The sheet music offered here is for “Ring Around a Rosy”, a traditional children’s song, arranged for very easy violin with the lyrics attached in A major. It was first in print in 1881, but we are mostly certain that there was already a version of it around, sung if not written down, in the late 1700s. There are multiple versions of the lyrics, as typical of traditional songs, such as “Ring-a-round the rosie” or “Ring a ring o’ roses”, but they are all immensely similar. I used the lyrics I remember learning and singing as a child.
The game attached to this song was likely children dancing in a circle around one child designated as the “rosie” until the end of the song— whereupon the slowest child to fall down would be the next “rosie”. Much milder and less dramatic than the nonsense about this nursery rhyme being a metaphor for the black plague!
I have a number of children’s songs I have written out for young violin students. This one is now added to the set. This is written to be played on the A and E strings of the violin.
Lyrics:
Ring around a rosy,
A pocketful of posies,
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down.
To download free sheet music for “Ring Around a Rosy” as a .pdf, please click here: Ring Around a Rosy – Very Easy Violin in A Major – Full Score
