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A lullaby (), or a cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies, they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior.Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), pp. 118–120. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants.Trehub, Sandra E., Trainor, Laurel J. "Singing to infants: lullabies and play songs" Advances in Infancy Research, (1998), pp. 43–77. As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times.Iona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), p. 6.
A folk etymology derives lullaby from "Lilith-Abi" (Hebrew language for "Lilith, begone").Hines, Kathleen. "The Art of the Musical Zz: Cultural Implications of Lullabies around the World." Miwah Li, John Moeller, and Charles Smith Wofford College (2013): 74.Pathak, Vrushali, and Shefali Mishra. "Psychological effect of lullabies in child development." Indian Journal of Positive Psychology 8.4 (2017): 677–680.Levin, S. "The evil eye and the afflictions of children." South African Medical Journal 32.6 (1958). In the Jewish tradition, Lilith was a demon who was believed to steal children's souls in the night. To guard against Lilith, Jewish mothers would hang four amulets on nursery walls with the inscription "Lilith – abei" "Lilith. The Human Interest Library: Wonder world, Midland Press, 1921, p. 87Hoy, Emme. "How do shifting depictions of Lilith, 'The First Eve', trace the contexts and hegemonic values of their times?." Teaching History 46.3 (2012): 54.
In addition to pitch tendencies, lullabies share several structural similarities. The most frequent tendencies are intermittent repetitions and long pauses between sections.Mitterschiffthaler, M. T., Fu, C. H.Y., Dalton, J. A., Andrew, C. M. and Williams, S. C.R. "A functional MRI study of happy and sad affective states induced by classical music" Human Brain Mapping, Vol. 28 No. 11 (November 2007).O'Neill, Colleen T., Trainor, Laurel J., Trehub, Sandra E. "Infants' Responsiveness to Fathers' Singing" Music Perception, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Summer 2001), p. 410. This dilutes the rate of material and appeals to infants' slower capacity for processing music.
Rhythmically, there are shared patterns. Lullabies are usually in triple meter or 6/8 Time signature, giving them a "characteristic swinging or rocking motion." This mimics the movement a baby experiences in the Uterus as a mother moves. In addition, infants' preference for rhythm shares a strong connection with what they hear when they are bounced, and even their own body movements.Pouthas, V. " The development of the perception of time and temporal regulation of action in infants and children" Musical beginnings: Origins and development of musical competence, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 115–141. The of lullabies tend to be generally slow, and the utterances are short. Again, this aids in the infant's processing of the song.
Lullabies almost never have instrumental accompaniments. Infants have shown a strong preference for unaccompanied lullabies over accompanied lullabies.Ilari, Beatriz and Sundara, Megha. "Music Listening Preferences in Early Life: Infants' Responses to Accompanied versus Unaccompanied Singing" Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 56, No. 4 (January 2009), p. 356. Again, this appeals to infants' more limited ability to process information.
Lullabies are often used for their soothing nature, even for non-infants. One study found lullabies to be the most successful type of music or sound for relieving stress and improving the overall psychological health of pregnant women.Chang, Mei-Yueh; Chen, Chung-Hey; Huang Kuo-Feng, "Effects of music therapy on psychological health of women during pregnancy" Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 17, No. 19 (October 2008), pp. 2580–2587.
These characteristics tend to be consistent across cultures. It was found that adults of various cultural backgrounds could recognize and identify lullabies without knowing the cultural context of the song. Infants have shown a strong preferences for songs with these qualities.
Additional research by Jayne M. Standley has demonstrated that the physiological responses of prematurely delivered infants undergoing intensive care can be regulated by listening to gentle lullabies through headphones. In addition to slowing heart and respiration rates, lullabies have been associated with increased oxygen saturation levels and the possible prevention of potentially life-threatening episodes of apnea and bradycardia. Gentle music can also provide stimulation for premature infants to behave in ways that boost their development and keep them alive. Lullabies can serve as a low-risk source of stimulation and reinforcement for increasing nipple sucking (feeding) rates, providing infants with the nutrition they require for growth and development. Lullabies are thus associated with encouraging the rapid development of the Neurology and with a shorter length of hospitalization.
More recent research has shown that lullabies sung live can have beneficial effects on physiological functioning and development in premature infants. The live element of a slow, repetitive entrained rhythm can regulate sucking behavior. Infants have a natural tendency to entrain to the sounds that surround them. Beat perception begins during fetal development in the womb and infants are born with an innate musical preference. The element of live breathing sounds can regulate infant heart rate, quiet-alert states, and sleep. Live lullabies can also enhance parent-child bonding, thus decreasing parental stress associated with the intensive care. In short, live lullabies sung by music therapists induce relaxation, rest, comfort, and optimal growth and development. "Hush, Little Baby" has been observed cross-culturally and is known to have a natural capacity for soothing and energizing infants, as well as nurturing caregiving bonds.
Many lullabies, regardless of the meaning of their words, possess a peaceful hypnotic quality. Others are mournful or dark, like a lament. The Gaelic lullaby "Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh Beag" was written in 1848 during the potato famine, which caused much hardship in the Scottish Highlands. The song mentions soft potatoes, the mother's situation, and her fears for her child. "Lullabies and dandlings", Foghlam Alba , EducationScotland.gov.uk In the 1920s, poet Federico García Lorca studied Spanish lullabies and noted the "poetic character" and "depth of sadness" of many of them. Lorca's theory was that a large part of the function of the lullaby is to help a mother vocalize her worries and concerns. In short, they also serve as therapy for the mother.
Combined with lament, lullaby can have "restorative resounding" properties for hospice inpatients and their families. Lullabies typically soothe people through the awake/sleep transition, and similarly can soothe people through the life/death transition. Music therapists have called these tunes "lullaments", that which sustain the spirit, support psychological structure, and enable resilience during times of vulnerability to the effects of adversity. Lullaments are music-contextualized expressions of attachment and detachment, sadness/tears and happiness/laughter, privilege and loss, nurturance and grief, deterioration, stasis and moving forward.
Many are designed as lullabies for the infant Jesus, the most famous of them being "Silent Night".
Much research has been generated on the role of lullabies in nurturing caregiving bonds between mother and child. Mothers who sing lullabies to their infants engage in a bonding activity that actually alters the underlying neural structure of the infant brain such that the infant becomes "tuned" into music and its association with parental affiliation. In one Taiwanese study of Kangaroo Care, a technique practiced on newborn infants in which a mother holds her child tightly against her chest, it was demonstrated that infant–mother dyads who listened to their choice of lullaby were associated with more quiet sleep states and less occurrence of crying by the infant and were also associated with significantly lower maternal anxiety, than those dyads who did not listen to lullabies. The therapeutic effect of lullabies can thus have a strong impact on calming anxieties and nurturing bonds, which is especially important with premature and fragile infants.
Chopin's "Berceuse" is a composition for solo piano. Other famous examples of the genre include Maurice Ravel's Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré for violin and piano; the Berceuse élégiaque by Ferruccio Busoni; the "Berceuse" from the opera Jocelyn by Benjamin Godard; the "Berceuse" by Igor Stravinsky which is featured in the The Firebird ballet, and Lullaby for String Quartet by George Gershwin. The English composer Nicholas Maw's orchestral nocturne, The World in the Evening, is subtitled "lullaby for large orchestra". German composer's Paul Graener last movement of his suite From The Realm of Pan is entitled "Pan sings the world a lullaby".
In the Malayalam language, there is a rich collection of traditional lullabies, known as "tharaattu Pattu". One of the most famous is "Omanathinkal Kidavo", written and composed by poet lyricist Iravi Varman Thampi who is widely known as Irayimman Thampi. This lullaby was written in the year 1813 for the queen of Travancore to sing to her son young prince Swathi Thirunal, who later became the king and a famous musician (composed many in a Raga Dheerasankarabharanam commonly known as Sankarabharanam).
In the Marathi language, a lullaby is called a angai geet. Soothing words and music helps baby calm down and help them sleep.
In the Odia language, a lullaby is called a Nanabaya gita. A book in the same name by Nanda Kishore bal that was published in two volumes in 1934 is a major compilation of the known lullabies in the language.
In the Tamil language, a lullaby is called a thaalattu ( thal means "tongue"). A melodious sound is created by frequent movement of the tongue at the beginning of the song. In the 9th century CE, Kulasekhara Alvar composed the lullaby titled "Mannu pugazh Kosalai than" (meaning "To famous Kausalya...") in honour of Rama.
In Telugu language, a lullaby is called a "Jola" or "Jola pata". A famous Telugu lullaby is "jo achuthaa nanda jo jo mukunda".
"Ukolébavka" ("Lullaby") – This lullaby was published in 1633 in The Informatorium of the School of Infancy by Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670). The book is likely to be the first treatise on the development and educating infants and children up to six in the family. Comenius stressed among other things the necessity of sensory and emotional stimuli at an early age. Thus, he included for mothers and nurses the Czech text and the score of the originally German lullaby by 16th century preacher Mathesius.
"Hajej, můj andílku" ("Sleep, My Little Angel") – This is one of the most melodious Czech lullabies, first collected by Karel Jaromír Erben (1811–1870), Czech romantic writer, poet and collector of Czech folk songs and fairy tales. The text refers specifically to the mother rocking her baby.
"Halí, dítě" ("Hullee, baby") – This lullaby was collected by František Bartoš (1837–1906), pedagogue and ethnographer who collected Moravian songs. The second line says the carer will leave after the child falls asleep, but in the third line we learn that only to the garden in the valley to pick raspberries.
"Halaj, belaj, malučký" ("Sleep, Sleep, Little One") – This lullaby is from the east of Moravia, where the dialect is influenced by the Slovak language, and also folk songs are similar to the Slovak ones from across the border. A boy is promised the essential food for infants, kašička, a smooth mixture made of milk and flour.
"Godnatsang" ("Goodnight Song") – This is a popular lullaby that was composed (lyrics and music) by Sigurd Barrett (born 1967), pianist, composer and host of a children's TV programme in Denmark, and fellow musician Steen Nikolaj Hansen. Sigurd usually sings this song at the end of his children's show. This lullaby has sleeping time as theme: The day is over and we must sleep and rest so we will be fresh again in the morning.
"Mues sang få Hansemand" ("Mother's Song to Little Hans") – This lullaby originated from south Jutland and is very old (year of composition is unknown). It is not well known in Denmark. This may, in part, be due to the fact that it was written in Jutlandic dialect. The lyrics were written by Marie Thulesen (1878–1924) with music by the Danish musician Oluf Ring (1884–1946).
"Jeg vil tælle stjernerne" ("I Will Count the Stars") – This lullaby was written in 1951 by the Danish poet and writer Halfdan Rasmussen (1915–2002). Rasmussen had written numerous rhymes and jingles, some of which are still being used in Danish beginner classes in public schools (e.g. the picture book "Halfdans ABC"). This lullaby's music was composed by Hans Dalgaard (1919–81). The song is a simple story of a child who tries to count the stars with his/her fingers and toes.
"Maantje tuurt, maantje gluurt" – Older Dutch lullaby. Look the moon peeps and spies through the window. Have the children already gone to bed? Yes moon, they're lying in bed. Good, tomorrow will be a new day of playing and learning.
| +Examples !Hungarian lyrics !Literal English translation !Place of origin !Notes | |||
Aludj, baba, aludjál, Tündérekről álmodjál; Dunán ringó kis ladikban Velük szépen játszódjál! | Sleep, baby, sleep Dream about Fairy In a small boatrocking on the Danube Play with them nicely. | Dunasziget, Győr-Moson-Sopron County | This lullaby showcases the trend of wishing or promising sweet dreams and/or good sleep to the child. Somewhat unusually, it has more than one verse. |
Elment a vásárba, Cukrot hoz a kosárba; Ha jó lesz az Annuska, Megkapja holnapra. | Súr, Komárom-Esztergom County | Here, the 'ringatószó', 'csicsija' is used to calm the infant. This song is an example of promising some reward if the child will sleep and behave well, also common in Hungarian lullabies. | |
| Jászárokszállás, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County | Note the presence of another 'ringatószó', 'tente' and the term of endearment . | ||
| Nagyrozvágy, | Apart from 'tente' being used here, too, this is an example of including lines on the troubles or works of parents, commonly found in Hungarian lullabies. |
Another traditional Welsh lullaby " Suo Gân" gained popularity in the late twentieth century. Although the earliest prints date from around 1800, new arrangements of the lullaby have been performed and recorded by artists from around the world as well as featuring in Hollywood films ( Empire of the Sun), anime ( Black Butler) and computer games ( The Maid of Sker). Suo Gân's distinctive tune has also been repurposed for several Christian hymns. Lullaby ("Suo Gan"), Lesley Nelson-Burns, Contemplator.com . Accessed July 2011
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