Scarborough Fair for classical guitar. PDF Sheet Music with free video lesson. Arranged for Easy Classical or Fingerstyle Guitar. Includes both a notation-only edition and a TAB Edition.. PDF Download. The level is easy-intermediate, first position chords with melody, small bit in 3rd position (some might consider this intermediate). This is a great piece for easy-intermediate guitarists looking for a clear melody with basic chords around the first position of the guitar.
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Scarborough Fair is a traditional English song with many versions and variations in lyrics. Most rely upon a possible visit by an unidentified person to the Yorkshire town of Scarborough. The song implies the tale of a man who instructs the third party to tell his former love, who lives in Scarborough, to perform for him (and her) a series of impossible tasks. Other ideas about the song meaning have been proposed, from the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages, an obscure Scottish ballad The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2), collected by Francis James Child, which has been traced as far back as 1670, and dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century. The references to the traditional English fair, “Scarborough Fair” and the refrain “parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme” date to 19th century versions. Read moore via Wiki. Here’s my YouTube Lesson Link if you want to watch it there.
A typical setting:
Male part:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Remember me to one who lives there,
For she was once a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Without any seam or needlework,
Then she shall be a true love of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Where never sprung water or rain ever fell,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
Then she shall be a true lover of mine.
Female part:
Now he has asked me questions three,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
I hope he’ll answer as many for me,
Before he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to buy me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Between the salt water and the sea sand,
Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to plough it with a ram’s horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to sheer’t with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And bind it up with a peacock’s feather,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to thrash it on yonder wall,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,
And never let one corn of it fall,
Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
When he has done and finished his work.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme:
Oh, tell him to come and he’ll have his shirt,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
