Democratic Republic of the Congo / jkealing
Bernadette Aningi was a young mother in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she learned about a Pygmie musical tradition of singing in a group — with each person contributing a note. Following this tradition, Aningi sings Kula Bébé in the Kingwana language with her daughter, Anita Daulne. The song translates, roughly, to "Sleep, baby, sleep. Don't cry, baby. Don't cry, child." This song is courtesy of...
United States of America / walkowicznathan@gmail.com
Dear PRI, Someday, when I am a bit older, I want to have kids. I wrote this song for them. It incoporates, in an abstract manner, some of the most beautiful images of New England. It also doubles as a lullaby for any age and uses a simple guitar riff that my father (who plays guitar once in a great while) came up with as a teenager. The lyrics and melody are original. Please enjoy my little piece the world. Best Regards,Nathan Walkowicz
China / jkealing
Chukie Tethong, one of the most respected folks singers from Tibet, spent 11 years with Tibetan singers, learning traditional songs of live, faith and nature. This song (the title translates to The Jewel of the Land of Snows) is a chant. In Buddhism, practiced widely in Tibet, chants help you relax and feel calm. This song is courtesy of Putumayo's Asian Dreamland album.
Colombia / jkealing
Marta Gómez first started singing her the church choir in her native Cali, Colombia. She often writes her own songs, but this one, "Heavenly One" is a famous classic song from Mexico. The song translates, roughly to "Ay, ay, ay, ay / Sing and don't cry / Because singing makes the heart happy, my heavenly one." It's often played faster, by mariachi bands, but Gómez has turned it into a lullaby. This song is courtesy of...
United States of America / aamiller
This 'Prairie Lullaby' was passed down from my great grandmother to grandmother to mother to me, now to my daughter. As the story goes, this was sung to babies in our family back to the time we lived in a sod house in Western Nebraska. My Aunt also sung this quietly to my Mom the day before she passed away.
India / rexarul@gmail.com
This is in response to @PRI's tweet to me. Here is a lullaby from Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, from the Tamil movie titled "Thalapathy" (Commander), released in 1991. This song is a lullaby for a teen-mom, whose child was abandoned due to a mishap beyond her control. Maestro Ilaiyaraaja's tune captures not only the birth pangs of this Mom reminising her loss at a later age, constantly in search...
France / apsuss@gmail.com
This is a French lullaby every parent -- and kid -- knows. ("Il etait un petit navire" or "There was a little ship.") My kids, who are half-French, grew up hearing it all the time. But here's the wild part: the lullaby itself sounds soft and soothing, but if you listen closely the lyrics are actually about a young shipwrecked sailor who is about to be eaten by his fellow sailors! (You can read the English lyrics...
Iran / dove99v@yahoo.com
Lalayee, a lullaby in Farsi, by Mahsa Vahdat
Germany / Traci Tong
Our daughter was born 13 weeks early. She weighed 2 lbs, 2 oz. And we didn't know from one day to the next, whether she would survive. Whether she would thrive or come home with medical issues. She was kept in an isolete in the NICU, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, one of the largest and best in Boston.
We were told by the doctors that reading, talking and singing to her would go a long way to her recovery.
So every night, my husband would...
Argentina / jkealing
Julieta Szewach performed the vocals for this song, with lyrics written by Silvia Schujer. Both grew up in Argentina. The pair worked with Mariano A. Fernández on a book of lullabies, including this one. The lyrics translate to "There was a little bunny / Who wouldn't go to sleep / At night he waited / For the day to arrive. / Softly the mama rabbit sang to him / Sweet little bunyy go to sleep / If you close your eyes / You will float into the clouds / And a...
Asia / rzelaya@csupomona.edu
India / rexarul@gmail.com
This is one of the fantastic lullabies scored by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, in the mid 1980s. This particular link I have posited above is from the Telugu original. It is from the movie Swathi Muthyam. This movie went on to win several awards. This song is also sung by one of the legendary singers of Indian cinema, Ms. P. Susheela. This song has been tuned in other regional languages, including Tamil and has been one of the meed of...
Cameroon / Alan West
A mongulu is an egg shaped dwelling made of a framework of branches covered with large overlapping leaves. Here six women in a mongulu have transformed a melody from a ceremonial framework into a beautiful simple lullaby.
United Kingdom / woodencoyote@hotmail.com
Written in the seventh century, Pais Dinogad is one oldest known pieces of Welsh verse. It was actually written in the margins of the epic poem Y Gododdin. A mother sings to her baby about Father's hunting skill, and about his two dogs Giff and Gaff. Sadly, we'll never know what it sounded like or how it was sung.Peis dinogat e vreith vreith.o grwyn balaot ban wreith.chwit chwit chwidogeith.gochanwn gochenyn wythgeith.pan elei dy dat ty e...
Europe / David Leveille
Not really a lullaby but I like to play this Irish tune late at night when I'm sleepy. It's called Drowsy Maggie.
Africa / Anders Kelto
An absolutely beautiful lullaby from an artist who appears to be completely hidden from the Internet. I can't find out anything about him online. The song is from a 1999 CD called African Lullaby. The whole album is great, actually.
Guinea / jkealing
Famoro Dioubaté hails from Conakry, the capital of the African nation of Guinea. He grew up in a family of musicians and learned to play the balafón — a sort-of African xylophone. Douyoré is a tradition Mandingo song that translates roughly to "My child is crying for something. What siw rong? Is she hurt, or hungry? Did she have a bad dream? I don't want you to be upset." The song is played on the balafón, as well as the bolon, a three-string African bass, and...
United States of America / lorddewi@gmail.com
As far as my personal experiences with lullabies, I remember my Mom singing My Grandfather's Clock to me to get me to sleep as a child. I also remember hearing her sing Daddy's Little Girl to my sister in the other room.A few years ago, I had the idea to record a lullaby album as a gift to my family and friends. I'd previously...
Poland / aandb772@hotmail.com
It is an old lullaby my grandparents and parents used to sing to me. It talks about 2 kittens playing and being mischevious, and helping put the child to sleep. Enjoy. :)
United States of America / astrologybyaliza@gmail.com
North America / priestsinger@gmail.com
My friend Maddie Welch used to sing this song to her children, just as her mother sang it to her when she was growing up in Puerto Rico. The lyrics are about a cute little seashell hiding in the sand, and if the sea sweeps it away, "I'll never be able to find you again!" The first phrase, "Who made you?" reminds me of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, both "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright" and "Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?" Maddie gave me permission...
India / rexarul@gmail.com
See, even PRI's "Type" choice does not have one for this lullaby, cleverly tuned by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, the musical legend from the southern state of Tamil Nadu in Madras, India.The situation for this lullaby goes like this. The hero is a mentally immature, yet, innocent man. He composes an epistolary lullaby -- in the form of a written letter that he wants to write for his own love. The only problem is that, he doesn't know how to read and write. So, he...
Europe / campbellwester@gmail.com
My father played his guitar and sang a very politically incorrect drinking song to my brothers and me as a lullaby. It begins (and you have to imagine this sung in a soft, loving tone) "Oh, the night that Paddy Murphy died, I never will forget. We all got stinkin' drunk that night and some ain't sober yet" -- and it gets worse from there! But Daddy's soothing voice sent us off to dreamland every time.
I sang the same song to my children when they were...
Mexico / William Troop
Señora Santana is a lullaby that's popular throughout Latin America. I know it as a traditional song from Mexico, but people sing it in other countries too. My wife and I sang this every night to both my kids when they were little, hoping to start them on their way to speaking Spanish.
Solomon Islands / Alan West
This type of lullaby is often sung not by the mother but by the child's elder sister. The words refer to such a situation: the elder sister asks the baby not to cry because its parents are dead and there is no one else to hear it. This lullaby was used by the group Deep Forest in a mashup.
United States of America / walkowicznathan@gmail.com
Dear PRI, To live is to have a positive effect. Enjoy this original! Best Regards,Nathan
United States of America / helen.rubeiz@gmail.com
Choral director Kristina Boerger commissioned composer Edward Rubeiz to write "Lullaby" in Spring 2009. The piece is written for male voices only, which is unusual: most lullabies have tended to be written for either women's or mixed voices. This performance is by the men of Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, a New York City chamber chorus, with the composer and the conductor (Nathaniel LaNasa) performing two whistling parts at the end. The text, a six-word mantra...
United States of America / hkiser@tempeunion.org
Beautiful lullaby by Mary C. Carpenter that I sing to my kids & enjoy myself.
Ireland / jkealing
Seamus Egan was born in the US, but moved to Ireland. His parents were Irish natives and decided to move the family back when Egan was 3. He's moved back to the US, but his music in trditional Irish. This song features a melody played on the tin whistle — an instrument common to Irish music. This song is courtesy of Putumayo's Celtic Dreamland album.
United Kingdom / Stephen Snyder
Spencer the Rover, a song by the Copper Family from Rottingdean, Sussex, England was a popular song of the folk circuit in the 1960s and 70's, popularized in the US by the duo John Roberts and Tony Barrand. In a previous life as a folksinger I sang it on stage, full voice. When my kids were screaming infants, I would sing the song slowly and softly to calm them at bedtime. At a slow gentle pace, it takes 5 minutes to sing all 7 verses. It helped to have...
Germany / jkealingtwitter@gmail.com
This is Johannes Brahms' Wiegenlied, performed by Ernestine Schumann-Heink in 1915, as shared at Wikimedia Commons.
Japan / jkealing
This traditional Japanese folk lullaby comes to us by way of Akaniji at Wikimedia Commons.
Central African Republic / Alan West
Quoting from the liner notes
There are innumerable songs mothers hum toput their children to sleep. While lullaby melodies are part of the community's musical heritage, their texts, which are greatly varied and voluntarily influenced by poetry, are open to broad individual improvisation. To lull her child to sleep, this mother compares him to the moon of the winged termites and beseeches him not to leave her later on once he has grown up.
...
United Kingdom / jkealing
Karen Matheson is the lead singer of one of Scotland' most popular bands. She's been eprfoming Gaelic musics since she was a child. This song, (pronounced in EE-jag ar-ah-gitch) is translated to mean The Silver Whistle. It was written in the 1700s originally. In it, Matheson sings "Who will play the silver whistle? Since the song of my king has come to Scotland on a great ship with masts of silver. Welcome, welcome, may you be desired and famous. May...
Papua New Guinea / Alan West
In this lullaby, a mother, Wewa Miriewa sings a hypnotic repetitive lullaby to put her child to sleep.
Translation
Ao, ao, ao, your mother went there, there, there,
To collect shells, to collect shells, to collect shells,
To the garden, to the garden, to the garden,
To the creek, to the creek, to the creek,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.
Solomon Islands / Alan West
Lullabies are often sung by the child's big sister or by an old woman who stays behind at the house whilst the mother is working in the garden. If two girls or women stay home they can sing the lullaby in two parts. In this lullaby the singer asks the baby to stop crying and sleep quietly as the mother has gone to work in the garden. The same short phrases are sung in two parts to another melody in the second lullaby. Recorded in Malaita, Solomon Islands in...
United States of America / Alan West
This lullaby was recorded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1950 and is sung by Vera Hall Ward
Europe / mark.stevick@gordon.edu
Last month Irish poet Micheal O'Siadhail gave a reading at my Boston-area college which included this poem on the nonsense syllables of lullabies in the world's many languages, sung to the world's many darlings.LullabyStains are in, stains are in, The instant our songs beginTo rockabye my darling baby Dreaming up worlds of maybe.Then byssa, byssa barnet Beddie byes my snowy Arne,Quieter now and slumber-bound, Rest in lulls of milky sound.Ninna nanna, ninna...
United States of America / jkealing
My friend Tyler just had a baby a few months ago. I shared on my Facebook page that we were doing this project with lullabies — and he mentioned he'd recently been browsing iTunes for lullabies. He said he kept coming across songs from bands like Led Zeppelin, Metallica and Pink Floyd — but turned into a lullaby. So I went looking and found Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, in lullaby form. Take a listen. And if you're wanting to compare,...
Ireland / jkealingtwitter@gmail.com
A woodwind quintet performs this historic Irish lullaby, courtesy of Richard Kearns at Wikimedia Commons.
United States of America / atrahan@austincc.edu
I thought my mother was a genius to invent so many pretty ways to assure us, our dad would always fix things if they went wrong. Later, I learned this was the most traditional song she ever sang to us and not a song she'd made up just for her children. But I still think she was a genius to remember these stanzas in order.
United States of America / atrahan@austincc.edu
No one in my family knows when "Old Grumble" came into the family. Over 4 generations know this song, now. We know it is a dark song, odd, and not really suitable as a lullabye. The very youngest children sometimes request that we NOT sing this one at nighttime. Old Grumble is a ghost, after all, who rises up and knocks an old lady down. The last verse about "if you want any more, you can sing it your self" seems to be the perfect tired parent's response...
Vietnam / masequesmay.gina@yahoo.com
United States of America / drewbrightbill218@gmail.com
This song was written about my little brother when he was just a baby- here are the lyrics: Close your eyes and let sand sprinkle inDrift away let your dreams beginTake a ride and journey inside your imaginationand I'll be by your sideyes I'll be by your sideso sleep little child Close your eyes and count floating sheepLose conscious though 'til you fall fast asleepDon't make a sound and don't move around 'til you're dreaming deepTomorrow's far awaySo far...
Samoa / Alan West
This song is about a girl whose boyfriend is very sick. She sends for the doctor to save him. His name is Vaiao. Recorded in Samoa in 1978.
United States of America / Lanote@earthlink.net
This is what my mother sang to us every night before we went to bed.
United States of America / carolyn@claiminggreatness.cc
I don't have any children of my own, but thinking of these tender little ones inspired me to write a lullaby or two for the day that I will.
United States of America / travrachclark@yahoo.com
North America / memory.keepers@hotmail.com
I was one of 10 children and my mother used to sing this as a way of giving comfort. Before she died, I did a little video of her sharing a snippet of it.
United States of America / travrachclark@yahoo.com
Beautifully simple & sweet! :)
United States of America / Marco Werman
It's Rickie Lee Jones singing, but it's her father Richard Jones who wrote this wonderful song. Rickie Lee often plays this today. It just shows how lullabies are passed on from generation to generation.
Spain / kirieeleison2010.jt@gmail.com
This lubally is typical in the provinicia of Granada, Andalucia.Federico García Lorca took it and put it on Bodas de Sangre,one of his most famous plays for theater.
United States of America / atrahan@austincc.edu
The cycle of life passes from lovers, to married with children, to grandparents and then oblivion. (You can sing the last part as sadly drawn out to the point it makes the child laugh at the ridiculousness.)My mother did not like singing this one to us, as the song kept us awake too long. We'd anticipate the next funny sounds she might make to entertain us through the cycles. But we pressed her for the song and she obliged enough times that I remembered it...
United States of America / atrahan@austincc.edu
My mother sang this song to us at night. We requested it often. I loved the image of the old baboon combing his hair by the light of the moon. And we always laughed gently about the poor monkey's mistake.
North America / bonnie_songgarden@hotmail.com
I wrote this song in late 1998, when my kids were nearly grown. It's one of the few songs that I wrote from the guitar notes, rather than starting with a lyrical phrase as I usually do. The notes suggested a lullabye, and that's what it became. For me, it was deeply resonant with that feeling of love for my children, and brought memories of when I did, indeed, hold them and sing and rock them to sleep. I hope its a universal lullabye that brings that feeling...
Africa / ekakato@rambler.ru
Ireland / millerwwu@gmail.com
United States of America / Margaret
I learned this from my mother-in-law after my first child was born in 1978. She was Jewish from New York, but I think it's American. She may have learned it from her involvement in the folk music revival of the 50s and 60s.I just met my twin 2 month old granddaughters for the first time - they liked this lullaby too!
North America / bherrman@comcast.net
One from a disc of sweet nurturing essence.Lay back into this one. Let it embrace you and your child. Feel safe and loved again....."Loveland" Julie RustBill
United States of America / carolyn@claiminggreatness.cc
This is one of two lullabies I wrote for the children I may someday have.
North America / hyrafamily@verizon.net
United States of America / bluepearmain@comcast.net
Barely a night goes by when our 4 year-old daughter doesn't ask us to sing her "Over the Rainbow" after we switch off the light. We usually comply but each often slip in something else as well. One is something I've been singing her at bedtime since almost day one--Paul McCartney's "I Will," from the Beatles' White Album, which I never realized till I had a kid is just the perfect bedtime song. But wanting to bring her lullabies/musical education more into the...
United States of America / travrachclark@yahoo.com
United States of America / jharrismtbc@sbcglobal.net
I made this up one night when I needed to calm both me and my kid down. I composed it to match the rhythm of my rocking chair. I was feeling desperate for some rest and making a plea to God for help.
Japan / jkealing
Takashi Hirayasu is a well-known musician from the Japanese island of Okinawa. In this son, Hirayasu plays a special, three-stringed instrument called a shamisen. Chuei Yoshikawa, a Japanese guitar player, accompanies. The song in English is titled Song from Asadoya. This song is courtesy of Putumayo's Asian Dreamland album.
United States of America / Nina Porzucki
While a lullaby doesn't come to mind, my Dad used to sing us kids a "waking up" song. Could that be called a reverse lullaby? One of his favorites was the song from Singing in the Rain, also sung by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in Babes in Arms. So in tribute to Mr. Rooney, and in honor of my father's cheerful-and-often-unsuccessful attempt to rouse me and my siblings out of bed, here's my reverse lullaby.