Barbara Allen (song)

"Barbara Allen" (Child 84, Roud 54) is a traditional Scottish ballad; it later travelled to America both orally and in print, where it became a popular folk song.[1][2][3] Ethnomusicologists Steve Roud and Julia Bishop described it as "far and away the most widely collected song in the English language—equally popular in England, Scotland and Ireland, and with hundreds of versions collected over the years in North America."[4]

"Barbara Allen"
Song lyrics published 1840 in the Forget Me Not Songster
Song
Published17th century (earliest known)
GenreBroadside ballad, folksong
Songwriter(s)Unknown

Synopsis

The ballad generally follows a standard plot, although narrative details vary between versions. A servant asks Barbara Allen to attend on his sick master. She visits the bedside of the heartbroken young man, who pleads for her love. She refuses, claiming that he had slighted her while drinking with friends; he dies soon thereafter. Barbara Allen later hears his funeral bells tolling; stricken with grief, she dies as well. They are buried in the same church, a rose grows from his grave, a briar from hers, the plants form a true lovers' knot.[5][6]

History

A diary entry by Samuel Pepys on January 2, 1666 contains the earliest extant reference to the song.[3] In it, he recalls the fun and games at a New Years party:[7]

...but above all, my dear Mrs Knipp whom I sang; and in perfect pleasure I was to hear her sing, and especially her little Scotch song of Barbary Allen.

From this, Roud & Bishop have inferred the song was popular at that time. They suggested that it may have been written for stage performance, as Elizabeth Knepp was a professional actress, singer, and dancer.[4]

One 1690 broadside of the song was published in London under the title "Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy. With Barbara Allen's [l]amentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self".[8] Additional printings were common in Britain throughout the eighteenth century. The ballad was first printed in the United States in 1836. Many variations of the song continued to be printed on broadsides in the United States through the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout New England, it was passed orally and spread by inclusion in songbooks and newspaper columns, along with other popular ballads such as "The Farmer's Curst Wife" and "The Golden Vanity".[9]

Lyrics and narrative
Illustration by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

Several early complete versions of the ballad are extant. Scottish poet Allan Ramsay published "Bonny Barbara Allen" in his Tea-Table Miscellany published in 1740.[10] Soon after, Thomas Percy published two similar renditions in his 1765 collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry under the titles "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" and "Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allen".[11] Ethnomusicologist Francis Child compiled these renditions together with several others found in the Roxburghe Ballads to create his A and B standard versions,[5] used by later scholars as a reference.

It was in and about the Martinmas time,
When the green leaves were a falling,
That Sir John Graeme in the west country
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.
O Hooly, hooly rose she up,
To the place where he was lying,
And when she drew the curtain by,
'Young man, I think you're dying.'

The setting is sometimes "Scarlet Town". This may be a punning reference to Reading, as a slip-song version c. 1790 among the Madden songs at Cambridge University Library has 'In Reading town, where I was bound.' London town and Dublin town are used in other versions.[12][13] The dying man is called Sir John Graeme in the earliest known printings. American versions of the ballad often call him some variation of William, James, or Jimmy; his last name may be specified as Grove, Green, Grame, or another.[14] The ballad opens by establishing a festive timeframe, usually stated as May, Martinmas, or Lammas. A dialogue between the two characters follows:[15]

O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick,
And 't is a' Barbara Allan:'
'O the better for me ye's never be,
Tho your heart's blood were a spilling.
O dinna ye mind, young man,' said she,
'When ye was in the tavern a drinking,
That ye made the healths gae round and round,
And slighted Barbara Allan?'
He turned his face unto the wall,
And death was with him dealing:
'Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all,
And be kind to Barbara Allan.'
And slowly, slowly raise she up,
And slowly, slowly left him,
And sighing said, she coud not stay,
Since death of life had reft him.
She had not gane a mile but two
When she heartd the death-bell ringing,
And every jow that the death-bell geid,
It cry'd, Woe to Barbara Allan!
'O mother, mother make my bed!
O make it saft and narrow!
Since my love died for me to-day,
I'll die for him to-morrow.'

Common variations

As with most folk songs, "Barbara Allen" has been published and performed under many different titles. The ballad and its heroine have in conjunction been called "The Ballet of Barbara Allen", "Barbara Allen's Cruelty", "Barbarous Ellen",[6] "Edelin", "Hard Hearted Barbary Ellen", "Sad Ballet Of Little Johnnie Green", "Sir John Graham", "Bonny Barbara Allan", "Barbry Allen" among others.[16]

Roger Quilter wrote an arrangement in 1921, dedicated to the noted Irish baritone Frederick Ranalow, who had become famous for his performance as Macheath in The Beggar's Opera at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Quilter set each verse differently, using countermelodies as undercurrents. An octave B with a bare fifth tolls like a bell in the fourth verse. A short piano interlude before the fifth verse was commented on favourably by Percy Grainger.[17] Quilter later incorporated the setting in his Arnold Book of Old Songs, rededicated to his late nephew Arnold Guy Vivian, and published in 1950.[18]

American versions

The song often concludes with poetic motif of several stanzas describing symbolising fidelity in love even after death.[19] Standard forms of such motifs are common to several ballads, including "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", "Lord Lovel", and "Fair Margaret and Sweet William".[14]

Notable recordings

The earliest recording of the song is probably a 1907 wax cylinder recording by composer and musicologist Percy Grainger of the Lincolnshire folk singer Joseph Taylor[20] which was digitised by the British Library and made available online in 2018.[21] Other traditional recordings include those of African American Hule "Queen" Hines of Florida (1939), Welshman Phil Tanner (1949), Irishwoman Elizabeth Cronin (early 1950s), Norfolk folk-singer Sam Larner (1958), and American folk singer Jean Ritchie (1961)[22].

Charles Seeger edited a collection released by The Library of Congress entitled Versions and Variants of Barbara Allen from the Archive of Folk Song as part of its series Folk Music of the United States. The record compiled 30 versions of the ballad, recorded from 1933 to 1954 in the United States.[23]

Baritone vocalist Royal Dadmun released a version in 1922 on Victor Records. The song is credited to the arrangers, Eaton Faning and John Liptrot Hatton.[24]

Versions of the song were recorded in the 1950s and '60s by folk revivalists, including Pete Seeger. Eddy Arnold recorded and released a version on his 1955 album “Wanderin’.” The Everly Brothers recorded and released a version on their 1958 folk album, "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us." Joan Baez released a version in 1961, the same year as Jean Ritchie's recording.[25] Bob Dylan said that folk songs were highly influential on him, writing in a poem that "[w]ithout "Barbara Allen there'd be no 'Girl From the North Country'; Dylan performed a live eight-minute rendition in 1962 which was subsequently released on Live at The Gaslight 1962.[26]

The ballad was covered as a demo version by Simon and Garfunkel on their anthology album The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) and a bonus track on the 2001 edition of their album Sounds of Silence as "Barbriallen",[27] and by Art Garfunkel alone in 1973 on his album Angel Clare.

Angelo Branduardi covered this song as Barbrie Allen resp. Barbriallen on his two music albums Cosi e se mi pare – EP[28] " and Il Rovo e la rosa[29] in Italian. On his French EN FRANÇAIS – BEST OF compilation in 2015 he sang this song in French-adaption written by Carla Bruni.[30][31]

English singer-songwriter Frank Turner often covers the song a cappella during live performances. One rendition is included on the compilation album The Second Three Years.[32]

UK folk duo Nancy Kerr & James Fagan included the song on their 2005 album Strands of Gold [33], and also on their 2019 live album An Evening With Nancy Kerr & James Fagan. [34] [35]

The song has been adapted and retold in numerous non-musical venues. Howard Richardson and William Berney's 1942 stage play Dark of the Moon is based on the ballad, as a reference to the influence of English, Irish and Scottish folktales and songs in Appalachia. It was also retold as a radio drama on the program Suspense, which aired October 20, 1952, and was entitled "The Death of Barbara Allen" with Anne Baxter in the titular role. A British radio play titled Barbara Allen featured Honeysuckle Weeks and Keith Barron; it was written by David Pownall[36] and premiered on BBC Radio 7 on February 16, 2009.[37]

The song has also been sampled, quoted, and featured as a dramatic device in numerous films:

gollark: It's actually Twitter's fault.
gollark: I should make a coltrans bot which somehow pulls from wikivoyage.
gollark: https://objection.lol/
gollark: Yes, there's a tool for it.
gollark: You should send me the C++ standard memetic hazards.

References
  1. Raph, Theodore (October 1, 1986). American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites. Dover. p. 20. This folk song originated in Scotland and dates back at least to the beginning of the seventeenth century
  2. Arthur Gribben, ed., The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America, University of Massachusetts Press (March 1, 1999), pg. 112.
  3. "Late Junction: Never heard of Barbara Allen? The world's most collected ballad has been around for 450 years". BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  4. Roud, Steve & Julia Bishop (2012). The New Penguin Book of Folk Songs. Penguin. pp. 406–7. ISBN 978-0-141-19461-5.
  5. Child, Francis James (1965). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol. 2. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. pp. 276–9.
  6. Coffin, Tristram P. (1950). The British Traditional Ballad in North America. Philadelphia, PA: The American Folklore Society. pp. 87–90.
  7. Pepys, Samuel. "Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 41: January/February 1665-66". Project Gutenberg. Pepys - Diary - Vol 41
  8. "English Short-title Catalogue, "Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy."". British Library. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
  9. Post, Jennifer (2004). Music in Rural New England. Lebanon, NH: University of New Hampshire Press. pp. 27–9. ISBN 1-58465-415-5.
  10. Ramsay, Allan (1740). "The tea-table miscellany: or, a collection of choice songs, Scots and English. In four volumes. The tenth edition". Internet Archive. pp. 343–4. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  11. Percy, Thomas (1 December 2018). "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets; Together with Some Few of Later Date". F.C. and J. Rivington – via Google Books.
  12. "The Ballad of Barbara Allen by Anonymous". PoetryFoundation.org. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  13. "Bonny Barbara Allan, Traditional Ballads, English Poetry I: from Chaucer to Gray". Bartleby.com. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  14. Coffin, Tristram P. (1950). The British Traditional Ballad in North America. Philadelphia: The American Folklore Society. pp. 76–9, 87–90.
  15. Sauer, Michelle (2008). The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Infobase Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 9781438108346. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  16. Keefer, Jane (2011). "Barbara/Barbry Allen". Ibiblio. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  17. Langfield, Valerie (1 December 2018). Roger Quilter: His Life and Music. Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851158716 – via Google Books.
  18. Web(UK), Music on the. "Roger QUILTER Folk-songs and Part-songs NAXOS 8.557495 [AO]: Classical CD Reviews- June 2005 MusicWeb-International". www.musicweb-international.com.
  19. Würzbach, Natascha; Simone M. Salz (1995). Motif Index of the Child Corpus: The English and Scottish Popular Ballad. Gayna Walls (trans.). Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 25, 57. ISBN 3-11-014290-2.
  20. "Percy Grainger's collection of ethnographic wax cylinders". British Library. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  21. "Percy Grainger ethnographic wax cylinders - World and traditional music". British Library. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  22. "Barbara Allen / Barbary Allen / Barbary Ellen (Roud 54; Child 84; G/D 6:1193; Henry H236)". mainlynorfolk.info. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  23. "Versions and Variants of the Tunes of "Barbara Allen"" (PDF).
  24. "Browse All Recordings | Barbara Allen, Take 4 (1922-04-05) | National Jukebox". Loc.gov. 1922-04-05. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  25. Wilentz, Sean; Marcus, Greil, eds. (2005). The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 13–4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  26. Wilentz & Marcus 2005, p. 14-15.
  27. "The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) - The Official Simon & Garfunkel Site". Simonandgarfunkel.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  28. "Angelo Branduardi - Cosi È Se Mi Pare". Angelobranduardi.it. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  29. Michele Laurent. "IL ROVO E LA ROSA Angelo Branduardi". Angelobranduardi.it. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  30. "En français - Best Of - Angelo Branduardi". Wmgartists.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  31. "Angelo Branduardi – Best Of En Français (CD, Compilation)".
  32. "The Second Three Years | Frank Turner". frank-turner.com. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  33. "Nancy Kerr & James Fagan - Strands of Gold". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  34. "An Evening With Nancy Kerr & James Fagan". www.kerrfagan.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  35. "Nancy Kerr & James Fagan:An Evening With - Folk Radio". www.folkradio.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  36. "Barabara Allen by David Pownall". Radio Drama Reviews.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  37. "David Pownall - Barbara Allen broadcast history". BBC Online. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  38. An episode of the PBS TV series The American Short Story. A full version of the song is performed in this adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce story of the American Civil War.
  39. "Travolta Sings For 'Bobby Long'". Billboard. 2004-12-29. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
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