| "Three Blind Mice" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1609 |
| Songwriter(s) | Thomas Ravenscroft |
"Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round. [1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753.
| "Three Blind Mice" | |
|---|---|
| Sheet music | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1609 |
| Songwriter(s) | Thomas Ravenscroft |
"Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round. [1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753.
The modern words are:
- Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
- See how they run. See how they run.
- They all ran after the farmer's wife,
- Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
- Did you ever see such a sight in your life
- As three blind mice? [2]
A version of this rhyme, together with music (in a minor key), was published in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (1609). [3] The editor of the book, and possible author of the rhyme, [4] was Thomas Ravenscroft. [1] The original lyrics are:
- Three Blinde Mice,
- Three Blinde Mice,
- Dame Iulian,
- Dame Iulian,
- the Miller and his merry olde Wife,
- shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife. [1]
Attempts to read historical significance into the words [2] have led to the speculation that this musical round was written earlier and refers to Queen Mary I of England blinding and executing three Protestant bishops. [5] However, the Oxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded; although if the rhyme was made by crypto-Catholics, the mice's "blindness" could refer to their Protestantism. [2] However, as can be seen above, the earliest lyrics don't talk about harming the three blind mice, and the first known date of publication is 1609, well after Queen Mary died.
The rhyme only entered children's literature in 1842 when it was published in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell.[ citation needed ]
Amateur music composer Thomas Oliphant (1799–1873) [6] noted in 1843 that:
This absurd old round is frequently brought to mind in the present day, from the circumstance of there being an instrumental Quartet by Weiss, through which runs a musical phrase accidentally the same as the notes applied to the word Three Blind Mice. They form a third descending, C, B, A. [7]
Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana #7, which is arguably about a cat (Murr), appears to be based upon "Three Blind Mice", but in a predominantly minor key. "Three Blind Mice" is to be found in the fugue which is the centerpiece of #7.[ citation needed ]
Joseph Holbrooke (1878–1958) composed his Symphonic Variations, opus 37, based on Three Blind Mice. Joseph Haydn used its theme in the Finale (4th Mvt) of his Symphony 83 (La Poule) (1785–86); one of the 6 Paris Symphonies , and the music also appears in the final movement of English composer Eric Coates' suite The Three Men. "Three Blind Mice" was used as a theme song for The Three Stooges and a Curtis Fuller arrangement of the rhyme is featured on the Art Blakey live album of the same name. The song is also the basis for Leroy Anderson's 1947 orchestral "Fiddle Faddle".
The theme can be heard in Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 IV. Allegro con fuoco. [8]
The British composer Havergal Brian (1876–1972) used the tune as the basis of his orchestral work "Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme" (1907–08). The work was originally intended as the first movement of a satirical "Fantastic Symphony" (Symphony No.1), a programmatic work, based on the nursery rhyme. The second movement was intended as a scherzo for pizzicato strings, depicting the souls of the departed mice going to heaven and the third movement was a Lament for the dead mice. Both these movements are lost. "Festal Dance" (1908) formed the finale, depicting the wild dance of triumph of the farmer's wife in which passing references to the tune can be heard. Having been performed separately, the first and last movements became independent works around 1914. [9]
The theme of the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 (1926, revised 1928 and 1941) was criticized as resembling Three Blind Mice. [10]
A calypso version of the tune with new lyrics by Monty Norman was recorded by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires for the film Dr. No , and is featured in its soundtrack as part of the track "Kingston Calypso". [11] The reworked rhyme alludes to the three black assassins whose deadly march through the streets of Kingston, Jamaica opens the film. Other Jamaican versions include dancehall artists, like Josey Wales and Brigadier Jerry.
Published in 1904 by Frederick Warne & Co. in London, an illustrated children's book by John W. Ivimey entitled The Complete Version of Ye Three Blind Mice, fleshes the mice out into mischievous characters who seek adventure, eventually being taken in by a farmer whose wife chases them from the house and into a bramble bush, which blinds them. [12] Soon after, their tails are removed by "the butcher's wife" when the complete version incorporates the original verse—although the earliest version from 1609 does not mention tails being cut off. The story ends with them using a tonic to grow new tails and recover their eyesight, learning a trade (making wood chips, according to the accompanying illustration), buying a house and living happily ever after.
The book is now in the public domain. [13] [14]
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
A round is a musical composition, a limited type of canon, in which a minimum of three voices sing exactly the same melody at the unison, but with each voice beginning at different times so that different parts of the melody coincide in the different voices, but nevertheless fit harmoniously together. It is one of the easiest forms of part singing, as only one line of melody need be learned by all parts, and is part of a popular musical tradition. They were particularly favoured in glee clubs, which combined amateur singing with regular drinking. The earliest known rounds date from 12th century Europe. One characteristic of rounds is that, "There is no fixed ending," in the sense that they may be repeated as many times as possible, although many do have "fixed" endings, often indicated by a fermata.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1609.
"Little Bo-Peep" or "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6487.
"Lillibullero" is a march attributed to Henry Purcell that became popular in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Thomas Ravenscroft was an English musician, theorist and editor, notable as a composer of rounds and catches, and especially for compiling collections of British folk music.
"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earliest known printed version appeared c. 1744.
"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13497.
"Frère Jacques", also known in English as "Brother John", is a nursery rhyme of French origin. The rhyme is traditionally sung in a round.
"Ding Dong Bell" or "Ding Dong Dell" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12853.
John Dory is Child ballad number 284. The fish John Dory may be named for the title person. The song is a three-part round. The first printing of the tune and text is 1609 in Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia songbook but there are earlier mentions of the song in books. It was quite popular, and both parodies and satires were written to the same melody.
"The Baffled Knight" or "Blow Away the Morning Dew" is a traditional ballad existing in numerous variants. The first-known version was published in Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia (1609) with a matching tune, making this one of the few early ballads for which there is extant original music. The song was included in such notable collections as Pills to Purge Melancholy by Thomas d'Urfey (1719–1720) and Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Thomas Percy (1765).
The year 1609 in music involved some significant events.
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1922. The book is a compilation of traditional English nursery rhymes such as "Goosey Goosey Gander", "This Little Piggy" and "Three Blind Mice". The title character is a rabbit who brews ale for gentlemen.
— Last lines from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, published this year and, four centuries later, still "eternal lines"
"My Mummy's Dead" is the closing song on the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon. The song was also released on a Mexican EP that also contained "Mother", "Isolation" and "Look at Me".
Old King Cole is a 1933 Disney cartoon in the Silly Symphonies series, based on several nursery rhymes and fairy tales, including Old King Cole. It was directed by David Hand and released on July 29, 1933.
"God Moves in a Mysterious Way" is a Christian hymn, written in 1773 by William Cowper from England. It was written by Cowper in 1773 as a poem entitled "Light Shining out of Darkness".
"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" is a popular children's song in France. Since its composition in the 18th century, the melody has been applied to numerous lyrics in multiple languages – the English-language song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one such example. It was adapted in Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Interval recognition, the ability to name and reproduce musical intervals, is an important part of ear training, music transcription, musical intonation and sight-reading.
