Favorite Sea Songs of the Ancient Mariners Chanteymen
by Howard Hornstein

From Newsday

"For much of his adult life, Howard Hornstein, pediatric dentist had indulged in a beguiling musical hobby.

He sang old-time sailing songs, worked on harmony and played fife and concertina for the Ancient Mariners Chanteymen, a musical brotherhood whose unwritten motto is ''All things to excess!"

Hornstein 56, was so intrigued by old-time sailors' worksongs that he researched their history, eventually composing his own ballads and laments. Last spring he published a book of sea chanteys, some of them ribald (''...She swung her hips, she tripped her feet, she winked her sassy eye...''), some historical, some like "The Last Leviathan, "so vivid and poignant that they leave audiences in tears.

The simple spiral-bound book - a blend of musical scores, seafaring poems, and lively, witty accounts of chantey history and sailing lore - is titled "Favorite Sea Songs of the Ancient Mariners Chanteymen." Promotion has been almost exclusively by word of mouth."

*The book is available for $25. The accompanying CD, Turning The Tide, can be purchased with the book for an additional $10.

Home | Calendar | Pictures | Recordings | Mariners Online | Contact the Mariners
The Sea Chantey | Other Related Sites