Annotation:Water is Wide (The)
X:1 T:The Water is Wide M:3/2 L:1/8 R:Air B:Sharp - Folk Songs From Somerset (1906, Song 66) N:Words and music attributed to "Mrs. Cox, of High Ham," N:but reworked by Sharp from several sources. Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D2G2 GA|:B4 A2 A2G2E2|D6 D2G2F2|G6 A2B2 (cB)| A6 G2A2 (Bc)|d4 c2 c2B2 (AG)|B6 A2G2E2|D4 D4 D2 (EF)| G6 D2 G2 GA|B4 A2 A2G2E2|D6 D2G2F2|G6 A2 B2 (cB) | A6 G2A2 B c |d4 c2c2 B2 (AG)|B6 A2G2E2|D4 D4 D2 (EF)|G6 z2:||
WATER IS WIDE, THE. AKA and see “O Waly Waly.” English (originally), American; Air (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A favorite folksong [Roud 87; Child 204] version of a much older Scots ballad tune “O Waly Waly.” While "The Water is Wide" is often touted in anthologies as "an old American ballad" it is neither American, nor, in the strict sense, particularly old (although it is a derivative of songs with some antiquity). Rather the song is a pastiche of older melodies and words constructed by English collector Cecil Sharpe from sources in Somerset, England. For much more on the history of this song and its ancestors, see Jürgen Kloss's excellent and comprehensive article "'The Water Is Wide': The History Of A "Folksong"[1] (2012).