"Three Little Maids from School Are We", sometimes listed as "Three Little Maids", is a song from Act I of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado. The song is a trio for three female characters who are schoolmates; at the end of the song, the three are joined by the chorus of female schoolmates. The three friends sing that they are "filled to the brim with girlish glee", find "fun" in life and "come from a ladies' seminary".
Background
In an 1885 interview with the New-York Daily Tribune, W. S. Gilbert said that the short stature of Leonora Braham, Jessie Bond and Sybil Grey "suggested the advisability of grouping them as three Japanese school-girls", the opera's "three little maids". He also recounted that a young Japanese lady, a tea server at the Japanese village, came to rehearsals to coach the three little maids in Japanese dance.[1] On 12 February 1885, one month before The Mikado opened, The Illustrated London News wrote about the opening of the Japanese village noting, among other things, that "the graceful, fantastic dancing featured ... three little maids!"[2]
Synopsis and analysis
The song is a trio for three female characters, the schoolgirls Yum-Yum, the leading soprano of the opera, Pitti-Sing, a mezzo-sopranosoubrette, and Peep-Bo, another friend of Yum-Yum's. Near the beginning of the opera, Nanki-Poo, disguised as a poor minstrel, but secretly the son of the Mikado (the emperor of Japan), has returned to the Town of Titipu to inquire about his beloved, Yum-Yum, who is a ward of Ko-Ko, who has become, in Nanki-Poo's absence, the town's Lord High Executioner. Pooh-Bah, a high officer of state, informs Nanki-Poo that Yum-Yum is scheduled to marry her Ko-Ko on the very day that he has returned. Ko-Ko arrives, soon followed by Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing and their schoolmates, all of whom have recently been "freed" from school, and the three friends introduce themselves with this song.
The characters sing that they are "filled to the brim with girlish glee", find "fun" in life and "come from a ladies' seminary". The three schoolgirls note, arithmetically, that the "total sum" of three little maids is reached by adding the bride, Yum-Yum, to the two others who are "in attendance" on her for her wedding, and that if the bride is subtracted from the three, the other two "remain". After the song, it is revealed that Yum-Yum does not love her guardian Ko-Ko and, instead, returns Nanki-Poo's love. Before Ko-Ko's marriage to Yum-Yum takes place, complications ensue that result in Ko-Ko agreeing that Nanki-Poo may marry Yum-Yum in exchange for agreeing to be beheaded in one month. Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo help Yum-Yum prepare for this new marriage. It turns out, however, that the law provides that wives of married men who are beheaded must be buried alive. After the Mikado arrives in the town, all of the complications are eventually resolved, and Yum-Yum is able safely to marry Nanki-Poo.
The song is the 7th musical number in Act 1 of The Mikado. It is written in 2/4 time in the key of C major, consisting of two verses and a choral reprise. The three soloists alternate trio harmonies with solo lines; the female chorus of schoolgirls joins the three soloists at the end of the 2nd verse. The rhyme scheme of the song's lyrics is as follows: verse 1. AAAB, CCCB, DDDB; verse 2. EEEB, FFFB, DDDB (the last together with chorus).[3]
The Capitol Steps performed a parody titled "Three Little Kurds from School Are We"[15] about conditions in Iraq and "Three little wives of Newt", a 2012 lampoon of candidate Newt Gingrich's marital issues.[16]
