Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the most popular English nursery rhymes. It combines the tune of the 1761 French melody "Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman" with an English poem, "The Star", by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann.
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[edit] The lyrics
The English lyrics have five verses, although only the first is widely known. 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[1], with 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.
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
- How I wonder what you are!
- When the blazing sun is gone,
- When he nothing shines upon,
- Then you show your little light,
- Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
- How I wonder what you are!
- 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.
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
- How I wonder what you are!
- 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.
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
- How I wonder what you are!
- As your bright and tiny spark,
- Lights the traveller in the dark,—
- Though I know not what you are,
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
- Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
- How I wonder what you are!
[edit] Misconceptions
It is often thought that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the original writer of this melody. Reinforced by its appearance as a "correct answer" in the original edition of Trivial Pursuit and "Snapple Facts" (among others), many believe that the song was written by Mozart when he was four or five years old (as "Andante in C for Keyboard"). Mozart was this age at the time the original French melody was written. Much later in his life, it is certain that he did write twelve variations on it; these variations are listed as Variations on "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman" (later K. 300e - see below) in the Köchel-Verzeichnis.[2][3]
Another well-known misconception appears to be that all sets of words to this tune could be qualified as nursery rhymes. On the contrary, the original French version of the text was not intended for children's ears; see below.
[edit] Melody
- Tema (file info) — play in browser (beta)
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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in ABC notation, C major:
- CCGGAAG
- FFEEDDC
- GGFFEED
- GGFFEED
- CCGGAAG
- FFEEDDC
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in sol-fa notation (d r m f s l t d = do ré me fa so la ti do)
- d d s s l l s
- f f m m r r d
- s s f f m m r
- s s f f m m r
- d d s s l l s
- f f m m r r d
[edit] Appearances of the melody
Many songs in various languages have been based on the French original, "Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman". In English, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" shares its melody with the "Alphabet Song" from 1834, and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".
The German Christmas carol "Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann", with words by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, also uses the melody, as does the Hungarian Christmas carol "Hull a pelyhes fehér hó", and the Dutch "Altijd is Kortjakje ziek".
Several famous classical compositions have been inspired by the tune:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Theme and Variations (K265)
- Camille Saint-Saëns, Carnival of the Animals, 12th movement (Fossiles) quotes the tune
- Ernő Dohnányi, Variations on a Nursery Tune
- Erwin Schulhoff, Ten Variations on 'Ah! vous dirai-je, maman' and Fugue
- John Corigliano, The Mannheim Rocket
[edit] French lyrics
[edit] French original 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 differring versions of what would have been the "original" version exist:
- "La confidence" (anonymous)
- AH! VOUS DIRAI-JE MAMAN?, as published in the early 20th century in a collection of French songs by Jean Gilleguin.
- Comparing two versions of "La Confidence" with the nursery rhyme version
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"[4]), 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:[5]
- 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 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, originally 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. Later analysis of Mozart's manuscript of the composition by Wolfgang Plath rather indicated 1781-1782 as the probable composition date. Consequently, in the chronological catalogue of Mozart's compositions the composition was renumbered from K. 265 to K. 300e.[6]
[edit] French nursery rhyme version
Origin unknown.
| French lyrics | English translation |
|---|---|
|
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, |
Ah! I shall tell you, mum, |
The French nursery rhyme version also appears with slight variations:
| French lyrics | English translation |
|---|---|
| A variation | |
|
Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman, |
Ah! I would tell you, Mama, |
| Another variation | |
|
Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman, |
Ah! I shall tell you, Mama, |
Notes: *An antienne is literally an antiphon, a short liturgical text chanted or sung alternately by two choirs preceding or following a psalm or canticle.
[edit] Other text versions
The song is a popular target for parodies. A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", recited by the Mad Hatter, appears in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It reads:
- Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
- How I wonder what you're at!
- Up above the world you fly,
- Like a teatray in the sky.
- Twinkle, twinkle—
The Mad Hatter is interrupted in his recitation. "The Bat" was the nickname of Professor Bartholomew Price, 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 Latin translation appears in Mary Mapes Dodge'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.
Another parody was created for Sesame Street . In a short skit, Muppet composer Don Music, overcoming writer's block, struggles to pen the nursery rhyme.
The Elegants released a single adapted from this song called Little Star, which made #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958.
An anonymous astronomy parody, quoted in Violent Universe by Nigel Calder (BBC, 1969), refers to pulsars and quasars. A different version of this parody attributed to George Gamow and Nigel Calder was published in Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction by Linda Sparke and John Gallagher (Cambridge University Press, 2000 - ISBN 0-521-59740-4).
Another parody was used on Degrassi: The Next Generation episode Voices Carry, where Liberty (Sarah Barrable-Tishauer) and J.T. (Ryan Cooley) made up as a protest song for a school play. They sang it in front of Mr. Raditch (Dan Woods) for which they got in trouble.
Another parody was used in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "The Big Cheese", where Cheese sang, "Sprinkle sprinkle little bar, how I wonder is a cat!"
The Girl Scouts of America 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.
The children of the Yukon territory in northern Canada are taught[citation needed] the following alternate lyrics:
- Twinkle twinkle northern lights
- shimmer in the arctic night
- up above the clouds so high
- green blue ribbons in the sky
- twinkle twinkle northern lights
- sparkle in your dreams tonight
[edit] Trivia
Pop artists Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace recorded a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and can be heard in For The Kids, a benefit album of nursery rhymes for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. The song incorporates the "Traveler in the night" verse.
[edit] See also
- Mozart's Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman"
[edit] References
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd edition, 1997)
- ^ http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/twinkle.htm - argumen that he did not write the song.
- ^ http://www.first-school.ws/activities/nrhymes/twinkle.htm - argument that he did write the song
- ^ See http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Thierry_klein/ahvousdi.htm
- ^ The chronology is based on an account by Bob Kosovsky, librarian at the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 2001
- ^ Based on booklet notes by Robin Golding, 1991 for Daniel Barenboims Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas and Variations, EMI Classics 8 CD box No. 5 73915 2
[edit] External links
- BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour article (with audio): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/04/2006_35_wed.shtml
