Here are ABC transcriptions of the music for the original Septimus Winner song (per the Jerry Silverman books) and the folk variant collected by Dr. Patrick Gainer, described above by Kent Davis. Lyrics for the first have already been posted by Kent.
X:1
T:What Shall I Offer Thee?
C:Words and music by Septimus Winner
S: America Sings! by Jerry Silverman
%%MIDI gchordoff
M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=120
K:G
"G" B B (B/c/) | d>c B | "D7" A A (A/c/) | "G" B2 z |
w: What shall I_ of-fer thee? What shall I_ tend?
B B (B/c/) | d>c B | "D7" A c F | "G" G2 z |
w: What shall I_ give to thee now as a friend?
"C" e e e | "G" d>c B |"C" e e e | "G" d2 z |
w: Give me an ev-er-green fresh from the bough,
B B (B/c/) | d>c B | "D7" A c F | "G" G2 "G7" z :|
w: Some-thing in_ af-ter years, As it is now.
"C" e e e | "G" d>c B |"C" e e e | "G" d2 z |
w: Give me an ev-er-green fresh from the bough,
B B "G7" B | "C" c>d "C#dim" He | "D7" d d F | "G" G2 z |]
w: Some-thing in af-ter years, as it is now.
X:2
T:What Shall I Give to Thee?
C:Folk variant based on lyrics and music by Septimus Winner.
S:_Witches, Ghosts and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians_ (1975),
S:by Dr. Patrick Gainer, p.152, in the story "The Sad Death of Mary Fisher".
M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=144
K:F
A2 A c | c>B A2 | G2 c c | A4 |
w: What shall I give to thee? Dear, we must part,
A2 A c | c>B A2 | G2 A G | F4 |
w: Some-thing to hide a-way close to the heart.
d2 d d | c>B A2 | d2 d d | c4 |
w: Give me an i-vy leaf, Fresh from the vine,
A2 A c | c>B A2 | G2 A G | F4 |]
w: Give me an i-vy leaf, Green as the pine.
%
% Full lyrics
W:
W:1. What shall I give to thee? Dear, we must part,
W:Something to hide away close to the heart.
W:Give me an ivy leaf, Fresh from the vine,
W:Give me an ivy leaf, Green as the pine.
W:
W:2. What shall I give to thee? Life is so strange.
W:All I could of-fer thee sure-ly must change.
W:Give me an ivy leaf, Fresh from the vine,
W:Give me an ivy leaf, Green as the pine.
Corresponding MIDIs to follow.
You can use the converters at either Concertina.net or folkinfo.org to generate either MIDIs or PDF scores from the above transcriptions. If you want a chordal accompaniment for the first tune, generated from the embedded chord symbols, use the folkinfo.org converter (the Concertina.net converter messes up chords like 7ths), and change "gchordoff" to "gchordon".