A lover’s ditty (Charles Villiers Stanford)

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(Posted 2024-04-12) CPDL #80188:

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-04-12). Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 530 kB Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: A lover’s ditty
Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford
Lyricist: May Byron
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1908 J. Curwen & Sons
Description: Three Part-Songs, Op. 111, No. 1.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

I had a love passing fair was she,
     As it were the whole world’s jewel,
          White as a dove,
          Say, how could it be,
She could have a heart so cruel?

     Suing her, wooing her,
Still with sighs pursuing her
All I might gain for guerdon
          A word unkind,
          A doleful mind
          And a frown,
     And a song with a heavy burden,
Down a-down,
     And a-down, a-down, a-down, a-down, a-down,
Hey, down a-down a’.

I had a love passing fair was she,
     Yet her heart set nothing by me;
          Shall I not prove,
          If some maid there be,
Who will never thus deny me?

     Suing her, wooing her,
Still with sighs pursuing her
She will give more for guerdon
          Than a word unkind,
          A doleful mind
          And a frown,
     And a song with a heavy burden,
Down a-down,
     And a-down, a-down, a-down, a-down, a-down,
Hey, down a-down a’.