Sheet Music: Oh My Darling, Clementine

TitleOh My Darling, Clementine
Alternate titlesFound a Peanut
ComposerPercy Montrose
InstrumentationFlute solo
KeyG major
RangeD4–D6
Time signature3/4
Tempo100 BPM
Performance time0:30
Difficulty leveleasy
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (47 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (247 kB)
Date added2009-04-19
Last updated2009-04-19
Download popularity index☆☆☆☆☆ 1.2 (average)
Categories
Ballads, Campfire songs, Nursery rhymes

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Sunday 19 April 2009

Tune of the Day: Oh My Darling, Clementine

American western folk ballad

“Oh My Darling, Clementine” has become popular, especially with Scouts and other groups of young people, as a campfire and excursion song, and there are several different versions of the words.

In his book South from Granada, Gerald Brenan attributes this famous melody to originally being an old Spanish ballad, which was made popular by Mexican miners during the Gold Rush, and given various English texts. No particular source is cited to verify that the song he used to hear in the 1920s in a remote Spanish village was not an old text with new music, but Brenan states in his preface that all facts mentioned in the book have been checked “reasonably well”.

You will notice that at the end of the standard tune we have included a simple coda that can be played as a cadenza before repeating the main theme.