The World's Lullabies

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.

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...

Lalayee, a lullaby in Farsi, by Mahsa Vahdat

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

This traditional Japanese folk lullaby comes to us by way of Akaniji at Wikimedia Commons.

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. :)

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...

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.

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,...

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.

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.

This is what my mother sang to us every night before we went to bed. 

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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

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.