Down By The Sally Gardens - Part 6 SATB Choir Melody

Ensemble in 2 harp parts (Levels 2 & 1) with 
melody lead options on Harp (Level 2)/ Flute or Violin / Voice / SATB Choir


Duration: Flexible 2 – 6 minutes

Part 6, SATB Choir Melody

Sheet Music Download + FREE MP3

Down by the Sally Gardens is recorded by the Belfast Harp Orchestra on the CD ‘Carillon’ (1994). This score of one of Ireland’s best-loved songs and tunes arranged for the Belfast Harp Orchestra which is adaptable to the range of solos available to perform the ‘leading part’. ….

The 4 lead part(s) for harp, flute or violin, single voice or a full SATB choir, can be played in any combination of the director’s choosing! The iconic harp accompaniment parts provide the character of this arrangement and are reminiscent, perhaps, of Pachelbel’s Canon …

Down by the Sally Gardens is an Art Song that evolved from the tune of ‘The Maids of the Mourne Shore’ to which the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats set his own words in 1889:

Down by the sally gardens my love and I did meet.

She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.

She bid me take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree.

But, I being young and foolish, with her did not agree.

In a field down by the river, my love and I did stand.

And on my leaning shoulder, she laid her snow-white hand.

She bid me take life easy as the grass grown on the wiers.

But I was young and foolish and now am full of tears.