| "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" Roud #7666 |
|
| Music by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Lyrics by | Jane Taylor |
| Published | 1806 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century 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. It is sung to the tune of the French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman (oldest known publication 1761).[1] The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7666.
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The English lyrics were first published as a poem with the title "The Star" by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor (1783–1824) in Rhymes for the Nursery in London in 1806.[2] The poem was written by Jane.[3]
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.
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.
How I wonder what you are.
Many songs in various languages have been based on the "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" melody. In English, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", the "Alphabet Song", and a variant of it is used for "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". It is also the basis of the Scots song Coulter's Candy.[4]
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", the Dutch "Altijd is Kortjakje ziek", and the Spanish "Campanita del Lugar".
Several classical compositions have been inspired by the tune:
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"),[6] 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:[7][8]
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 compositions the composition was renumbered from K. 265 to K. 300e.[8] Later analysis of Mozart's manuscript of the composition by Wolfgang Plath rather indicated 1781-1782 as the probable composition date.[9]
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, Mother, |
| Another variation | |
|
Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, |
Ah! I shall tell you, Mother, |
| A third version | |
|
Quand trois poules vont aux champs, |
When three hens go to the fields, |
The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838.[3]
The song is a popular target for parodies. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat", is a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" recited by the Hatter during the mad tea-party, in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It reads:
The 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 appeared in Mary Mapes Dodge's When life is young (1894):
The Elegants released a single adapted from this song called Little Star, which made #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958.
A version using synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus exists.[12] 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).
The Girl Scouts of the USA 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 Bunyan, an English singer-songwriter, composed "Lily Pond" based on this tune. It can be found on her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day. American singer Elizabeth Mitchell covers the song on her 2006 album You Are My Little Bird.
