Why would I pick Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for Fiddle Tune a Day? It’s simple. What is the first tune that most people learn on Fiddle or Violin? I guess it could be Mary Had a Little Lamb, or Hot Cross Buns, maybe even Boil Them Cabbage Down. But, Twinkle Twinkle is THE tune of choice when you think of beginning fiddle or violin.
When I was about 5 years old, my dad asked me what instrument I was going to play and I picked the violin. (The question wasn’t “Do you want to play an instrument?”) My parents started me in Suzuki lessons and I lasted about one month. I couldn’t stand the repetition. I had no interest in playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with 1,673 different rhythm patterns. It just wasn’t a good fit for my personality, and my parents could see that so I quit playing for a couple of years.
When I was 7, they added a violin program at the school I went to, and once a week, the violin teacher would come to the school, and we would get to spend an hour with her. It was a great experience for me. I vividly remember when I first met her, and she asked me if I would like to play songs like this, and she played Lightly Row, and I remember thinking, “She’s so good. It would be impossible for me to play like that.” I’m glad I didn’t let that thought keep me from trying.
Playing fiddle has truly opened a world of opportunity for me, and I am so thankful to all of the teachers that have helped me along the way. I am so grateful that I teach myself, and it is my mission to inspire people in and through music.
Learn to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on fiddle here
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star according to Wikipedia
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is a popular English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, “The Star” by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is sung to the tune of the French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman“, which was published in 1761 and later arranged by Mozart for a famous set of variations.[1] The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. It has a Roud Folk Song Indexnumber of 7666.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Lyrics
The English lyrics were first published as a poem with the title “The Star” by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor (1783–1824) in Rhymes for the Nursery in London in 1806.[2] The poem was written by Jane.[3]
The Germanian Christmas carol “Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann”, with words by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, also uses the melody, as does the Hungarian Christmas carol”Hull a pelyhes fehér hó”, the Dutch “Altijd is Kortjakje ziek”, and the Spanish “Campanita del Lugar”.Many songs in various languages have been based on the “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” melody. In English, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, the “Alphabet Song”, and a variant of it is used for “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”. It is also the basis of the Scots song Coulter’s Candy.[4] Appearances of the melody
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark.
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
How I wonder what you are.
Several classical compositions have been inspired by the tune:
- Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je Maman” in G major (Wf XII: 2) (BR A 45) (1st publ. ca. 1880)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” (K. 265 / K. 300e) (1781 or 1782)
- Franz Joseph Haydn, The Surprise Symphony[5] (1791)
- Camille Saint-Saëns, Carnival of the Animals (1886), 12th movement (Fossiles) quotes the tune
- Ernő Dohnányi, Variations on a Nursery Tune, op.25 (1914)
- Erwin Schulhoff, Ten Variations on ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman’ and Fugue
- John Corigliano, The Mannheim Rocket
- Franz Liszt, Album Leaf: “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” (1833) (S.163b)
- Theodor von Schacht, 3rd movement (Allegretto con variazioni) of his clarinet concerto in B flat major
- Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck, Variations and finale for organ on “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman”, op. 90 (pub. 1828)
- Jean-Baptiste Cardon (1760–1803), Variations for harp on “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman”
First appearances of the melody and the original French text version
The original French rhyme Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, was far from a children’s rhyme. Apparently it originated in the first half of the 18th century. As there was no published version of the text before 1774, several slightly differing versions of what could have been the “original” version exist:
- Ah! vous dirai-je Maman?, as published in the early 20th century in a collection of French songs by Jean Gilleguin.
- Comparing two versions of “La Confidence” with the nursery rhyme version
In these versions a girl confides a secret to her mother: that she has been seduced by “Silvandre”. Only in one version cited above did the girl apparently make a narrow escape (“Je m’échappai par bonheur”),[6] in the other versions the girl appears to have been “beaten” by L’Amour (“Love”).
As for the history of the melody and the non-nursery rhyme version(s) of the French text:[7][8]
- 1761: first publication of the music (without lyrics) of Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman in “Les Amusements d’une Heure et Demy” by Mr. Bouin (Paris), p. 1.
- Around 1765, the words and music appear in a manuscript entitled “Recueil de Chansons” under the title “Le Faux Pas”, p. 43.
- 1774: earliest known printed publication of the lyrics together with the music in volume two of “Recueil de Romances” by M.D.L. (De Lusse) published in Brussels, under the title “La Confidence – Naive” (p. 75).
- Around 1780 (Paris): the words and music appear in sheet music under the title “Les Amours de Silvandre”.
- 1785: First publication of Mozart’s Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman variations.
As for the composition date of Mozart’s Variations, for a time the variations were thought to have been composed in 1778, while Mozart stayed in Paris from April to September in that year, the assumption being that the melody of a French song could only have been picked up by Mozart while residing in France. For this presumed composition date, in the chronological catalogue of Mozart’s compositions the composition was renumbered from K. 265 to K. 300e.[8]Later analysis of Mozart’s manuscript of the composition by Wolfgang Plath rather indicated 1781-1782 as the probable composition date.[9]
French “nursery rhyme” version
Origin unknown.
| French lyrics | English translation |
|---|---|
| A variation | |
| Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, Ce qui cause mon tourment. Papa veut que je demande De la soupe et de la viande… Moi, je dis que les bonbons Valent mieux que les mignons.[10] |
Ah! I will tell you, Mother, What causes my torment. Father wants me to ask For soup and for meat I say that candy Is better than (filets) mignons.[10] |
| Another variation | |
| Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, Ce qui cause mon tourment Papa veut que je retienne Des verbes la longue antienne[11]… Moi, je dis que les bonbons valent mieux que les leçons. |
Ah! I shall tell you, Mother, What causes my torment. Father wants me to remember This catalogue of verbs conjugations[11] I say that candy is better than lessons. |
| A third version | |
| Quand trois poules vont aux champs, La première va devant. La deuxième suit la première, La troisième vient la dernière. Quand trois poules vont aux champs, La première va devant. |
When three hens go to the fields, The first one goes in front. The second one follows the first one, The third one comes last. When three hens go to the fields, The first one goes in front. |
The French “nursery rhyme” version also appears with slight variations:
The lyrics from “The Star” were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838.[3]
Other text versions
Twinkle Twinkle little star (English) Lullaby from the Lullabies of Europe education project
The song is a popular target for parodies. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat”, is a parody of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” recited by the Hatter during the mad tea-party, in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It reads:
- Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
- How I wonder what you’re at!
- Up above the world you fly,
- Like a tea tray in the sky.
- Twinkle, twinkle—[3]
The Hatter is interrupted in his recitation. “The Bat” was the nickname of Professor Bartholomew Price, one of the Dons at Oxford, a former teacher of Carroll’s and well known to the Liddell family. It is one of the few parodies in the Alice books of which the original is still widely known.
A Latin translation appeared in Mary Mapes Dodge’s When life is young (1894):
- Mica, mica, parva stella,
- Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
- Super terra in caelo,
- Alba gemma splendido.
- Mica, mica, parva stella,
- Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
The Elegants released a single adapted from this song called “Little Star”, which made #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958.
A version using synonyms from Roget’s Thesaurus exists.[12] An anonymous astronomy parody, quoted in Violent Universe by Nigel Calder (BBC, 1969), refers to pulsars and quasars. A different version of this parody attributed toGeorge Gamow and Nigel Calder was published in Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction by Linda Sparke and John Gallagher (Cambridge University Press, 2000 – ISBN 0-521-59740-4).
The Girl Scouts of the USA placed a full page ad in the March 19th 2006 New York Times containing a version of the rhyme that was “resung by science” as part of their “Girls Go Tech” campaign.
Vashti Bunyan, an English singer-songwriter, composed “Lily Pond” based on this tune. It can be found on her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day. American singer Elizabeth Mitchell covers the song on her 2006 album You Are My Little Bird.
Just goes to show- it’s not what you play, but how you play it…great rendition.
I think it’s important to remember that a lot of these old fiddle tunes are based around very simple singing melodies, and that it’s all about what you do with the song that makes it fiddling. I’m glad you agree. 🙂
Lovely musical performance !