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The Water Is Wide (song)

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"The Water Is Wide"
Song
WrittenUnknown
Published1906
GenreFolk

"The Water Is Wide" (also called "O Waly, Waly" or simply "Waly, Waly") is a folk song of British origin.[citation needed] It remains popular in the 21st century. Cecil Sharp published the song in Folk Songs From Somerset (1906).

Themes and construction

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The imagery of the lyrics describes the challenges of love: "Love is handsome, love is kind" during the novel honeymoon phase of any relationship. However, as time progresses, "love grows old, and waxes cold". Even true love, the lyrics say, can "fade away like morning dew".

The modern lyric for "The Water Is Wide" was consolidated and named by Cecil Sharp in 1906 from multiple older sources in southern England, following English lyrics with very different stories and styles but the same meter. Earlier sources were frequently published as broadsheets without music. Performers or publishers would insert, remove, and adapt verses from one piece to another: floating verses are also characteristic of hymns and blues verses. Lyrics from different sources could be used with different melodies of the same metre. Consequently, each verse in the modern song may not have been originally composed in the context of its surrounding verses nor be consistent in theme.

Variants

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"The Water Is Wide" may be considered a family of lyrics with a particular hymn-like tune.[1]

"O Waly Waly" (Wail, Wail) may be sometimes a particular lyric, sometimes a family tree of lyrics, sometimes "Jamie Douglas", sometimes one melody or another with the correct meter, and sometimes versions of the modern compilation "The Water Is Wide" (usually with the addition of the verse starting "O Waly, Waly"). Benjamin Britten used the melody and verses of "The Water Is Wide" for his arrangement – which does not have the "O Waly, Waly" verse, yet is titled "Waly, Waly". A different melody is used for the song "When Cockleshells turn Silver Bells"[2] also subtitled "Waly, Waly". Yet another melody for "O Waly, Waly" is associated with the song, "Jamie Douglas"[3] lyric.

Ancestors

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A key ancestor is the lyric "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" from Ramsay's "Tea Table Miscellany" (1724), given below. This is a jumble of verses from other lyrics including "Arthur's Seat shall be my Bed" (1701), "The Distressed Virgin" (1633) and the Scottish scandal ballad "Jamie Douglas" (1776).

The use of 'cockleshells' and 'silver bells' in Thomson's version (1725) pre-dates the earliest published "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" (1744) and may relate to torture.[4]

Some though not all versions of "Jamie Douglas" have the first verse that starts "O, Waly, Waly". Andrew Lang found a variant verse in Ramsay's "Tea Table Miscellany" from a 16th-century song.[5]

Cousins

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Predecessors of "The Water Is Wide" also influenced lyrics for other folk and popular songs, such as the modern version of the Irish "Carrickfergus" (1960s) and the American "Sweet Peggy Gordan" (1880). The Irish folk song "Carrickfergus" shares the lines "but the sea is wide/I cannot swim over/And neither have I wings to fly". This song may be preceded by an Irish language song whose first line A Bhí Bean Uasal ("It was a noble woman") matches closely the opening line of one known variation of Lord Jamie Douglas: "I was a lady of renown". However, the content of the English-language "Carrickfergus" includes material clearly from the Scots/English songs not in any known copy of A Bhí Bean Uasal suggesting considerable interplay among all known traditions. The Welsh version is called "Mae'r môr yn faith".[6]

It is related to Child Ballad 204 (Roud number 87), "Jamie Douglas", which in turn refers to the ostensibly unhappy first marriage of James Douglas, 2nd Marquis of Douglas, to Lady Barbara Erskine.

Descendants

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The modern "The Water Is Wide" was popularized by Pete Seeger in the folk revival. There have been multiple subsequent variations of the song and several names – including "Waly, Waly", "There is a Ship", and "Cockleshells" – which use and re-use different selections of lyrics. The song "Van Diemen's Land" on the album Rattle and Hum by U2 uses a variation of the melody of "The Water Is Wide".[7]

The song "When the Pipers Play", sung by Isla St. Clair on the video of the same name, uses the melody of "The Water Is Wide".

Graeme Allwright translated the song into French. It was recorded in Breton language by Tri Yann as "Divent an dour". In 1991, the French singer Renaud recorded it as "La ballade nord-irlandaise" (The Ballad of Northern Ireland). At the Dunkerque carnival, people sing "putain d'Islande" based on the same melody.

Neil Young's "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" uses the melody of "The Water Is Wide".

Later renditions

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Arrangements

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"O Waly, Waly" has been a popular choice for arrangements by classical composers, in particular Benjamin Britten, whose arrangement for voice and piano was published in 1948. John Rutter uses it for the Third Movement in his "Suite for Strings" (1973).[8]

The tune is often used for the hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" by Isaac Watts.[9][10] It is also the tune for John Bell's "When God Almighty came to Earth" (1987)[11] and F. Pratt Green's "An Upper Room did our Lord Prepare" (1974).[12]

Because the melody is consistent with the words of Adon Olam, a prayer closing most modern Jewish services, Susan Colin performed a version with an also-revised prayer.[13] One congregation's choir performed it with the standard Hebrew prayer.[14] One instrumental version is consistent with the stanzas of the prayer.[15]

Recordings

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Esther & Abi Ofarim recorded "Oh Waly Waly" in 1963 for their album Songs Der Welt, and for their live concert album in 1969. Esther re-released the song on the box-set CD Mein Weg zu mir in 1999.[16] Jazz singer Tina May recorded the song—as "Whaley Whaley"—with pianist Nikki Iles and saxophonist Alan Barnes on their 2000 album One Fine Day.[17]

Bob Dylan recorded a version of "The Water is Wide" during the recording sessions for his album Time Out of Mind in 1996, perhaps intended for use on a then soon-to-be-released multi-artist Pete Seeger tribute album. This rendition was first released to the public on the Fragments album in 2023.[18]

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Television

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The CBS TV series The Unit featured an episode in season 2 titled "The Water is Wide", in which Unit members must disarm a bomb in the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, while their wives seek an alleged POW/MIA soldier in Vietnam.[19]

Films

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References

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  1. ^ "Water Is Wide". Sniff.numachi.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  2. ^ "When Cockleshells Turn Silver Bells (Waly, Waly)". Sniff.numachi.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Waly, Waly 3". Sniff.numachi.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  4. ^ "Mary Mary Quite Contrary Nursery Rhyme". Rhymes.org.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  5. ^ The Water Is Wide (song) at Project Gutenberg
  6. ^ "Mae'r môr yn faith (SA)". Sainwales.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  7. ^ "ShieldSquare Captcha". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  8. ^ France, John (11 April 2008). "British Classical Music: The Land of Lost Content: John Rutter: Suite for Strings". Landofllostcontent.blogspot.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  9. ^ "When I survey the wondrous Cross". Oremus. Archived from the original on 23 March 2011.
  10. ^ Common Praise. Canterbury Press. 2000.
  11. ^ "Midiforworship.com". Billysloan.co.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  12. ^ "Oremus Hymnal: An upper room did our Lord prepare". 3 July 2010. Archived from the original on 3 July 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Adon Olam (set to The Water is Wide) by Susan Colin and Robin Paglia-Dennis". 25 October 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ "ADON OLAM – Tune "Water is Wide"". 12 September 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ "The Water Is Wide (Instrumental)". 30 July 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Esther Ofarim – Esther and Abi Ofarim – Esther & Abi Ofarim – Ofraim אסתר עופרים". Esther-ofarim.de.
  17. ^ Nathan, Dave. "One Fine Day Review". AllMusic. Nikki Iles' piano is another source of strength for May. Iles is especially prominent on "Whaley Whaley." Nowhere on the album is the purity of May's voice and phrasing more striking than on this anonymously written, Irish-sounding folk song.
  18. ^ Padgett, Ray (27 January 2023). "Hear Bob Dylan Cover "The Water Is Wide" from New 'Time Out of Mind' Bootleg Series". CoverMeSongs.com. He delivers "The Water Is Wide" beautifully in 1996, at one of the earliest sessions for Time Out of Mind. It's unclear whether it was actually being considered for the album, or was just a warm-up with the band, but either way it's clearly a polished arrangement and a wonderfully committed vocal from Bob. (Update: A newspaper report at the time indicates it may have been recorded for a Pete Seeger tribute album, but Bob was unhappy with his performance and pulled it).
  19. ^ ""The Unit" the Water is Wide (TV Episode 2007)". IMDb. 13 February 2007.
  20. ^ "Gerard Way Records New Song for Kevin Smith Horror Film 'Tusk' « the World Famous KROQ". Archived from the original on 12 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  21. ^ Clerks III (2022) - Soundtracks - IMDb, retrieved 27 March 2023
  22. ^ "BBC One – Peaky Blinders, Series 2, Episode 3, PJ Harvey – the Water is Wide (Peaky Blinders version)". BBC.
  23. ^ "Emma". IMDb. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
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