Alice Gray: The Biography of a Nineteenth-Century Ballad

by Allan W. Atlas

The poet-journalist William Mee (1788–1862) probably wrote the ballad text “Alice Gray” around 1815. By the end of the 1820s, it had been set by three G.W. Reeve (fl. 1820s–30s), George Alexander Hodson (d. 1863), and, most famously in terms of its widespread dissemination and influence on both sides of the Atlantic, Virtue Millard (1786–1854). This edition presents the three settings by these composers, to which it adds eleven of the fourteen known pieces based on Millard’s the American version in D major, five sets of variations for solo piano, two arrangements for voice and guitar, a choral arrangement, a flute duet, and a fiddle tune.

122 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2026

About the author

Allan Atlas is Distinguished Professor of Music at the Graduate Center, where he is Director of The Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments; his interests range from music of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to Giacomo Puccini, free-reed instruments (especially the English concertina, which he plays), music as represented in Victorian literature, and Astor Piazzolla. His book Renaissance Music has become the standard textbook on the subject. He is currently working on Ralph Vaughan Williams.