Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the most popular English nursery rhymes. It combines the tune of the 1761 French melody Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman with a poem in couplet form; "The Star (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2113.html)", by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor, was first published in 1806.
The English lyrics are normally as follows:
- 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!
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Origins
Melody
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in ABC notation, C major:
- CCGGAAG
- FFEEDDC
- GGFFEED
- GGFFEED
- CCGGAAG
- FFEEDDC
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in sol-fa notation (d r m f s l t d = do re me fa so la ti do)
- d d s s l l s
- f f m m r r d
- s s f f m m r
- s s f f m m r
- d d s s l l s
- f f m m r r d
It is also viewable in sheet music notation (http://www.wikipedia.com/upload/twinkle.png), typeset using GNU LilyPond, from the LilyPond music collection.
Listen to it (http://www.wikipedia.com/upload/twinkle.mid) in MIDI format.
Other appearances of the melody
The Alphabet song is also set to the melody and Baa Baa Black Sheep is very similar.
Several famous compositions are based on it:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Theme and Variations K265
- Joseph Haydn, "Surprise" Symphony #94
Parodies
The song is a popular target for parodies. One transliteration of the English lyrics into deliberately obfuscated English was cited in the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak..
- Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific
- Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
- Loftily poised in the aether capacious
- Vaguely resembling a gem carbonaceous.
A parody of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', spoken by the Mad Hatter, appears 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 teatray in the sky.
- Twinkle, twinkle –(little bat!
- How I wonder what you're at)
The piece is brackets is not mentioned in the book, but in quoting the poem people usually add it in. The Bat was the nickname of one of the Dons at Oxford, a friend of Carroll's and the Liddell family. In fact it is one of the few parodies in the Alice books which the original is still widely known.
A Latin translation appears in Mary 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.
Another parody was created for Sesame Street . In a short skit, Muppet composer Don Music, overcoming writer's block, struggles to pen the nursery rhyme. The product of his effort is:
- Whistle, whistle little bird
- Isn't eating crumbs absurd
- Try a ham and cheese on rye
- And a piece of cherry pie
- If those crumbs are all you want
- Don't come in my restaurant
- Try a ham and cheese on rye
- And a piece of cherry pie
- If those crumbs are all you want
- Don't come in my restaurant
Another parody by Ian D. Bush writer:
- Twinkle, twinkle little star
- I don't wonder what you are
- For the spectroscopic ken
- tells me you are hydrogen
French lyrics
The original French rhyme Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman:
- Ah! vous dirais-je, Maman,
- Ce qui cause mon tourment
- Papa veut que je raisonne,
- Comme une grande personne.
- Moi je dis que les bonbons
- Valent mieux que la raison
English translation:
- Ah! I would tell you, mum,
- what causes my torment.
- Papa wants me to reason
- Like an adult.
- Me, I say that candy
- Is worth more than reason.
Variations
- Ah! vous dirais-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.
English translation:
- Ah! I would tell you, Mama,
- what causes my torment.
- Papa wants me to ask
- for soup and for meat
- Me, I say that candy
- is worth more than cute people
- Ah! vous dirais-je, Maman,
- ce qui cause mon tourment
- Papa veut que je retienne
- des verbes la longue antienne*...
- Moi je dis que les bonbons
- valent mieux que les leçons.
*antienne = texte répétitif et lassant comme une ritournelleja:きらきら星