A brief background to the song – Scarborough Fair

The well-known lyrics of this song are mocking, tongue-in-cheek suggestions of impossible tasks put to a former lover who lives in Scarborough (North Yorkshire, UK), as well as refrains such as “parsley, sale, rosemary and thyme” and “then he’ll be a true love of mine”. At the end of the 18th century there were dozens of versions in existence. Some even older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne".

Scarborough Fair’s words appear to have something in common with a Scottish ballad entitled The Elfin Knight, collected by Francis James Child, and 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").

The famous melody of this song was collected by Ewan MacColl in 1947 when performed by Mark Anderson, a retired lead miner from Middleton-in-Teesdale (County Durham, England). This version was recorded by a number of musicians in the 20th century, including the most iconic version by the 1960s folk rock duo, Simon & Garfunkel, who learned it from Martin Carthy.

In this 2024 arrangement, the central character is a young lady; her words and the melody flit between the Soprano and Alto voice parts. She is quite clear about her feelings for a previous lover who (presumably) lives in Scarborough or attends the fair on a regular basis.

The layout of the four voice ranges (SATB) in this version is expanded to SSAATTBB in order to make it easier to read than if the divisi sections were written on one staff for each voice part. “Divisi” voice parts do not necessarily mean that it’s harder to sing.

The audio track is a virtual performance by the Sibelius software, using only the syllable “ah”.