Babes In The Wood: A Song History

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In Irish traditional music “Babes in the Wood” is a polka title, and it belongs to more than one tune: Alan Ng’s irishtune.info indexes two separate D-major polkas under the name, noting that they share the same first part.[1][2] The first of these is filed by the Traditional Tune Archive as “Babes in the Woods (2),” where its other titles include “Captain Maguire,” “Dan O’Leary’s” and “Humors of Listowel.”[3] Printed settings include Paul Deloughery’s Sliabh Luachra on Parade (1980), Randy Miller and Jack Perron’s Irish Traditional Fiddle Music, and Terry Moylan’s collection from the Sliabh Luachra accordion player Johnny O’Leary.[1][3]

Etching of two young children holding each other close

Sir Hubert von Herkomer, Babes in the Wood, etching and drypoint, 1880. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). It illustrates the old story of the ballad; the sources consulted here do not connect the ballad with the polka.

According to the Tune Archive, which follows Miller and Perron, its notated version comes from the fiddler Adam McConnell of McConnell’s Four Leaf Shamrocks, who recorded it in 1924; the Archive also lists a 1995 Topic reissue of that recording, Irish Dance Music.[3] The Discography of American Historical Recordings shows the band cutting a “Medley of polkas” for Victor on 25 October 1924, but it does not list the tunes in the medley, and none of the sources consulted here says whether this is the recording the Tune Archive means.[4] Later recordings indexed by irishtune.info include ones by Johnny O’Leary (1995) and the group Beginish (1997).[1] The Old Hat Dance Band put it on record in 1992, having learned it from the Kerry fiddler Julia Clifford, who lived for some years in Norfolk.[3]

A third polka, this one in G major, is also catalogued as “Babes in the Woods”; it has circulated in Ireland, England and North America under many other titles, among them “The Girl with the Blue Dress On” and “Tom Morrison’s.”[5][6] The Irish Traditional Music Archive passes on the Tune Archive’s suggestion that the melody derives from “The Kitty Schottische” by the dancing master Charles d’Albert (1808–1886).[6] Quite separately, “The Babes in the Woods” is also an alternative title of the old ballad “The Children in the Wood” (Roud 288, Laws Q34), for which the Traditional Ballad Index gives a tentative earliest date of 1595, from a title entered in the Stationers’ Register.[7] The sources consulted here do not connect any of these polkas with the ballad.[3][5][6][7]

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Sources

  1. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Babes in the Woods" (tune #98).
  2. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Babes in the Wood" (tune #7802).
  3. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Babes in the Woods (2)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Recordings made Saturday, October 25, 1924".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Babes in the Woods (1)".
  6. Irish Traditional Music Archive: "Chapter Five: Denis Murphy | Breathnach Materials. Polkas".
  7. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]".