Annotation:If All the Sea Were Ink

|Tune properties and standard notation

 IF ALL THE SEA WERE INK. AKA - "If the sea were ink." AKA and see "Ah! Where Is the Vow?," "Lay His Sword By His Side." Irish, Air (4/4 time). C Major (Walker): G Major/E Minor (O'Neill): E Flat Major/Mixoldyian (Stanford/Petrie). Standard tuning. One part (Stanford/Petrie, Walker): AAB (O'Neill). It's hard not to believe the title is not a take-off on Playford's "If the world were paper." Walker (1924) calls this tune "a magnificently majestic and solemn march to which Moore's 'Lay his sword by his side' is exactly suited."  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 552, p. 97. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 770, p. 192. Walker (History of Music in England), 1924; No. 128, p. 335.  Recorded sources:

|Tune properties and standard notation