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Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Molly Malone
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 3/4, 24 bars and a pickup. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
Dublin’s own song, about the girl who wheeled her barrow through the streets crying “Cockles and mussels!”. It is in 3/4 with a pickup on the G below middle C, and the right hand otherwise stays in C position, reaching the G at the top for “eyes”, “cock-les” and “mus-sels”. The new thing is the tie: in “ci-ty”, “pret-ty” and the chorus a quaver (eighth note) is tied to the crotchet after it, so you play it once and hold it. The left hand plays a waltz, a bass note and two chords, and changes chord in the middle of the bar in the chorus.
Practice tip: Clap the rhythm of “fair ci-ty” first: short, long, with the long note held over the beat. The chorus is the same tune twice, so learn “A-live, a-live, oh!” and you have half the song.
The words
In Dublin's fair city where girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone, as she wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow, crying Cockles and mussels alive, alive, oh! Alive, alive, oh! alive, alive, oh! crying Cockles and mussels alive, alive, oh!
A short history
“Molly Malone”, also called “Cockles and Mussels” or “In Dublin’s Fair City”, is number 16932 in the Roud Folk Song Index and has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin. The earliest known printing is in a students’ songbook published in Boston in 1876. In 1884 a London firm printed it as written and composed by James Yorkston of Edinburgh.
There is no evidence that Molly was a real person. The song is in the music-hall style of its time, and “alive, alive, O” was a cry used by street sellers of cockles and mussels. Only the first verse and the chorus are given here.
In 1988 Dublin put up a statue of Molly with her barrow, by the artist Jeanne Rynhart. It was moved to Suffolk Street in 2014, and it is one of the most photographed sights in the city.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (Irish, printed 1876)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 3/4
- Length
- 24 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Brightly, crotchet = 126
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 71 of 201)
- Type
- Folk song
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
Questions and answers
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