Bremer Shanty-Chor, Der

The first Shantychor of Bremen, in existence since 1978

The Bremer Shantychor sings of  the life of the sailors from past centuries with great shanties and atmospheric seasons. The songs helped the sailors to make the usually very hard and heavy work on board a little easier, and the Shanties gave the work the necessary, repetitive rhythm

The Bremer Shantychor was launched in 1978 and was initially in the tradition of classic men’s choirs, according to which the Shanties and especially the sailor’s songs were performed four-part a capella.

Over time, the choir repeatedly got into stormy waters. Changes in ship management and crew brought harmonica, accordion and guitar into the foredeck and increasingly shaped Shanties’s on-board life.

Today there are 28 men and a woman of the Bremer Shantychor. We are on the road in Bremen and around, enter large stages and small living rooms, can be heard in pubs and on street corners and report on the life of the sailor from past centuries with greety Shanties and atmospheric seasongs.

Our repertoire contains a wide variety of songs about sea and seafaring. We sing Shanties and Forebitters – these are the working songs on board the tall sailors and the songs of the Freiwache. We have some classic sailor songs in the duffel bag and we sing songs of today related to the sea – by A. Reichel, Rio Reiser, Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte.

In recent years, we have produced four CDs, of which the first two CDs with the titles “Wenn leise die Wellen singen” and “The Leaving of Liverpool” are out of print.

In 2010, a third CD entitled “When the ship comes in” was laid down. It contains many well-known international Shanties and reports with the title song of a ship whose crew has to face enormous challenges in order to reach a safe harbour, but can’t be dissuaded from it by anything or by anyone.

We have called our fourth and for the time being last CD “Seesick” – so the imagination has free play, but above all we want to make the longing for the vastness of the sea and the sound of the harbours experienceable with the songs.

Musicians:

Christian Preiss-Daimler                                                    Chorleiter, Gitarre, Banjo, Gesang
Waltraud Koch                                                                      Div. Flöten, Gesang
Heiner Borcherding                                                             Violine
Dankwart Reichelt                                                                Akkordeon
Friedel Jäger                                                                          Gitarre, Mundharmonika ,Gesang
Lothar Dziomba                                                                    Akkordeo