Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Difference between revisions
imported>MacMog m copyedit: quotes don't go in ''oblique type'' |
(No difference)
|
Latest revision as of 13:32, 20 May 2025
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 now sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known.
Where Jane Taylor was when she wrote the lyric is contested, with the localities of Colchester and Chipping Ongar each asserting a claim. However, Ann Taylor writes (in The Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert) that the first time Jane ever saw the village of Ongar was in 1810, and the poem had been published in 1806. "In the summer of 1810, Jane, when visiting London, had enjoyed a pic-nic excursion in Epping Forest, and observed on a sign post at one of the turnings, 'To Ongar.' It was the first time she had seen the name."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Lyrics
[edit]The English lyrics were written as a poem by Jane Taylor (1783–1824)<ref name=Cryer2009>M. Cryer, Love Me Tender: The Stories Behind the World's Best-loved Songs (Frances Lincoln, 2009), pp. 83–5.</ref> and published with the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery by Jane and her sister Ann Taylor (1782–1866) in London in 1806:<ref name=Opie1997>I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 397–8. First publication of 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' Template:Webarchive</ref>
The lyrics were first published with the tune "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838.<ref name="Cryer2009"/> When sung, the first two lines of the entire poem are repeated as a refrain after each stanza.
Melody
[edit]"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is sung to the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman". The melody is used in other nursery rhymes, including the ABC Song and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".
<score sound="1">
\relative c' {
\key c \major \time 4/4
c4 c4 g'4 g4 a4 a4 g2 |
f4 f4 e4 e4 d4 d4 c2 \break
g'4 g4 f4 f4 e4 e4 d2 |
g4 g4 f4 f4 e4 e4 d2 \break
c4 c4 g'4 g4 a4 a4 g2 |
f4 f4 e4 e4 d4 d4 c2 \bar "|."
}
\addlyrics {
Twin -- kle, twin -- kle,
lit -- tle star,
how I won -- der
what you are!
Up a -- bove the world so high,
like a dia -- mond in the sky.
Twin -- kle, twin -- kle,
lit -- tle star,
how I won -- der
what you are!
}
</score>
Other versions
[edit]
Additional variations exist such as
1. From the 1840 novel Poor Jack (chapter 4), by Frederick Marryat.
2. From 1896 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten<ref name="archive.org"/> by Mildred J. Hill.
A parody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" titled "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.<ref name=gardner98>Template:Cite book</ref>
A version using synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus exists.<ref>Geoffrey Hughes, A History of English Words (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p. 40. Template:ISBN</ref>
The opening lyrics are also used to begin the traditional murder ballad "Duncan and Brady."
The song can also be played as a singing game.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>