Many thanks to Joe Offer,
who added the blue clicky links that
were too advanced for me to create.
I apologize for the clumsiness of my attempt
to analyze the tune.

Can't get the headphones to work with the MIDI file
on this public computer, and so
I have not finished my homework assignment here.
This is what I am trying to do:

Compare the musical score, online at books dot google dot com
(see previous links)
in the Yale Melodies for the Yale University Glee Club,

with the two MIDI files here at the Mudcat,
links to which are provided at the top of the page.


The following is my quick-and-dirty conclusion/opinion.

Musically and in terms of the melody, the song structure is
ABC.

The chorus --
"O! Shades of Isaak Walton" etc. --
is the C part, as it happens.
Pretty much everyone recognizes the chorus,
be it in words or in the tune.

The disagreements center around the two verses.
As I hear it,
each individual stanza, of which there are two,

is long enough to have an AB structure, in two parts.
The melody changes entirely from the A part to the B part.

I believe that the SongFest editor printed
the B melody without the A melody!

The A melody may appear in that other MIDI file.

In which case,
no wonder nobody can agree on the tune...