"
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one of the most popular
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
nursery rhymes. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem,
"The Star" by
Jane TaylorJane Taylor , was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the words for the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in 1806 at age 23, while living in Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk....
. The poem, which is in
coupletA couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets....
form, was first published in 1806 in
Rhymes for the NurseryRhymes for the Nursery is a collection of poems by Jane and Ann Taylor, published in 1806. Probably the best-known poem in it is The Star....
, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister
AnnAnn Taylor was an English poet and literary critic. In her youth she was a writer of verse for children, for which she achieved long-lasting popularity. In the years immediately preceding her marriage, she became an astringent literary critic of growing reputation...
. It is often sung to the tune of the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
melody "
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" (eldest known publication 1761). The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. Mozart wrote twelve variations on ‘Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman’. It has a
Roud Folk Song IndexThe Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud, a librarian in the London Borough of Croydon....
number of 7666.
Lyrics
The English lyrics were first published as a poem with the title "The Star" by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor (1793-1824) in
Rhymes for the Nursery in London in 1806. The poem was probably written by Jane. There are five verses. The repetition of the first two lines at the end of each verse is not in the original, but is needed to fit the usual melody. Below is the whole text without the repetition of the first two lines added:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
Melody
It is a common misconception that
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
was the original composer of this melody, a misconception reinforced by its appearance as a "correct answer" in the original edition of
Trivial PursuitTrivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 by Canadian Scott Abbott, a sports editor for The Canadian Press, and Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette...
. However, Mozart wrote twelve variations for piano on the melody (Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"), now catalogued as K. 265/300e in the
Köchel-VerzeichnisThe Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
.
Appearances of the melody
Many songs in various languages have been based on the "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" melody. In English, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" shares its melody with the "
Alphabet SongAn alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children the alphabet, used in kindergartens, pre-schools and homes around the world. Alphabet songs typically follow the alphabetic principle , which in languages like English with morphophonemic variation represents a particular modality of...
" from
1834- Events :* Statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is erected in his birthplace of Geneva.*Ballerina Fanny Elssler makes her debut at the Paris Opéra.-Classical music:*Hector Berlioz - Harold in Italy*William Sterndale Bennett - Piano Concerto in C Minor...
, and "
Baa, Baa, Black SheepBaa Baa Black Sheep is a nursery rhyme, sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman. The original form of the tune is used for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Alphabet song. The words have changed little in two and a half centuries...
".
The German
Christmas carolA Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ....
"Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann", with words by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, also uses the melody, as does the Hungarian
Christmas carolA Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ....
"Hull a pelyhes fehér hó", and the Dutch "Altijd is Kortjakje ziek".
Several classical compositions have been inspired by the tune:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
, Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" (K. 265 / K. 300e)
- Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and his Symphony No...
, Carnival of the Animals, 12th movement (Fossiles) quotes the tune
- Ernő Dohnányi
Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist.He used the German form of his name "Ernst von Dohnányi" on most of his published compositions....
, Variations on a Nursery TuneSubtitled For the enjoyment of humorous people and for the annoyance of others, Ernő Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25 is probably his best-known work...
- Erwin Schulhoff
-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...
, Ten Variations on 'Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman' and Fugue
- John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
, The Mannheim Rocket
- Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher....
, Album Leaf: "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" (S.163b)
- Theodor von Schacht
Theodor von Schacht was a German composer.After his studies in Stuttgart and Wetzlar, von Schacht arrived in Regensburg as a knight...
, 3rd movement (Allegretto con variazioni) of his clarinet concertoA clarinet concerto is a concerto for clarinet and orchestra . Albert Rice has identified a work by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli as possibly the earliest known concerto for solo clarinet; its score appears to be titled "Concerto per Clareto" and may date from 1733. It may, however, be intended for...
in B flat major
First appearances of the melody and the original French text version
The original French rhyme
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, was far from a children's rhyme. Apparently it originated in the first half of the 18th century. As there was no published version of the text before 1774, several slightly differing versions of what could have been the "original" version exist:
In these versions a girl confides a secret to her mother: that she has been seduced by "Silvandre". Only in one version cited above did the girl apparently make a narrow escape ("Je m'échappai par bonheur"), in the other versions the girl appears to have been "beaten" by
L'Amour ("Love").
As for the history of the
melody and the non-nursery rhyme version(s) of the French
text:
- 1761: first publication of the music (without lyrics) of Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman in "Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy" by Mr. Bouin (Paris), p. 1.
- Around 1765, the words and music appear in a manuscript
A manuscript is a recording of information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
entitled "Recueil de Chansons" under the title "Le Faux Pas", p. 43.
- 1774: earliest known printed publication of the lyrics together with the music in volume two of "Recueil de Romances" by M.D.L. (De Lusse) published in Brussels, under the title "La Confidence – Naive" (p. 75).
- Around 1780 (Paris): the words and music appear in sheet music under the title "Les Amours de Silvandre".
- 1785: First publication of Mozart's Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman variations.
As for the composition date of Mozart's
Variations, for a time the variations were thought to have been composed in 1778, while Mozart stayed in Paris from April to September in that year, the assumption being that the melody of a French song could only have been picked up by Mozart while residing in France. For this presumed composition date, in the
chronological catalogue of Mozart's compositionsThe Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
the composition was renumbered from K. 265 to K. 300e. Later analysis of Mozart's manuscript of the composition by Wolfgang Plath rather indicated 1781-1782 as the probable composition date.
[Based on booklet notes by Robin Golding, 1991 for Daniel Barenboim]Daniel Barenboim is an Argentinian-born pianist and conductor. He lives in Berlin and holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, and Spain. He also holds a passport issued by the Palestinian Authority. Barenboim first came to prominence as a pianist but is now perhaps better known as a conductor...
s Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas and Variations, EMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
8 CD box No. 5 73915 2
French "nursery rhyme" version
Origin unknown.
| French lyrics |
English translation |
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment.
Papa veut que je raisonne,
Comme une grande personne.
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison. |
Ah! I shall tell you, mum,
That which causes my torment.
Papa wants me to reason
Like an adult.
I say that sweets
Are better than reason. |
The French "nursery rhyme" version also appears with slight variations:
| French lyrics |
English translation |
| A variation |
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman,
ce qui cause mon tourment.
Papa veut que je demande
de la soupe et de la viande...
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
valent mieux que les mignons. |
Ah! I would tell you, Mother,
what causes my torment.
father wants me to ask
for soup and for meat
I say that candy
is better than lovers. |
| Another variation |
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman,
ce qui cause mon tourment
Papa veut que je retienne
des verbes la longue antienne...
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
valent mieux que les leçons. |
Ah! I shall tell you, Mother,
what causes my torment.
father wants me to remember
This catalogue of verbs conjugations
I say that candy
is better than lessons. |
The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in
The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838.
Other text versions
The song is a popular target for
parodiesA parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. "
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is a poem recited by the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".-Text:-Other appearances:The poem was sung in Disney's Alice in Wonderland film...
," is a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" recited by the
Mad HatterThe Hatter is a fictional character initially encountered at a tea party in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and later again as "Hatta" in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass...
during the mad tea-party, in
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer...
's
Alice's Adventures in WonderlandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale is filled with...
. It reads:
- Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
- How I wonder what you're at!
- Up above the world you fly,
- Like a tea tray in the sky.
- Twinkle, twinkle—
The Mad Hatter is interrupted in his recitation. "The Bat" was the nickname of Professor
Bartholomew PriceBartholomew Price was an English mathematician and educator.He was born at Coln St Denis, Gloucestershire, in 1818. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, of which college he became fellow in 1844 and tutor and mathematical lecturer in 1845...
, one of the Dons at Oxford, a former teacher of Carroll's and well known to the Liddell family. It is one of the few parodies in the Alice books of which the original is still widely known.
A
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
translation appeared in
Mary Mapes DodgeMary Mapes Dodge was an American children's writer and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker....
's
When life is young (1894):
- Mica, mica, parva stella,
- Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
- Super terra in caelo,
- Alba gemma splendido.
- Mica, mica, parva stella,
- Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
The ElegantsThe Elegants is an American doo-wop vocal group, that was started in 1958 by Vito Picone, Arthur Venosa, Frank Tardogano, Carmen Romano and James Mochella in South Beach, Staten Island. Before their nursery rhyme inspired song, "Little Star", became a number one hit, the band usually performed...
released a single adapted from this song called
Little Star"Little Star" is the name of a song recorded by The Elegants. Members Vito Picone and Arthur Venosa co-wrote the lyrics. The music was adapted from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." When released as a single in 1958, it topped both the R&B Best Sellers list and the Billboard Hot 100;"Little Star" is...
, which made #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in 1958.
A version using synonyms from
Roget's ThesaurusRoget's Thesaurus is a widely-used English thesaurus, created by Dr. Peter Mark Roget in 1805 and released to the public on 29 April, 1852. The original edition had 15,000 words, and each new edition has been larger...
exists. An anonymous astronomy parody, quoted in
Violent Universe by
Nigel CalderNigel Calder is a British science writer.Between 1956 and 1966, Calder wrote for the magazine New Scientist, serving as editor from 1962 to 1966. Since that time, he has worked as an independent author and TV screenwriter...
(BBC, 1969), refers to
pulsarPulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The observed periods of their pulses range from 1.4 milliseconds to 8.5 seconds. The radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the...
s and
quasarA quasi-stellar radio source is a powerfully energetic and distant galaxy with an active galactic nucleus. Quasars were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than extended...
s. A different version of this parody attributed to
George GamowGeorge Gamow , born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov , was a Russian Empire-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist...
and
Nigel CalderNigel Calder is a British science writer.Between 1956 and 1966, Calder wrote for the magazine New Scientist, serving as editor from 1962 to 1966. Since that time, he has worked as an independent author and TV screenwriter...
was published in
Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction by Linda Sparke and
John GallagherJohn Gallagher may refer to:*John Gallagher Jr., actor/musician*John Gallagher III, astronomer*John Gallagher , MLB player*John Gallagher *John Gallagher *John Gallagher...
(
Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press is a printer and publisher granted a Royal Letters Patent by Henry VIII in 1534. It is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher...
, 2000 - ISBN 0-521-59740-4).
The
Girl Scouts of the USAThe Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad...
placed a full page ad in the March 19th 2006 New York Times containing a
version of the rhyme that was "resung by science" as part of their "Girls Go Tech" campaign.
Vashti BunyanVashti Bunyan is an English singer-songwriter.Following the release of her first LP, Just Another Diamond Day, in 1970, Bunyan disappeared from the music industry until interest in her music was reignited in the early 2000s.-Biography:...
, an English singer-songwriter, composed "Lily Pond" based on this tune. It can be found on her 1970 album
Just Another Diamond DayJust Another Diamond Day is the debut album of English singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan.In the mid to late 1960s, Bunyan was under contract to Andrew Oldham, which saw her release two singles. However, Bunyan found the experience frustrating, and decided to head for the Scottish islands in search of...
. American singer
Elizabeth MitchellElizabeth Mitchell is an American singer, composer, and guitarist for the New York indie band Ida. While a student at Brown University, Mitchell performed as a duo with fellow class of 1990 classmate Lisa Loeb, called Liz and Lisa...
covers the song on her 2006 album
You Are My Little BirdYou Are My Little Bird is an album by Elizabeth Mitchell, released in 2006 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The album is a collection of children's music played in a folk music style...
.
External links
- Lullabies of Europe/Languages from the Cradle A European Union, government funded, education project to collect lullabies (in their native language) from across Europe - includes samples in 7 languages.
- The original melody
- BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
Woman's HourWoman's Hour is a magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...
article (with audio): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/04/2006_35_wed.shtml
- The lyrics, the tune and an mp3 recording of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, also a score and a French Translation
- A new upbeat version to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy