Molly Malone

Molly Malone is a level 2 performance piece, part number TQP.L2.CLCG.P16.

This piece can be used when a student has mastered the dotted crotchet - quaver and the quaver - dotted crotchet rhythm which is introduced in level 2.

The first sections shows the dotted rhythms as the tie equivalent. In the second section the ties are converted into dots.

This piece uses the tonic and dominant chord from the primary chord sheets and introduced on a graphic score sheet 10.

Download the music

This song is also known as Cockles and Muscles it is set in Dublin. The song tells the story of a fish wife who sold cockles and muscles on the streets of the city and died young of a fever. There is a local story that she is based on a street seller who died in 13 June 1699 but there is little to no evidence of this. However Dublin was referred to as 'Dublin's Fair City' and the phrase 'alive, alive o' was used by street sellers. The name Molly Malone has appeared in other folk ballads. [1]

In Dublin's fair city,

Where the girls are so pretty,

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,

As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,

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".

She was a fishmonger

But sure 'twas no wonder

For so were her father and mother before

And they each wheel'd their barrow

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".

She died of a fever,

And no one could save her,

And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.

But her ghost wheels her barrow,

Through streets broad and narrow,

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Alive, alive, oh,"

Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh". [2]

By William Henry Hills (1859-1930) - Student's Songs, Cambridge Mass. 1884, p.55, Public Domain, [3]

[1] ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone

[2] http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/irhismys/mollylyrics.htm

[3] https://archive.org/details/studentssongscom00hill