Sheet Music: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

TitleWhen Johnny Comes Marching Home
Alternate titlesThe Ants Go Marching One By One
ComposerPatrick Gilmore (1829–1892)
InstrumentationFlute solo
KeyG minor
RangeD4–D5
Time signature6/8
Tempo112 BPM
Performance time0:55
Difficulty levelintermediate
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (47 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (428 kB)
Date added2009-04-07
Last updated2009-04-07
Download popularity index☆☆☆☆☆ 1.2 (average)
Categories
American Civil War, Marches, Military music, Nursery rhymes, Patriotic, Show-off pieces, Traditional/Folk

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Tuesday 7 April 2009

Tune of the Day: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

aka “The Ants Go Marching One By One”

This song is generally credited to the Union Army bandmaster Patrick S. Gilmore, who published it in 1863 under the pseudonym ‛Louis Lambert’. It is similar to the Irish antiwar song “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”, which is presumed to be the original on the basis of oral evidence, although no published version is known to pre-date “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”.

This tune has been used in the soundtracks of several movies, including Gone with the Wind, Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Die Hard With a Vengeance. It was also used in some episodes of The Simpsons.

You may also know this song for its use as a nursery rhyme, as it's the tune of “The Ants Go Marching One By One” (Hurrah! Hurrah!) and “The Animals go in Two by Two”.