Barbara Allen- Timmons (NC) 1940 Brown 4A4 REC
[Partial text given with music. From the Brown Collection; Volume 4, 1957. The Brown editors' notes follow.
“Barbara Allen, performed by Laura Timmons,” Appalachian State University Digital Collections.
R. Matteson 2015]
27. Bonny Barbara Allan (Child 84)
Of all the ballads in the Child collection this is easily the most widely known and sung, both in the old country and in America. Scarcely a single regional gathering of ballads but has it, and it has been published in unnumbered popular songbooks. See BSM 60-1. Mrs. Eckstorm in a letter written in 1940 informed me that she and Barry had satisfied themselves, before Barry's death, that as sung by Mrs. Knipp to the delight of Samuel Pepys in 1666 it was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II; but so far as I know the details of their argument have never been published. The numerous texts in the North Carolina collection may conveniently be grouped according to the setting in three divisions: (1) those that begin in the first person of Barbara's lover (or at least of the narrator), (2) those that begin with a springtime setting, and (3) those that begin with an autumnal setting. Of course those in group 1 may also have either the springtime or the autumnal setting. The rose-and-brier ending is likely to be attached to any of the texts. The lover's bequests to Barbara, a feature not infrequent in modern British versions but unusual in America, appears once in the North Carolina texts, in F. The first person of the lover commonly is dropped after the opening stanza, but in F it holds through four stanzas. Not all of the texts are given in full.
A(4) 'Barbara Allen.' Sung by Mrs. Laura Timmons. From previous recording of Dr. W. A. Abrams, Boone, August 8, 1940. Only the first three measures differ from the Horton Barker version. These are given below as variations. There is a partial relationship with 27O, 27S, 27S(i), 27V, 27FF, 27GG, 27HH,
For melodic relationship cf. **SharpK I 183, No. 24A and 194, No. 24L, measures 3-6; also, SFSEA 150, No. 131; SCSM 387, version C; FSoA 8; FSF 28s, No. 161 B. Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: abed (2,2,2,2).
“Barbara Allen, performed by Laura Timmons,” Appalachian State University Digital Collections; 1940.
1 In Scarlet town, where I did dwell,
There was a fair young maiden.
And all the youth cried 'Well away!'
Her name was Barb'ra Allen.
2. All in the merry month of May
When green buds they were swellin',
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
For love of Barb'ra Allen.
[recording ends]