memorized more than 500 chanties.
“Enthusiasm, rhythm and lyrics—perhaps in that order —are more important than pitch precision or voice quality,” ethnomusicologist Schreffer notes. In other words, don’t worry about going, well, overboard.
