Scarborough Fair

Notes Scarborough Fair is one of England’s most beloved folk songs, its roots reaching back hundreds of years. The text is a bittersweet conversation between former lovers, framed by a refrain that names four herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. In centuries past, each of these plants carried symbolic meaning—comfort, wisdom, remembrance, and courage—so the refrain can be heard as both a charm and a lament. The song’s verses unfold as a series of impossible tasks—sewing a seamless shirt, buying land between the sea and sand. These poetic riddles are less about practicality than about longing, distance, and the sense that some relationships cannot be mended, no matter how much one might wish otherwise. The melody, with its haunting, ancient character, has survived through oral tradition and countless variations. Its modal shape gives it a timeless quality that feels at once familiar and mysterious. In this arrangement for chorus and orchestra, the intimacy of the folk tune is set within a broader sonic landscape. The chorus gives voice to the song’s timeless story, while the orchestra surrounds it with shifting colors and textures—sometimes delicate, sometimes expansive. The result is music that feels both rooted in the past and alive in the present, inviting listeners to hear an old ballad in a new light. Lyrics Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Remember me to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine, Tell her to make me a cambric shirt, Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, without any seam nor needlework. Then she’ll be a true love of mine. Ask her to do me this courtesy. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. And ask her for like favor from me. Then she’ll be a true love of mine. Tell him to find me an acre of land, Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, between the salt water and the sea strand. Then he’ll be a true love of mine When he has done and finished his work, Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, ask him to come for his cambric shirt. Then he’ll be a true love of mine