<P> Fair Phyllis (also Fair Phyllis I saw, Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone) is an English madrigal by John Farmer . The music is polyphonic and was published in 1599 . The madrigal contains four voices and uses occasional imitation . It also alternates between triple and duple beat subdivisions of the beat in different parts of the work . </P> <P> This is an English madrigal . Farmer uses clever word painting . For example, in the opening line "Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone", Farmer had only the soprano sing since she was all alone . In the next line "Feeding her flock near to the mountain side", all the voices sang since it was her flock . Additionally, the second phrase, which begins with "Up and down he wandered" and ends with "then they fell a-kissing" repeats, causing the elision "kissing up and down ." </P>

How many voices sing the opening phrase of fair phyllis fair phyllis i saw sitting all alone