The line 'See how they run' appears in The Beatles' ' Lady Madonna' (1968) and Redeye's 'Games' (1970–1971). In a 78 RPM CD of The Whale who Wanted to Sing at the Met, Nelson Eddy, sang a round of the song before the actual short performance. Other Jamaican versions include dancehall artists, like Josey Wales and Brigadier Jerry. The reworked rhyme alludes to the three black assassins whose deadly march through the streets of Kingston, Jamaica opens the film. No, and is featured in its soundtrack as part of the track 'Kingston Calypso'. Ī calypso version of the tune with new lyrics by Monty Norman was recorded by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires for the film Dr. 4 (1926, revised 19) was criticized as resembling Three Blind Mice. The theme of the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. Having been performed separately, the first and last movements became independent works around 1914. '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. 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. 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 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 theme can also be heard in Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. The song is also the basis for Leroy Anderson's 1947 orchestral ' Fiddle Faddle'. 'Three Blind Mice' was also 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. Also, 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. Joseph Holbrooke (1878–1958) composed his Symphonic Variations, opus 37, based on Three Blind Mice. 'Three Blind Mice' is to be found in the fugue which is the centerpiece of #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. 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. Variations Īmateur music composer Thomas Oliphant (1799–1873) noted in 1843 that: The rhyme only entered children's literature in 1842 when it was published in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell. 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. 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. Īttempts to read historical significance into the words 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. 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. The editor of the book, and possible author of the rhyme, was Thomas Ravenscroft. Play ( helpĪ version of this rhyme, together with music (in a minor key), was published in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (1609).

Three blind mice