Lavender's Blue - English Folk Song

Vocals by Aurora Aguilar, arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is an folk song and nursery rhyme from England going back at least to the 1600's, where we find its earliest printed versions.

I wanted this arrangement to give us some insight into what English folk music of the rural regions would have sounded like circa the mid 1700's onward (with the caveat that Aurora and I are Canadian, so we went for our own accent and not a reconstructed English one from the era). The arrangement is therefore homophonic, with one main vocal line accompanied by a simple chord progression.

The instruments used are a zither, a lute, and a fiddle.

Lyrics:
Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green,
When I am King, dilly dilly,
You shall be Queen.

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly,
Set them to work,
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork.

Some to make hay, dilly dilly,
Some to cut corn,
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly dilly,
Lavender's blue,
If you love me,
I will love you,

Let the birds sing,
Let the lambs play,
We shall be safe,
Out of harm's way,

I love to dance,
I love to sing,
When I am Queen,
You'll be my king.

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
I told myself, dilly dilly,
I told me so.

[faryafaraji]

Vocals by Aurora Aguilar, arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is an folk song and nursery rhyme from England going back at least to the 1600's, where we find its earliest printed versions.

I wanted this arrangement to give us some insight into what English folk music of the rural regions would have sounded like circa the mid 1700's onward (with the caveat that Aurora and I are Canadian, so we went for our own accent and not a reconstructed English one from the era). The arrangement is therefore homophonic, with one main vocal line accompanied by a simple chord progression.

The instruments used are a zither, a lute, and a fiddle.

Lyrics:
Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green,
When I am King, dilly dilly,
You shall be Queen.

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly,
Set them to work,
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork.

Some to make hay, dilly dilly,
Some to cut corn,
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly dilly,
Lavender's blue,
If you love me,
I will love you,

Let the birds sing,
Let the lambs play,
We shall be safe,
Out of harm's way,

I love to dance,
I love to sing,
When I am Queen,
You'll be my king.

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
I told myself, dilly dilly,
I told me so.

[OlyanaSara]

please bring Aurora again for more songs, she has a beautiful voice!

[jasminv]

What a lovely little tune! People love to focus on the violonce and power struggles in history, but little things like these lyrics can show us the humanity of people in the past. Summer, dreaming, baby animals and the like...

[Tomtomscot]

I used to sing this, with slightly different words, as a nursery rhyme to my baby daughters. Now they are singing the same to my grandchildren. Beautiful.❤

[Sardar-tccf]

her voice is what I imagine an angel sounds like singing 🥹❤️

[tiam]

Magnifique, dilly dilly! 👏
L’interprète est parfaite pour cette chanson, dommage qu’elle n’apparaisse pas à l’image 🙂

[mon_moi]

delighted to learn that the cute melody from Cinderella (2015) is an actual nursery rhyme

[MisterBoggins]

Man, what a beautiful song from my homeland; I wish for England to recover soon in these trying times! Much love from the English city of Bristol!

[javadasaadi]

another masterpiece Farya!
those "dili lileee" reminds me childish persian songs 🥲

[ArkHattori]

Memories from my youth come flooding back. Well done.

[leplagdooctor]

The voice acting is great and i really really like the music. Love it!

[NintendoFan---]

What a Beautiful voice it is Pleseant to hear this Song and Music ❤

[ImNotVoltaire]

This is just wonderful, it’s usually hard to catch such “ease and calm” from a song
Thanks a whole bunch

[vintagebrew]

I sing this to my cat everyday during her grooming time. Lovely, Thanks❤🇬🇧

[AnneBeggs]

How delightful is this? Right from my childhood. Your body of work continues to enchant and astound. TY for bring so much music alive for us, from so many cultures and centuries. =---->

[nestoj]

To be honest Farya, this sounds far simpler…but at the same time far more innocent…than most of your music. In a way, it’s refreshing after all the tragedies you sing about.

[quostad]

Neat arrangement, dilly dilly, great vocals too.

[jon-paulfilkins]

The song Lavender by the Rock band Marillion directly quotes this song in the lyrics. At the time I did not know how far back its origins went.

[MisterBoggins]

Nothin' better for the dawn of a new year than some new music! Happy 2024! 👏🏼😄

[ImmanuelTheKing]

Lovely voice and arrangement! Catchy tune!