IV. BARBARA ALLEN.
Let us now examine another old English song, "Barbara Allen."
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FIGURE VI.
In Scar-let Town where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin',
Made ev' - ry youth cry "well-a-day,"
Her name was Barbara Allen.
All in the merry month of May,
When green buds they were swellin',
Young Jemmy Grove on his death bed lay
For love of Barbara Allen.
Then slowly, slowly she came up,
And slowly she came nigh him,
And all she said when there she came:
"Young man, I think you're dying."
When he was dead, and laid in grave,
Her heart was struck with sorrow.
"O mother, mother!—make my bed,
For I shall die to-morrow!"
She, on her death bed as she lay,
Begg'd to be buried by him,
And sore repented of the day
That she did e'er deny him.
"Farewell!" she said, "ye maidens all,
And shun the fault I fell in.
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen."
This also is a traditional song. The words celebrate the emotion of unrequited love, a favorite subject with the old ballad writers. In the music, we shall find a further illustration of the use of the devices already referred to.
We note first of all that there is throughout the melody a constant use of one rhythmic motive. This figure appears in the first four notes of the song, and is found at the beginning of every other measure save the fifth and the last. While these transpositions are not so literal as is that at the beginning of "Polly Oliver," they are nevertheless sufficiently close to serve the purpose of preserving unity while still providing variety. The tune is held together by this insistence on the motive; there is considerable variety in the melody of the various phrases, but through it all runs this persistent rhythm.
Although "Barbara Allen" does not, strictly speaking, contain a modulation, since there is in the melody no note foreign to the key in which the song is written, yet the first and last phrases center round D, the key-note, while the second phrase (to the words "There was a fair maid dwellin'") centers round and comes to rest on A, thus producing the effect of a half pause, as if punctuated with a semicolon.
A very important point should be noted in reference to these half pauses or modulations in a melody, namely, that they usually occur on the fifth note of the scale of the original key, called by musicians the "dominant." In the three songs we have considered thus far the second phrase has so ended. This modulation to the dominant is the most common one in music, and we shall often have occasion to refer to it in later chapters.
Finally, a comparison of the third phrase of the music—"there was a fair maid dwellin'"—with the last—"her name was Barbara Allen"—will reveal a considerable similarity in both rhythm and melodic contour or curve. By means of this similarity, and by the return, in the last phrase, to the original key, our sense of proportion is satisfied and a certain logic is imparted to the tune. It should also be noticed that the melody is a perfect example of that balance of phrases already referred to, the two halves (1-5 and 5-9) being of precisely the same length.