# Lullabies thread: introduce little children to classical music



## HansZimmer (11 mo ago)

I'll start this thread with the famous lullaby of Johannes Brahms.

Do you like it?






Feel free to add other lullabies to this thread and, if you want, you can also vote in this competition: The Legend Of Zelda: Main theme


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Frankly, I think "little children" might be more open to accepting classical music when it is loud and boisterous. Something like this:






As a lullaby? Well, technically I suspect we could argue that when one takes "the ride of the Valkyries" it is during that time of "the great sleep" from which there is no Earthly awakening. So, in some sense, this Wagner tune is the grandest lullaby of them all!


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

SONNET CLV said:


> Frankly, I think "little children" might be more open to accepting classical music when it is loud and boisterous.
> 
> As a lullaby? Well, technically I suspect we could argue that when one takes "the ride of the Valkyries" it is during that time of "the great sleep" from which there is no Earthly awakening. So, in some sense, this Wagner tune is the grandest lullaby of them all!


But, like it or not, the title of the thread is Lullabies Thread. Redefining a lullaby doesn't really work does it. Are you really going to fire up 'ride of the Valkyries' as the child is going off to sleep? How about Beethoven's 5th Symphony?


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Years ago I put together a CD/playlist called Quiet Times Music specifically for children at bedtime. This was the opening work (one of my favorites to play on the piano also):


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

DaveM said:


> But, like it or not, the title of the thread is Lullabies Thread. Redefining a lullaby doesn't really work does it. Are you really going to fire up 'ride of the Valkyries' as the child is going off to sleep? How about Beethoven's 5th Symphony?


I'm curious about how "little children" are going to be introduced to classical music when the first piece sent them to sleep. I like Sonnet's idea. Maybe if he has frightened them to death with Ride of the Valkyries, we can follow up with Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

SONNET CLV said:


> Well, technically I suspect we could argue that when one takes "the ride of the Valkyries" it is during that time of "the great sleep" from which there is no Earthly awakening.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

KevinJS said:


> I'm curious about how "little children" are going to be introduced to classical music when the first piece sent them to sleep. I like Sonnet's idea. Maybe if he has frightened them to death with Ride of the Valkyries, we can follow up with Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony?


Presumably, the whole idea of lullaby-type music is to relax the brain in readiness for sleep which infers that the brain has to be taking in the musical information. These are melodies that are likely to be remembered.

Getting young children off to sleep can sometimes be a challenge. And if you're wiped out after looking after them all day and hoping to get some me-time, playing loud, fast music which keeps them alert and awake is not exactly in your self interest.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

There are some lovely lullabies out there but my favourite has long been the one by Grieg from the Lyric Pieces. Here's Gilels' version from his delightful DG recital:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmp0Xi53DI


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

"Berceuse" from _Firebird_ and the lullaby from Mussorgsky's _Songs and Dances of Death_-if you don't mind being accused of child abuse.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

There's Debussy's Children's Corner Suite, Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, and Elgar's Nursery Suite.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen_ By J S Bach


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_Come Heavy Sleep_ by J Dowland


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Mandryka said:


> _Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen_ By J S Bach


That's rather inappropriate though... it is sung by someone dying.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_Traumerei_ by R Schumann


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> That's rather inappropriate though... it is sung by someone dying.


. . . To die, to sleep,
No more. And by a sleep, to say we end 
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to - 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub. 
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil 
Must give us pause.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_My Sweet Little Baby_ by W Byrd


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_She Sleeps on Soft_ by B Britten


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_Dormi Jesu_ by A Webern


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_Aimons nous et dormons _by C Debussy


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_En rève _by F Liszt


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Allnächtlich im Traume by R Schumann


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

_The second dream of the high tension line stepdown transformer _by L M Young


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

This is _the_ lullaby of Brahms:






Geistliches Wiegenlied, op. 91/2 by Jessye Norman


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

HansZimmer said:


> the famous lullaby of Johannes Brahms. Do you like it?


"Feed your kids the Arts!"


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> "Feed your kids the Arts!"


You can feed them a real "Santa Claus Symphony" by Bill Fry!


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

DaveM said:


> Years ago I put together a CD/playlist called Quiet Times Music specifically for children at bedtime. This was the opening work (one of my favorites to play on the piano also):
> 
> [


Prelude #1 in C, BWV 846, by far and away is my favorite of Bach's preludes from _The Well-Tempered Clavier_, particularly because its innovative arpeggiated harmonies (especially the quartal chords) seem to constitute a kind of time-leaping bridge to the exciting expansive developments in tonality and harmony beginning in the modern era.

This and the subsequent fugue comprise an excellent, pleasingly melodious short composition that might engage a child's interest and help foster a deeper connection to the music.

To further interest and engagement, it might be useful to suggest that the child listen for some things in the music, such as: To imagine the music is taking you on a "journey", so as the piece moves along, where do you imagine it's taking you? In the fugue, how many people do you think are playing? How many hands on the keys can you hear? Etc. ...


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## Miranna (11 mo ago)

Mozart and Bach are the best ones for children I think. My newborns began with Magic Fluet by Mozart and BAch’s WTC. They slept better with this music. Also they liked to sleep with lute music.


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## Miranna (11 mo ago)




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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I think Sonnet CLV's response to the OP was spot on and I'll take it a little further. Lullabies seem a poor choice to get the very young acquainted with classical music. Lest we forget, the point and standard of success of a lullaby is to make the little bugger pass out before we finish singing it. Classical music as soporific already figures strongly in marketing to adults (e.g., "The 100 Most Relaxing Piano Classics") and it seems a dubious strategy to subliminally anesthetize people from birth with the idea.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> ... Lullabies seem a poor choice to get the very young acquainted with classical music. Lest we forget, the point and standard of success of a lullaby is to make the little bugger pass out before we finish singing it. ...


I know that I fall asleep listening to almost anything by Richard Strauss, but I don't recall a single "lullaby" from the composer.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> I know that I fall asleep listening to almost anything by Richard Strauss, but I don't recall a single "lullaby" from the composer.


Obviously, the man missed his calling.


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