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Subject Item

n2:5714dee425ac0d8aee51391f

rdf:type

wsb:Song

owl:sameAs

n9:

dct:title

Scarborough Fair

dct:format

Gramophone record

dct:subject

Song recordings produced by Bob Johnston Sarah Brightman songs Andy Williams songs Simon & Garfunkel songs British folk songs Northumbrian folklore English folk songs 1966 singles Columbia Records singles Traditional ballads North Yorkshire Scarborough, North Yorkshire

dct:abstract

%22Scarborough Fair%22 is a traditional English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough.The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.As the versions of the ballad known under the title %22Scarborough Fair%22 are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of %22Scarborough Fair%22 appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2), which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task (%22For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he%22); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform (%22I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand%22).The melody is very typical of the middle English period.As the song spread, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten to the point that dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century, although only a few are typically sung nowadays. The references to the traditional English fair, %22Scarborough Fair%22 and the refrain %22parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme%22 date to 19th century versions, and the refrain may have been borrowed from the ballad Riddles Wisely Expounded, (Child Ballad #1), which has a similar plot. A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, %22twixt Berwik and Lyne%22, etc. Many versions do not mention a place-name, and are often generically titled (%22The Lovers' Tasks%22, %22My Father Gave Me an Acre of Land%22, etc.).

schema:datePublished

2014-11-24

mo:homepage

n7:Scarborough_Fair

mo:musicbrainz

n12:bff309e7-a6d9-48af-af48-d811de0c93b1

mo:musicbrainz_guid

bff309e7-a6d9-48af-af48-d811de0c93b1

mo:performer

n13:56d96d64cc2ddd0c0f6bb3fd n13:56d96d67cc2ddd0c0f6bb3fe

mo:uuid

5714dee425ac0d8aee51391f

mo:wikipedia

n6:

schema:releaseDate

1966-10-10

mo:bpm

118.0

mo:duration

230000.0

mo:isrc

NLB630400336

mo:producer

Bob Johnston

mo:track_number

11

schema:album

n11:5714debf25ac0d8aee375845

wsb:allMusic_page

n14:mt0011905981

wsb:deezer_artist_id

2707

wsb:deezer_page

n15:607836

wsb:deezer_song_id

607836

wsb:explicit_lyrics_count

0

wsb:gain

-17.0

wsb:has_explicit_lyrics

false

wsb:language_detected

english

wsb:rank

297599

wsb:record_label

Columbia Records

wsb:recording_description

1966-07-26

wsb:title_without_accent

Scarborough Fair

wsb:arousal

-0.245457

wsb:has_emotion_tags

false

wsb:has_social_tags

false

wsb:valence

-0.0594616