The three fishers (George Alexander Macfarren)

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(Posted 2023-11-13) CPDL #77241:

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-11-13). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 545 kB Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

(Posted 2019-06-16) CPDL #54557:

Editor: James Gibb (submitted 2019-06-16). Score information: A4, 11 pages, 144 kB Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The three fishers
Composer: George Alexander Macfarren
Lyricist: Charles Kingsley

Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard or a cappella

First published: 1870 in Novello's Part-Song Book (2nd series), Vol. 3, no. 115
Description: Poems of Charles Kingsley No. 4

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

1 Three fishers went sailing away to the west,
Away to the west as the sun went down;
Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,
And the children stood watching them out of the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
Though the harbour bar be moaning.

2 Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower,
And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down;
They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,
And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown.
But men must work, and women must weep,
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
And the harbour bar be moaning.

3 Three corpses lay out on the shining sands
In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
For those who will never come home to the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;
And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.