Scarborough Fair - The British Concert Orchestra.

''Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad. The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The melody is in Dorian mode and is very typical of the middle English period.
The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with a Scottish ballad titled "The Elfin Knight" collected by Francis James Child, which has been traced as far back as 1670. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").
Dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century. A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne", etc. Many versions do not mention a place-name and are often generically titled ("The Lovers' Tasks", "My Father Gave Me an Acre of Land", etc.).

The references to the traditional English fair, "Scarborough Fair" and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" date to 19th century versions and the refrain may have been borrowed from the ballad 'Riddles Wisely Expounded' which has a similar plot. The modern version was included in Frank Kidson's Traditional Tunes (1891), which reported it as being "as sung in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago", or about the 1860s.

The lyrics, as published by Frank Kidson, begin:

"O, where are you going?" "To Scarborough fair,"
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
"Remember me to a lass who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.

"And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme,
Without any seam or needlework,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.

"And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme,
Where no water sprung, nor a drop of rain fell,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.

The song was made famous by Simon and Garfunkel in 1965.
Enjoy some iconic scenes from Scarborough beside the sea.
   • Scarborough - 'A Closer LOOK'....  

Album info:-
From vinyl -
Scarborough Fair (Trad) - arr. Alec Gould.
'Our Musical Heritage'
The British Concert Orchestra
Arrangements by Alec Gould and Cecil Bolton.
Produced by Desmond Walker 1975,
Contour Records 2870. - Stereo.

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