The Anatomy of a Melancholic Masterpiece: An Analysis of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair/Canticle”

Introduction

In the turbulent cultural landscape of the late 1960s, popular music became a canvas for political dissent, spiritual searching, and artistic experimentation. Amidst the loud, electric roar of psychedelic rock, the folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel released an track that achieved profound emotional and political weight through quietude, intricate harmony, and historical juxtaposition.

Released on their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and later featured in the defining 1967 film The Graduate, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” is not merely a cover of a traditional English ballad. Instead, it is a brilliant polyphonic reimagining. By interlacing a medieval tale of unrequited love with a contemporary, razor-sharp anti-war counter-melody, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel created a haunting, multi-layered masterpiece.

This analysis will dissect the song’s structural brilliance, exploring its historical roots, its complex musical arrangement, the symbolic weight of its imagery, and how its dual narratives collide to create a timeless critique of human conflict and lost love.

Historical Origins: From Medieval Yorkshire to Greenwich Village

To understand the depth of Simon & Garfunkel’s arrangement, one must first trace the roots of “Scarborough Fair.” The song is a traditional English ballad that dates back to the late Middle Ages, specifically associated with the seaside resort town of Scarborough in North Yorkshire. During this era, the town hosted a massive, forty-five-day trading fair that attracted merchants, entertainers, and citizens from all over Europe.

The Evolution of the Ballad

The song itself is a variant of an even older Scottish ballad known as “The Elfin Knight” (Child Ballad #2). In the original medieval versions, a supernatural being (an elf or wizard) demands that a young woman perform a series of impossible tasks to become his lover, to which she replies with an equally impossible set of conditions. Over centuries, as the song morphed into “Scarborough Fair,” the supernatural elements faded, replaced by two mortal, estranged lovers who use a mutual acquaintance as a messenger to deliver their riddles.

Paul Simon’s Discovery

The song found its way to Paul Simon in 1965 during his time in the English folk music scene. He learned the specific traditional arrangement and the Dorian mode melody from the English folk singer Martin Carthy. When Simon returned to the United States, he brought this melody to Art Garfunkel. However, rather than presenting it as a straightforward folk revival piece, the duo radically transformed it by weaving it together with “The Side of a Hill”—an anti-war poem Simon had written years prior, which was remodeled into the “Canticle.”

Structural and Musical Architecture

Musically, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” is a triumph of studio production and vocal arrangement. It relies on a delicate balance of acoustic instruments and complex vocal counterpoint to create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously ancient and modern.

[Vocal Track 1: Art Garfunkel] ---> Leads with the traditional "Scarborough Fair" melody (Dorian Mode)
                                         |
                                         V (Polyphonic Intertwining)
                                         ^
[Vocal Track 2: Paul Simon]      ---> Weaves the counter-melody "Canticle" (Anti-war narrative)

The Power of the Dorian Mode

The primary melody of “Scarborough Fair” is written in the Dorian mode, a musical scale that differs from the natural minor scale by having a raised sixth note. This specific modal structure is responsible for the song’s distinctively haunting, eerie, and yearning quality. It resists the easy resolutions of major or minor keys, hanging in a state of perpetual suspension. This musical suspension perfectly mirrors the emotional limbo of the two lovers who cannot be together.

Instrumentation and Texture

The song opens with a delicate, undulating acoustic guitar arpeggio played by Paul Simon, utilizing a fingerpicking pattern that establishes a rolling, cyclical rhythm. This is quickly joined by a harpsichord, played by Carol Kaye, which injects a baroque, regal, and explicitly historical texture into the track.

As the song progresses, a subtle, swelling bassline and the gentle chime of a glockenspiel are introduced. The instrumentation does not drive the song forward with a heavy beat; instead, it creates a swirling, fluid landscape over which the vocals can float.

Polyphony and Counterpoint

The true genius of the track lies in its vocal arrangement. Art Garfunkel sings the main melody of “Scarborough Fair” in his signature, clear-as-crystal tenor. He represents the timeless, mythic voice of the past. Paul Simon sings the “Canticle” counter-melody in a lower, more muted register.

This is an execution of polyphony—the simultaneous combination of two or more independent melodic lines. The two voices intertwine, drifting in and out of harmony, crossing over each other, and creating a dense sonic tapestry where the listener’s ear is pulled between two entirely different eras and emotional landscapes.

Lyrical Analysis: The Dual Narratives

The song operates on a strict contrapuntal lyrical structure. To truly appreciate its depth, one must analyze the traditional lyrics of “Scarborough Fair” alongside the superimposed commentary of the “Canticle.”

The Symbolism of the Four Herbs

The refrain of the traditional song repeats the names of four herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. To a modern listener, these might sound like a simple culinary grocery list. However, in medieval folklore and herbalism, these plants carried immense symbolic and magical weight:

• Parsley: Traditionally associated with comfort and the removal of bitterness. In a darker sense, it was also associated with death and the underworld, hinting at the tragic undertones of the romance.

• Sage: The universal symbol of strength, endurance, and wisdom. It represents the psychological fortitude required to endure long separation.

• Rosemary: The classic emblem of remembrance, fidelity, and love. Shakespeare famously echoed this in Hamlet (“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance”).

• Thyme: A symbol of courage and bravery.

By repeating this herbal incantation in every verse, the narrator is implicitly wishing these virtues—comfort, strength, remembrance, and courage—upon the lover they have lost. It acts as a protective spell or an emotional armor against the pain of estrangement.

The Impossible Tasks

The narrator demands that their former lover perform three impossible tasks to win back their affection:

1. Making a cambric shirt without any seams or needlework.

2. Finding an acre of land between the saltwater and the sea strand (where land and water constantly erase each other).

3. Reaping a harvest using a sickle made entirely of fragile leather.

These riddles are a poetic manifestation of psychological defense mechanisms. The tasks are impossible because re-establishing the relationship is deemed impossible. It reflects the bittersweet, prideful stance of a jilted lover who sets unattainable standards to protect themselves from being hurt again.

The “Canticle”: A Modern Anti-War Counterpoint

While the main narrative spins a tale of romantic impossibility, Simon’s interwoven “Canticle” grounds the song firmly in the geopolitical anxieties of the 1960s—specifically, the horrors of the Vietnam War. The juxtaposition transforms the song from a pastoral folk tune into a devastating critique of human violence.

The Imagery of Death and Nature

In the second verse, as Garfunkel sings of the seamless cambric shirt, Simon whispers of a child on a hill in a “deep forest green,” sleeping under “blankets and bedclothes.” This pastoral, innocent imagery is violently subverted in the third verse. The “sprinkling of leaves” becomes a shroud, and the rain “washes the grave with silvery tears.” The child of the mountain is dead, a casualty of a conflict they had no part in making.

The Critique of the Military-Industrial Complex

The climax of the song occurs in the fourth verse. While the traditional lyric talks of reaping harvests with a “sickle of leather,” Simon’s counter-melody erupts with vivid, aggressive imagery:

“War bellows, blazes in scarlet battalion / Generals order their soldiers to kill / And to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten.”

The contrast here is striking and deeply tragic. The traditional song speaks of the natural, life-giving cycle of agriculture (reaping and gathering). In stark contrast, the modern commentary speaks of the unnatural, life-destroying cycle of war. The “sickle of leather”—an absurd, useless tool—parallels the futility and senselessness of the generals’ orders. The young men sent to fight are reaping nothing but death, fighting for causes that have lost all meaning.

The Synthesis of Past and Present

The true emotional catharsis of “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” happens within the mind of the listener as these two stories collide. By overlaying these narratives, Simon & Garfunkel suggest that human sorrow is cyclical and timeless.

The medieval lover is trapped in a gridlock of pride and impossible demands; the modern soldier is trapped in a gridlock of political systems and pointless warfare. Both are casualties of human inability to communicate, reconcile, and love. The ancient grief of the ballad provides a historical mirror to the contemporary grief of the Vietnam era, suggesting that humanity has remained stagnant in its capacity for cruelty and emotional isolation.

Legacy and Conclusion

“Scarborough Fair/Canticle” remains one of the high-water marks of 20th-century popular music. It demonstrated that folk music could be intellectually rigorous, politically subversive, and commercially successful all at once. Through its inclusion in The Graduate, it became the sonic wallpaper for a generation defined by disillusionment, alienation, and a yearning for peace.

Simon & Garfunkel took a centuries-old piece of cultural tapestry, pulled at its loose threads, and wove their own modern anxieties directly into the fabric. Through the hypnotic beauty of the Dorian mode, the magical symbolism of medieval herbs, and the tragic imagery of a war-torn landscape, the song achieves a rare universality. It stands as a profound reminder that whether we are dealing with the breakdown of an intimate romance or the cataclysmic violence of global warfare, the human cost is always the same: a profound, echoing loss that time alone cannot heal.