The Turtle Dove (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

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• (Posted 2024-06-16)  CPDL #80958:     

Editor: Holt Skinner (submitted 2024-06-16).   Score information: A4, 6 pages, 104 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

• (Posted 2021-09-28)  CPDL #65913:     

Editor: Douglas Walczak (submitted 2021-09-28).   Score information: Letter, 5 pages, 68 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Turtle Dove
Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lyricist: 18th-century English folk ballad^{create page}
Number of voices: 5vv   Voicing: SSATB + Solo Baritone
Genre: Secular, Folksong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1924
Description: "Fare Thee Well" (sometimes known as "The Turtle Dove") is an 18th-century English folk ballad, listed as number 422 in the Roud Folk Song Index. In the song, a lover bids farewell before setting off on a journey, and the lyrics include a dialogue between the lovers.

External websites:

• https://musescore.com/user/158739/scores/17664574

Original text and translations

English text

Fare you well my dear I must be gone
and leave you for a while
If I roam away I'll come back again
Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear
Though I roam ten thousand miles
So fair though art my bonney lass
So deep in love as I
But I never will prove false to the bonney lass I love
Till the stars fall from the sky my dear
Till the stars fall from the sky
The sea will never run dry my dear
Nor the rocks never melt with the sun
But I never will prove false to the bonney lass I love
Till all these things be done my dear
Till all these things be done
O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove
He doth sit on yonder high tree
A making a moan for the losee of his love
As I will do for thee my dear
As I will do for thee