Full fathom five | Full fathom five thy father lies

Full fathom five thy father lies

Language: English

Our translations: DUT FIN FRE GER IRI ITA NOR

Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
[Ding-dong.]¹
Hark! now I hear them, - ding-dong bell.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• C. Ives

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¹ omitted by Ives.

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Godfrey Edward Pellew Arkwright (1864 - 1944), "Full fathom five", published [1902?] [ low voice and piano ], from Nine Songs from Shakespeare, London, Joseph Williams [sung text not yet checked]
by Frederic Ayres (1876 - 1926), "Sea Dirge", op. 4 (2 Songs) no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "Full fathom five", op. 19 no. ? (1954-64), published 1976 [ high voice and piano ], from Shakespearean Songs, Lexington : Kelley [sung text not yet checked]
by John Banister (c1625 - 1679), "Full fathom five" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Full fathom five", 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Six Shakespeare Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Barney Childs (1926 - 2000), "Full fathom five thy father lies ", 1958 [ soprano, tenor, clarinet, percussion, violin, viola, and piano ], from Septet for Voices (Soprano and Tenor) and Instruments, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Convery , "Full fathom five", 1982, published 1985, rev. 1983 [ SATB chorus a cappella (originally, SSA chorus a cappella) ], from Five Madrigals, New York : Boosey [sung text not yet checked]
by Brian Dennis (b. 1941), "Full fathom five", 1982, first performed 1983 [ medium voice and piano ], from 4 Shakespeare Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877 - 1950), "Full fathom five", 1898 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Full fathom five", op. 66 no. 6, published 1964 [ women's chorus, piano duet, and optional percussion ], from A Shakespeare Sequence, no. 6, London : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
by Steven R. Gerber (b. 1948), "Full fathom five", 1986 [ high voice and piano ], from Four Elegiac Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Daniel Gilliam (b. 1978), "Full fathom five", 2005 [ unaccompanied mixed chorus ], from Three Shakespeare Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "A sea dirge", 1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Trevor Hold (1939 - 2004), "Full fathom five", 1976 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Something Rich and Strange, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "Full fathom five", 1908 [ duet for soprano and alto with piano ], from Eight songs for upper voices and piano, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "A sea dirge", 1925, from Eleven Songs and Two Harmonizations, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Full fathom five" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Johnson (c1583 - 1633), "Full fathom five" [sung text not yet checked]
by J. Frederick Keel (1871 - 1954), "Full fathom five" [sung text not yet checked]
by Purcell James Mansfield , "Full fathom five", op. 92 no. 2, published 1926, first performed 1953 [ SSA chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Frank Martin (1890 - 1974), "Full fathom five thy father lies", 1950, published 1968, first performed 1953 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Songs of Ariel from Shakespeare's Tempest, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Daniel Gregory Mason (1873 - 1953), "A sea dirge", published 1936, first performed 1953 [ medium voice or low voice and piano ], from Two Shakespearean Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Matthew-Walker (b. 1939), "Full fathom five", op. 40 no. 4 (1980) [ voice and piano ], from Music to Hear (five Elizabethan Songs for soprano and piano), no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Peter Anthony Monk , "Full fathom five", 1982, published 1982, first performed 1982 [ alto and SSAA chorus a cappella ], from Ariel's Five Little Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Michael Nyman (b. 1944), "Full fathom five", 1992, published 1992 [ voice and piano ], from Ariel Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "A sea dirge", op. 21 no. 5, published 1873 [ chorus ], from A Garland of Shakesperian and Other Old-Fashioned Songs, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Full fathom five" [ voice and piano ], lost [sung text not yet checked]
by Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), "Full fathom five thy father lies", 1953, from Three Songs from William Shakespeare, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Joseph Summer , "Full fathom five thy father lies", in Oxford Songs, Book III no. 12. [sung text not yet checked]
by Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), "Full fathom five", from Songs for Ariel, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Full fathom five", 1951 [ chorus ], from Three Shakespeare Songs, no. 1, partsong [sung text checked 1 time]
by Charles Wood (1866 - 1926), "Full fathom five", 1891 [ chorus ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

by Kaija Saariaho (1952 - 2023), "Ferdinand's Comfort", published 2004? [ soprano, baritone, and instrumental ensemble ], from The Tempest Songbook, no. 5
- View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Guy de Pourtalès (1881 - 1941) ; composed by Arthur Honegger.
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Also set in French (Français), a translation by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929) ; composed by Ernest Amédée Chausson.
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Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767 - 1845) , no title ; composed by Wilhelm Killmayer.
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Also set in Spanish (Español), adapted by Guillermo Macpherson (1824 - 1898) , no title ; composed by Rocío Sanz Quirós.
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Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Gösta Nystroem.
- Go to the text.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy de Pourtalès)
FRE French (Français) (Maurice Bouchor)
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 49