Barbara Allen (song)
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox song "Barbara Allen" (Child 84, Roud 54) is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.
The song began as a ballad in the seventeenth century or earlier, before quickly spreading (both orally and in print) throughout Britain and Ireland and later North America.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Arthur Gribben, ed., The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America, University of Massachusetts Press (1 March 1999), pg. 112.</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref name="Roud & Bishop, 206-7">Template:Cite book</ref>
As with most folk songs, "Barbara Allen" has been published and performed under many different titles, including "The Ballet of Barbara Allen", "Barbara Allen's Cruelty", "Barbarous Ellen",<ref name="Coffin - British Traditional - 87-90" /> "Edelin", "Hard Hearted Barbary Ellen", "Sad Ballet Of Little Johnnie Green", "Sir John Graham", "Bonny Barbara Allan", "Barbry Allen" among others.<ref name="FMI - Barbara Allen">Template:Cite web</ref>
Synopsis
The ballad generally follows a standard plot, although narrative details vary between versions.
- A servant asks Barbara to attend on his sick master.
- She visits the bedside of the heartbroken young man, who then pleads for her love.
- She refuses, claiming he had slighted her while drinking with friends.
- He dies soon after and Barbara hears his funeral bells tolling; stricken with grief, she dies as well.
- They are buried in the same churchyard; a rose grows from his grave, a briar from hers, and the plants form a true lovers' knot.<ref name="Child - English and Scottish Ballads - II - 276-9">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Coffin - British Traditional - 87-90">Template:Cite book</ref>
History
A diary entry by Samuel Pepys on 2 January 1666 contains the earliest extant reference to the song.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> In it, he recalls the fun and games at a New Years party:
...but above all, my dear Mrs Knipp, with whom I sang; and in perfect pleasure I was to hear her sing, and especially her little Scotch song of Barbary Allen.<ref name="Pep">Template:Cite book</ref>
From this, Steve Roud and Julia Bishop have inferred the song was popular at that time, suggesting that it may have been written for stage performance, as Elizabeth Knepp was a professional actress, singer, and dancer.<ref name="Roud & Bishop, 206-7" /> However, the folklorists Phillips Barry and Fannie Hardy Eckstorm were of the opinion that the song "was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II".<ref name=":0" /> Charles Seeger points out that Pepys' delight at hearing a libelous song about the King's mistress was perfectly in character.<ref name=":0" />
In 1792, the renowned Austrian composer Joseph Haydn arranged "Barbara Allen" as one of over 400 folk song arrangements commissioned by George Thomson and the publishers William Napier and William Whyte.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He probably took the melody from James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, c.1750.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Early printed versions
One 1690 broadside of the song was published in London under the title "Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy" (see lyrics below). With Barbara Allen's [l]amentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Additional printings were common in Britain throughout the eighteenth century. Scottish poet Allan Ramsay published "Bonny Barbara Allen" in his Tea-Table Miscellany published in 1740.<ref name="Ramsay Teatable">Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ethnomusicologist Francis James Child compiled these renditions together in the nineteenth century with several others found in the Roxburghe Ballads to create his A and B standard versions,<ref name="Child - English and Scottish Ballads - II - 276-9" /> used by later scholars as a reference.
The ballad was first printed in the United States in 1836.Template:Citation needed Many variations of the song continued to be printed on broadsides in the United States through the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout New England, for example, 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".<ref name="Post - Music - 27-9">Template:Cite book</ref>
The popularity of printed versions meant that lyrics from broadsides greatly influenced traditional singers; various collected versions can be traced back to different broadsides.<ref name=":0" />
Traditional recordings
Template:Listen According to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, approximately 500 traditional recordings of the song have been made.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref name="BL-PG">Template:Cite web</ref> which was digitised by the British Library and can now be heard online via the British Library Sound Archive.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other authentic recordings include those of African American Hule "Queen" Hines of Florida (1939),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Welshman Phil Tanner (1949),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Irishwoman Elizabeth Cronin (early 1950s),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Norfolk folk-singer Sam Larner (1958),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie (1961).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Lyrics
"Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy" (c.1690), the earliest "Barbara Allen" text:
Variations
The lyrics are nowhere near as varied across the oral tradition as would be expected. This is because the continuous popularity of the song in print meant that variations were "corrected".<ref name=":0" /> Nonetheless, American folklorist Harry Smith was known to, as a party trick, ask people to sing a verse of the song, after which he would tell what county they were born in.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Setting
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The ballad often opens by establishing a festive time frame, such as May, Martinmas, or Lammas. The versions which begin by mentioning "Martinmas Time" and others which begin with "Early early in the spring" are thought to be the oldest and least corrupted by more recent printed versions.Template:Citation needed
The Martinmas variants, most common in Scotland, are probably older than the Scarlet Town variants, which presumably originated in the south of England. Around half of all American versions take place in the month of May; these versions are the most diverse, as they appear to have existed within the oral tradition rather than on broadsides.<ref name=":0" />
After the setting is established, a dialogue between the two characters generally follows.<ref name="Sauer Facts">Template:Cite book</ref>
Protagonists
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.<ref name="coffin_0" />
Symbolism and parallels
The song often concludes with poetic motif of a rose growing from his grave and a brier from hers forming a "true lovers' knot", which symbolises their fidelity in love even after death.<ref name="Wurzbach">Template:Cite book</ref> This motif is paralleled in several ballads including "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", "Lord Lovel", and "Fair Margaret and Sweet William".<ref name="coffin_0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":0" /> However, the ballad lacks many of the common phrases found in ballads of similar ages (e.g. mounting a "milk white steed and a dapple" grey), possibly because the strong story and imagery means these cliches are not required.<ref name=":0" />
Melody
A vast array of tunes were traditionally used for "Barbara Allen". Many American versions are pentatonic and without a clear tonic note,<ref name=":0" /> such as the Ritchie family version. English versions are more rooted in the major mode. The minor-mode Scottish tune seems to be the oldest, as it is the version found in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion which was written in the mid-1700s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That tune survived in the oral tradition in Scotland until the twentieth century; a version sung by a Mrs. Ann Lyell (1869–1945) collected by James Madison Carpenter from in the 1930s can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Ewan MacColl recorded a version learned from his mother Betsy Miller.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Whilst printed versions of the lyrics influenced the versions performed by traditional singers, the tunes were rarely printed so they are thought to have been passed on from person to person through the centuries and evolved more organically.<ref name=":0" />
Popular arrangements and commercial recordings
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Quilter later incorporated the setting in his Arnold Book of Old Songs, rededicated to his late nephew Arnold Guy Vivian, and published in 1950.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> British composer Florence Margaret Spencer Palmer published Variations on Barbara Allen for piano in 1923.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref name="Wilentz">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Sfn
The demo of the ballad recorded by Simon and Garfunkel appears 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",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and by Art Garfunkel alone in 1973 on his album Angel Clare.
June Tabor, the English folk singer includes the song as "Barbry Allen" on her 2001 album Rosa Mundi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Angelo Branduardi recorded this song as Barbrie Allen resp. Barbriallen on his two music albums Così è se mi pare – EP<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> " and Il Rovo e la rosa<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Italian. On his French EN FRANÇAIS – BEST OF compilation in 2015 he sang this song in French-adaption written by Carla Bruni.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
English singer-songwriter Frank Turner often sings the song a cappella during live performances. One rendition is included on the compilation album The Second Three Years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
UK folk duo Nancy Kerr & James Fagan included the song on their 2005 album Strands of Gold,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and also on their 2019 live album An Evening With Nancy Kerr & James Fagan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Renaissance folk-rock band Blackmore's Night include the song on their 2010 album Autumn Sky.
Popular culture adaptations and references
The song has been adapted and retold in numerous non-musical contexts. In the early twentieth century, the American writer Robert E. Howard wove verses of the song into a civil war ghost story that was posthumously published under the title ""For the Love of Barbara Allen"."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 20 October 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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and premiered on BBC Radio 7 on 16 February 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In The Hunger Games prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, characters from the Covey are given first names based on traditional ballads. The character Barb Azure Baird's first name is based on Barbara Allen.
The song has also been sampled, quoted, and featured as a dramatic device in numerous films:
- Tom Brown's School Days (1940)
- Scrooge (1951; released in the U.S. as A Christmas Carol)
- Robin Hood Daffy (1958; Warner Brothers cartoon)
- The Buccaneer (1958), sung by Claire Bloom.
- Parker Adderson, Philosopher (1974; short film<ref>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.</ref>)
- Jane Campion's Oscar-winning The Piano (1993)
- Best in Show (2000)
- Songcatcher (2000)
- A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
Template:Commons category Template:Wikisource
- Late 17th-century English broadside printing of "Barbara Allen's Cruelty", via the British Library's Roxburghe collection
- Scan of "Bonny Barbara Allen" in 1904 edition of Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads at Google Books
- Recording of "Barbara Allen" as performed by Frank Luther in 1928 at Project Gutenberg
- Scan of "Barbara Allan" broadside printed in 1855
- Contemporary sheet music for one version of the song
- Online transcripts of Barbara Allen
- Recordings for the ballad are also available at the English Broadside Ballad Archive at University of California, Santa Barbara
- A list of performances and recordings of the song can be found at Mainly Norfolk.
- Pages with broken file links
- American poems
- Bob Dylan songs
- British poems
- Child Ballads
- Joan Baez songs
- Burl Ives songs
- Glen Campbell songs
- Jo Stafford songs
- Jean Ritchie songs
- Culture of Appalachia
- American folk songs
- 17th-century songs
- Songs with unknown songwriters
- Songs of the American Revolutionary War
- Songs of the American Civil War