17 Aug 2018

Lullabies: from Brahms to The Beatles

From Upbeat, 1:00 pm on 17 August 2018
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with her partner Clarke Gayford and their child Neve in the Auckland home.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with her partner Clarke Gayford and their child Neve in the Auckland home. Photo: Supplied / Jacinda Ardern

We love lullabies here at Upbeat and listeners have two more weeks to prove themselves great lullaby music writers. To help you along we feature a few different lullabies below.

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Photo: Provided

But first, the competition: The New Zealand School of Music is running a lullaby competition, with the winning entry to be gifted to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, with entries due 31 August. Details and an application form are here.

The competition is open to all New Zealanders, and in celebration of the 125th anniversary of women getting the vote, the music must be set to the poem, ‘A Lullaby’—a satirical text written by New Zealand poet Thomas Bracken in 1892.

“The poem's theme of role reversal at that time was a source of much hilarity,” says the School. “The last laugh comes over a century later however; the words have turned to reality with the Prime Minister returning to work to ‘look after the Nation’, leaving her partner Clarke Gayford, to ‘mind the baby’.”

The winner will perform their composition at a concert on Sunday 14 October, as part of a week-long celebration of women and music in Aotearoa hosted by the School.

Here are some lullabies to help you along.

 

The Classic

Perhaps the best-known lullaby is Brahms's Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht ("Good evening, good night"), Op. 49, No. 4 – here sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in 1962. It was first published in 1868 and widely known as Brahms's Lullaby. The Lullaby was first sung by Brahms's friend, Bertha Faber, as the piece had been written to celebrate the birth of her son. Brahms had been in love with her in her youth and constructed the melody of the Wiegenlied to suggest, as a hidden countermelody, a song she used to sing to him.

Recently it has been performed especially for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s brand new baby in German and Te Reo Māori. New Zealander singer Simon O’Neill, home for a series of concerts with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra agreed to record the piece and set the Māori lyrics to Brahms’s music. You can learn and hear more here.

 

Starship Lullaby

New Zealand musician Tiki Taane wrote this lullaby towards helping the tamariki at Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland.

 

Te Oriori

Maori lullabies are known as Oriori and this Waka Huia TVNZ documentary explores their past and present.

 

Finnish Lullaby

 

Nuku Nuku Nurmilintu is an ancient Finnish lullaby performed here by Merja Soria.

 

John and Ringo's Lullaby

Even the Beatles wrote a lullaby, written by John for his son Julian. It is sung by Ringo Starr and he is the only Beatle to appear on the record, with the music provided by an orchestra, arranged and conducted by George Martin.

For more lullabies see our story back when Jacinda announced her pregnancy.

 

A LULLABY
by Thomas Bracken, 1892

Lullaby, Hushaby, Lullaby Deary,
Papa will nurse you and sing Cockaleery,
Mamma must go at her dear Country's call,
To make lovely laws for Pa, Baby and all;
Then Hushaby, and do not cry
But close your eye and kiss by-bye,-
For Papa minds the Baby.

Lullaby, Hushaby, Lullaby Deary,
Papa will nurse you and rock you so cheery, 
Mamma must go look after the Nation,
Papa knows nothing about legislation; 
then Hushaby, and do not cry
But close your eye and kiss by-bye,-
For Papa minds the Baby.

Lullaby, Hushaby, Lullaby Dovey,
Papa will give you the bottle, my lovey,
Papa will give you the ring for your tootins,
Papa will put on your dear little bootins; 
Then Hushaby, and do not cry
But close your eye and kiss by-bye,-
For Papa minds the Baby.