This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
By Marykirk, a sweet bird sang
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
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By Marykirk, a sweet bird sang by William Jackson of Masham — Lyrics
By Marykirk, a sweet bird sang
When trees were green and waters clear;
That sweet bird sang the hale day lang,
And charm’d the hearts o’ men to hear.
But down upon a flow’ry bank
The wily fowler laid his snare,
And in a weary prison cage
The sweet bird pin’d, and sang nae mair.
By Marykirk there bloom’d a flow’r,
Beside the winding Esk it grew;
And, oh, it charm’d the sunny light,
And ilka wanton wind that blew.
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About By Marykirk, a sweet bird sang
William Jackson of Masham’s part-song for SATB voices sets a poignant English text, incorporating elements of Lowland Scots. The music opens with a pastoral evocation of a singing bird by Marykirk, a scene of natural beauty. This idyllic image, however, soon gives way to the sorrow of the bird’s capture and imprisonment, its song silenced. The text then shifts to the metaphor of a flower, admired and cherished, only to be plucked by rude hands and faded in a cheerless bower. The composer captures the contrast between the initial charm and the subsequent lament, with the final lines suggesting a lingering sadness that overshadows even the present natural beauty.
