While looking for tunes for songs in the DT that don't have any attached, I came across a transcription of Flowers in the Valley, taken from a record by Finbar and Eddie Furey.  Their version is quite badly garbled (whether by them or their source, I have no idea) but it seems to derive originally from the version collected by Sabine Baring Gould in Cornwall, and set by him to a tune that he had heard Mr. Gilbert of The Falcon Inn at Mawgan in Pyder, Cornwall, sing to a different -though perhaps related- song.  It was published in A Garland of Country Song (1895).  This is the tune that the Fureys use, though they have loosened the rhythm quite a bit.  Here is the text, which should also clear up any confusion as to where the refrain fits in (the DT transcription breaks the verses up in the wrong place):


FLOWERS IN THE VALLEY

O there was a woman, and she was a widow,
Fair are the flowers in the valley,
With a daughter as fair as a fresh sunny meadow,
The Red, the Green and the Yellow.
The Harp, the Lute, the Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal.
Sweet goes the treble Violin.
The maid so rare and the flowers so fair
Together they grew in the valley.

There came a Knight all clothed in red,
Fair are the flowers in the valley.
"I would thou wert my bride" he said,
The Red, the Green and the Yellow.
The Harp, the Lute, the Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal.
Sweet goes the treble Violin.
"I would", she sighed, "ne'er wins a bride!"
Fair are the flowers in the valley.

There came a Knight all clothed in green,
Fair are the flowers in the valley.
"This maid so sweet might be my queen."
The Red, the Green and the Yellow.
The Harp, the Lute, the Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal.
Sweet goes the treble Violin.
"Might be", sighed she, "will ne'er win me!"
Fair are the flowers in the valley.

There came a Knight, in yellow was he,
Fair are the flowers in the valley.
"My bride, my queen, thou must be with me!"
The Red, the Green and the Yellow.
The Harp, the Lute, the Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal.
Sweet goes the treble Violin.
With blushes red, "I come", she said;
"Farewell to the flowers in the valley."


A midi of the tune goes to Alan's Mudcat Midi Page, once the Olympics are over.

Malcolm