Lullaby

:This page is for "lullaby", the song. See Lullaby (novel) for the Chuck Palahniuk novel.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A lullaby is a soothing song sung to children before they go to sleep. The idea is that the song sung by a familiar voice will lull the child to sleep. Lullabies written by established classical composers are sometimes called Berceuse, which is a French word for lullaby, or cradle song. A famous berceuse is Fr?d?ric Chopin's berceuse for solo piano, opus 57. Perhaps the most famous berceuse of all time (though it is called a lullaby) is Brahms' song Wiegenlied.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Johannes Brahms wrote his famous "Lullaby" as a cradle song (Wiegenlied, in German), originally for a young singer whom he knew, Bertha Faber, on the occasion of the birth of her first child. The English lyrics are similar to the original German lyrics.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Typically a berceuse is in triple meter, or in a compound meter such as 6/8. Tonally most berceuses are simple, often merely alternating tonic and dominant harmonies: since the intended effect is to put a baby to sleep, wild chromaticism would be somewhat out of character. Another characteristic of the berceuse--for no reason other than convention--is a tendency to stay on the "flat side" --for example the berceuses by Chopin, Liszt and Balakirev are all in Db.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other famous examples of the genre include the piece by Maurice Ravel for violin and piano, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré; the Berceuse élégiaque by Ferruccio Busoni; the Berceuse by Igor Stravinsky which is included in the Firebird ballet, and Lullaby for String Quartet by George Gershwin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Tamil (a classical language), lullaby is called as "Thaalattu". 'Thal' means 'tongue'. A melodious sound is created by frequent movement of the tongue at the beginning of the song. Thus, it earned its name "thaalattu" in Tamil.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lullaby (novel): Lullaby is a horror-satire novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk, published in 2002. It won the 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 2002....

Chuck Palahniuk: Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (born February 21 1961 in Pasco, Washington, USA) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one o...

Novel: A novel (from French nouvelle, "new") is an extended fictional narrative in prose. Down into the 18th century, the word referred specifically to short fictions of love and intrigue as opposed to romances—epic-length works about love and adventures. Having become one of the major literary genr...

Lullaby related Images and Photos (experimental)

Lullaby	The Lullaby	Gutmann - Lullaby	Playskool Lullaby Gloworm Plush
Sesame Street Lullaby and Good Night Elmo Plush	Phillips Holmes and Nancy Carroll: Broken Lullaby 1932