Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone

The music of “Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone” is lively, and the character of the piece leans towards a light, amusing theme. Farmer masterfully utilizes the concept of word painting, which is characteristic of the English madrigal. The text, written by Farmer, is pastoral in character, meaning the words depict an outdoors scene involving shepherds. The soprano line begins the sprightly piece , representing Phyllis, a shepherd, sitting alone. An image of feeding the flock is created as the remainder of the voice parts enter on the text “Feeding her flock near to the mountain side.” This first section then repeats.

After the repeat, Farmer employs the standard Renaissance compositional technique of imitation with each part entering sequentially from the soprano voice down to the bass voice. This imitative motion illustrates the sense of seriousness in the text “but after her lover Amyntas hied [meaning to hasten or to strive],” which leads into the more urgent middle section. Farmer continues to display his tremendous skill in word painting in this next section. He plays with the text by having each part sing ascending and descending imitative lines, musically depicting the words, “Up and down he wandered.” During this segment, the bass line acts as a pedal drone, while the upper three voices repeatedly move “up and down.”

Farmer cleverly ends the composition by creating a resolution to the story line. First, he moves from an imitative, polyphonic texture to a homorhythmic texture. He then creates a playful mood through his portrayal of the text, “when he found her, they fell a kissing…” Farmer uses a contrasting triple to duple meter and duple to triple meter. He brings even more interest and enjoyment by adding a repeat, beginning with the “Up and down” section. A light, lilting pastoral image is created through Farmer’s masterful skill of combining music and text in this delightful madrigal. A piece such as this can be enjoyed by audiences and performers alike, with its challenging imitative entrances, mixed meter and enchanting text.