Lullabies

Babies are tiny tots who require quite a few things like sunlight and nutrition that a normal adult need. As tiny beings, babies require less of sunlight but they need and nutrition is something that they get from their mother for healthy growth and development. Like sunlight and nutrition, there is something more soothing and relaxing that these tiny tots need. That’s music.

Music with the power of gentle, sweet sounds has touched the human soul in every aspect of life. Adults need music to control their emotions and suppress depression whereas babies need music in different genre and volume for soothing and relaxing. This form of music that relaxes and calms down a baby is called lullaby.

Lullaby is defined as a soothing and relaxing song sung by parents in calming children and putting them to sleep. Parents often croon gentle and sweet lullabies to their children. The power of this sweet sound can swing a child to sleep or calm a discontented child. Many parents also sing when spending their precious moments with their children or when playing with them. Lyrics, nature, and storyline of lullabies are very simple and are composed exclusively for children.

The concept of lullaby originated in England with the idea of lulling a child to sleep. It is usually accompanied with a melodious tune that helps promote the basic aims of these songs, to put babies to sleep and to relax restless infants. Infants cannot comprehend the lyrics of lullabies but yet the tune makes them feel relaxed and heavenly.

The most famous lullaby is Johannes Brahms' song Wiegenlied, popularly known as Brahms' Lullaby in English. This lullaby was originally written by Brahms for a younger singer, Bertha Faber, on birth of her second son.

Another popular lullaby is ‘Hush Little Baby’. The theme is making promises to the child if he or she goes to sleep. Lyrics are like "Hush little baby, don't say a word; Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird; And if that mockingbird don't sing; Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring".
One more famous lullaby is ‘Summertime’, also known as the Gershwin Lullaby. The original lullaby is slow, soothing and melancholy. Most of the parents sing this to their children at bed time. The lyrics of this lullaby are like "Summertime, and the living is easy, Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high, Your daddy's rich, and your ma is good looking, So hush little baby, don't you cry; One of these mornings, you're gonna rise up singing, You're gonna spread your wings as you take the sky, But till that morning, there's nothing can harm you, With your daddy and mammy standing nigh.

Some of the other known lullabies are ‘All the Pretty Horses’, Baby Mine’, ‘Sleep Baby Sleep’, ‘All Through the Night’, ‘Baby’s Boat’, ‘Rock-a-Bye-Baby’, ‘Golden Slumbers’, ‘Sweet Chariot’, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, ‘Turn Around’, ‘Are you Sleeping’, ‘Day is Done’, ‘Go to Sleep’ and ‘You are My Sunshine’.

Lullabies definitely help parents to share their love with the power of words and music to make their children feel the essence of their being in this world.