Since All Among The Barley has appeared again I thought I might get round to putting this up. About a year and a half ago nutty asked me a question about this song (to whit: was Walter Pardon's version sung to the same tune as the copy in American Memory) so I did a bit of investigating and I've been sitting on this since.

Although the version of All Among The Barley usually heard these days in England is sung to a tune written by Mike Gabriel (this is the version is the tune in Mudcat Midi's at Allamang.mid (or use Mudcat Midi Browser - Songs starting with A), the song was originally written by an English composer, Elizabelth Stirling.


Elizabeth Stirling
Elizabeth Stirling (1819 - 1895) studied music at Oxford, but wasn't granted a degree (being a woman). The song has been described (Dolmetch bio) as prize-winning, but I haven't been able to verify that yet (and I have few biographical details on her - my subscription to Grove expired just before I started looking at this and I don't intend to renew it until next year when I need it again). I also haven't been able to find out if she wrote the words or only the music. One of the copies at American Memory guves the author of the words as "A.T." in one of the version. "A.T." isn't in the index at American Memory and I could't find anything on a quick look.


Mudcat
There has been some discussion of the song in Mudcat in these threads:

Author Req: All among the barley
Lyr Req: All Among the Barley
RIPE AND BEARDED BARLEY (This thread has a link from Joe to an illustrated fragment of the song, which is no longer active; the site has moved and I can't see anything on the new site).


American Memory
When I looked at American Memory I found 2 versions of the song.

1) Call Number: M2.3.U6A44 Digital Id: sm1871 00667 urn:hdl:loc.music/sm1871.00667 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1871.00667
   
    This version is arranged for 3 women's voices. Author is given as Elizabeth Stirling Words by: "A.T.", published Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, 1871

2) Call Number: M2.3.U6A44 Digital Id: sm1874 10936 urn:hdl:loc.music/sm1874.10936 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1874.10936

    This version is arranged for 4 mixed voices. Author is given as Elizabeth Sterling (note spelling change!), published: New York: Peters, J. L., 1874.
    This is from Living Waters - A Collection of Popular Temperance Songs, Choruses, Quartets etc and given the title All Among The Barley But "Not Among The Rye".

(In fact the first Mudcat thread listed above has the first of these (American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mussm&fileName=sm1871/00600/00667/mussm00667.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?mussm:3:./temp/~ammem_nSpp::&linkText=0) - I think search results from American Memory are temporary, so that's not surprising).

Unlike the usual version sung today, these have the first four lines repeated.


Another Version With Music
I also found another version of Elizabeth Stirling's tune from The Church Bell, 1867 (which according to U.Mich Library was The Ladies' repository: a monthly periodical, devoted to literature, arts, and religion, published by Methodist Episcopal Church [etc.].). This is from UncleJaque's Music Miscellany). arranged for 4 voices. (I haven't checked yet if this is the same arrangement as in American Memory).


Village Music Project
I did look at The Village Music Project to see if the tune had been copied down by anyone, but there are no versions in any of the manuscripts indexed when I checked.


Bodleian
There are at least 3 broadsides of the song at The Bodleian: (and one does include the instruction to repeat the 1st 4 lines)


Collections
The song appeared in a few collections: Williams' Folk Songs of The Upper Thames, and (according to Roud) also in the Baring-Gould Mss and in Tip Top Songs (in VWML).


References to the song
The song was obviously widely known and sung - I've got references to:

1)sung at a church in Shuttleworth in 1856 sung at a wedding by the Church choir

2)in 1876 older children at a school in Box, Wiltshire were taught the song

3)an article in Punch of 1891 refers to the song

4)sung by a choir at Badsey 1900

5)played by a brass-band in Watlington when the Prince of Wales married (details from early 1900s)

6)a music book refers to it as one of the most popular partsongs with a date of 1849 given, so that may be the composition date.

7)Henry Burstow's Recollections gives the song in his list of songs.


English Dance And Song
According to Folktrax
There was some discussion in ED&S: ED&S mag 29/2 1967 Query raised & ED&S 3 p87 & 4 p120; I only have a handful of copies of ED&S, but it would be useful to chase them up.


Conclusion to Nutty's Question
And to answer nutty's question - does Walter Pardon sing the same tune as in American Memory? The answer seems to be that the tunes are not identical, but that Walter Pardon's is obviously a verion of Elizabeth Stirling's tune, much of it being either identical or slightly changed rhythmically. I's say it's either a "remembered" version of the original or he chose deliberately to alter a few bits.


That's a summary of most of what I have. Over the next few days, I'll put in the proper references to all the versions of the song and I'll put in the relevant quotes from the texts referring to the song with their references and I'll try to post the texts and tunes for comparison.

My thanks also go to Malcolm Douglas for providing me with a copy of the Walter Pardon recording of the song.

Mick


(PS For future reference if any of the links above disappear and you want to see the original scans I have copies of them saved).