Music library › Folk songs and rounds
traditional French round, 18th century. Complete melody, written out for reading practice.
This French nursery round, about a friar who has overslept and missed ringing the bells for morning prayers, was in print by the late 1700s. It is sung in dozens of languages (in English, “Are you sleeping, Brother John?”), and Gustav Mahler turned it into a slow funeral march in the minor key in his First Symphony.
Each pair of bars repeats, which makes it easy to read, and it works as a round: a second voice starts when the first reaches bar 3. It uses quarter, half and eighth notes and ends with a drop below middle C.
The first verse is printed under the notes and lights up as the music plays. Words by traditional, in the public domain.
Frère Jacques, frère Jacques, Dormezvous? Dormezvous? Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines: Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.