Texts

Sheet Music Versions

There are two sheet music versions of the song at the Library of Congress in the Music For The Nation: American Sheet Music collection:

LOC: All Among The Barley - 1871

LOC: All Among The Barley but "Not Among The Rye!" - 1874

I've (I hope temporarily) lost the address of the site I got the Church Bell (1867) scan from; I'll try to post that when I find it again. (I still have the scan on my computer, so I can post the music anyway).


The texts for all the version I looked at show very few differences. The texts from The Church Bell (1867) and the 1871 sheet music for voice with Piano at Music For The Nation: American Sheet Music are identical and I take this as the baseline text:

ALL AMONG THE BARLEY

Come out, 'tis now September, The hunter's moon's begun;
And thro' the wheaten stubble Is heard the frequent gun;
Come out, 'tis now September, The hunter's moon's begun;
And thro' the wheaten stubble Is heard the frequent gun.
The leaves are paling yellow, Or kindling into red,
And the ripe and golden barley Is hanging down its head.
  All among the Barley, Who would not be blithe,
  When the free and happy Barley is smiling on the scythe,
  When the free and happy Barley is smiling on the scythe.

The Spring, she is a young maid, That does not know her mind;
The Summer is a tyrant, Of most unrighteous kind;
The Spring, she is a young maid, That does not know her mind;
The Summer is a tyrant, Of most unrighteous kind.
The Autumn is an old friend, That loves one all he can,
And that brings the happy Barley To glad the heart of man.

The Wheat is like a rich man, That's sleek and well to do;
The Oats are like a pack of girls, Laughing and dancing too;
The Wheat is like a rich man, That's sleek and well to do;
The Oats are like a pack of girls, Laughing and dancing too.
The Rye is like a miser, That's sulky, lean, and small;
But the free and bearded Barley is the monarch of them all.

Source: The Church Bell, 1867. Text identical to 1871 Voice with Piano sheet music



The 1874 version at American Memory comes from a publication called "Living Waters - A collection of popular Temperance Songs, Choruses, Quartets etc. and has made a few changes to fit in with the temperance theme:

  The title has a subtitle appended: All Among The Barley but "Not Among The Rye!"

  The chorus has been changed to:

    All among the Barley, Wander you and I
    Tho' we love the smiling Barley, We shun the dreadful Rye,
    Tho' we love the happy Barley, We shun the dreadful Rye.

  The penultimate line of the third verse has been changed to:

    The Rye is like a miser, That will the soul enthrall

All of these presumably to encourage beer rather than whiskey, as the lesser of two evils! The remainder of the text is the same.



Bodleian
There are broadside versions from the following printers in the Bodleian collection:

Fortey (JohnsonBallads425)
Harkness (Harding B12(221)
Such (Harding B16(3d)

In all three the first lines are not shown repeated, though the copy from Such has a footnote to repeat them. The texts are identical to the 1867/1871 text above,

except in the Such copy, which has the second line of the first verse as:

  And through the wheaten stubble, is heard the dog and gun



Oral Versions

The version from Alfred Williams changes the order of the last two verses and has a few textual changes:

THE RIPE AND BEARDED BARLEY

Come out, 'tis now September, The hunter's moon's begun,
And through the wheaten stubble We hear the frequent gun;
The leaves are turning yellow And fading into red,
While the ripe and bearded barley Is hanging down its head.
  All among the barley, Who would not be blithe,
  While the ripe and bearded barley Is smiling on the scythe,

The wheat is like a rich man, It's sleek and well-to-do;
The oats are like a pack of girls, They're thin and dancing too;
The rye is like a miser, Both sulky, lean, and small,
While the ripe and bearded barley Is the monarch of them all.

The spring is like a young maid That does not know her mind,
The summer is a tyrant Of most ungracious kind;
The autumn is an old friend That pleases all he can,
And brings the bearded barley To glad the heart of man.

Source: Alfred Williams Folk Songs of the Upper Thames "Popular at Stanton Harcourt, where I obtained it of

Henry Sherman, a farm hand"



The version sung by Walter Pardon is also substantially the same as the printed text, without the repeat at the start of the verse, but with several slight differences:

ALL AMONG THE BARLEY

Come out 'tis now September, the hunter's moon's begun
And through the wheaten stubble is heard the frequent gun
The leaves are paling yellow and kindling into red
And the free and golden barley is hanging down its head
  All among the barley, O who would not be blithe
  When the free and happy barley is smiling on the scythe.

The Spring she is an old maid and does not know her mind,
The Summer is a tyrant of most outrageous kind,
The Autumn is an old friend and does the best he can
To bring the golden barley to cheer the heart of man.

The wheat is like a rich man all sleek and well-to-do,
The oats are like a pack of girls laughing and dancing too,
The rye is like a miser all sulky, lean and small
And the free and golden barley is monarch of them all.

Source: Walter Pardon


Mudcatter Tradsinger has noted in another thread (Lyr Req: All Among the Barley) that he collected two versions of the song (one from Hampshire and one from Devon) and I'll see if he can let us know if there are any significant differences from the text above. (As I suspect that the versions collected all derive from the obviously popular Stirling song I don't expect many differences. I'll put up the tunes later, but it's clear that both the tune used by Walter Pardon and the tune posted by Malcolm above are both derived from Stirling's tune).


On the origin of the words I did wonder if "A.T." might be Alfred Tennyson. When I first started looking at the song I did check some online sources (my investigation was definitely more Mycroft Holmes than Sherlock Holmes!) but they were few. If anyone has access to a complete works of Tennyson it would be nice if that could be checked. (Though I would have thought he would be named in full if it were him!).


Mick