The (Aul') Balena (Traditional Newfoundland) Video

NOTES IN GENERAL

This is a song I have never heard ... per se. I HAVE heard the variant "The Old Polina" and have based this recording off of that but of course using the different lyrics.

I seem to be always looking down, Well, I am, this song is not in my repertoire so I am reading the lyrics which I have stashed off camera.

The good people at GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador ... http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/ ... have recently featured a couple of my cover songs on their website. I have been humbled an honoured by their kind and helpful words.

It was also mentioned to me that a lot of the songs they have in their archive do not have video/audio to go with them, I want this to change! Over the next while, I will be recording these songs which may or may not be featured on the GEST site, but MUST be shared so they do not become forgotten footnotes in the music of the Atlantic provinces.

Most of the songs I will be recording, I have never heard, but rather, I have the chords for so I play them to myself and some up with my own style for it. If I am WAY off base, please record a video and respond to this, it's all about sharing the beautiful music.

NOTES ON THIS SONG

Here is some background information for those of you who are interested:

From GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador:

"Author unknown. Variant of Old Polina, an original Newfoundland song ....####

Old Polina was published in Gerald S. Doyle's Old-Time Songs And Poetry Of Newfoundland: Songs Of The People From The Days Of Our Forefathers (Third edition, pp.44-45, 1955)."
.... http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/01/balena.htm ....

That doesn't give a lot of info on the potential origina of this song so I have also included some notes on the variant, The Old Polina,

also from GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador:

"From Wikipedia:
Old Polina — a traditional Newfoundland folk song, most likely based on the ship Polynia, built in 1861, of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company fleet. The Polynia was commanded by Captain William Guy from 1883 to 1891, when it was sunk by ice in Davis Strait. This song is similar to another song called The Balaena, about another whaler. Every year, the whaling fleet would sail from Dundee, Scotland to Newfoundland, there to pick up men to hunt the whales. Since the first ships to make it to Newfoundland would be able to pick the most experienced men, it became a bit of a competition to see who could make it in the fastest time. The other ships named in the song, the Arctic, the Aurora, the Terra Nova, and the Husky, are all ships from the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company fleet. The Aurora was the ship that rescued the crew of the Polynia in 1891 when it sunk. Art Jackson, Mullins, and Fairweather were a couple of the captains of the
ships at that time. There are records of a Captain Fairweather in command of the Balaena (mentioned in 1894 and 1896), an Alex Fairweather in command of the Terra Nova (1885-1893), and a J. Fairweather for the Aurora (1882-1886)."

http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/01/polina.htm

Notice the different spelling of "Balena" in the Wikipedia quote.

That is the beauty of folk music, many of us can be singing the same song, but singing it with differnt words and titles, but the idea/tune is roughly the same. Great isn't it?

Cheers.

Travis

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