"bright morning stars are rising / day is a breaking in my soul"

[larryhammer]

My current lullaby for TBD is a Chinese one, "Yao Yah Yao," translatable as "Rock-a-bye" -- yáo does indeed mean "to rock." We learned it from the linked recording, and currently sing it like this:

Yao yah yao
Yao yah yao
Sleep you're safe with me
Rock you till you're big
Rock you till you're strong
Baby grow up soon
Baby grow up soon

Pinyin lyrics found online (without tones, sorry, and my google-fu cannot find the hanzi): "Yao yah yao / Yao yah yao / Bao bao huai jung shuay / Yao ni jang da / Yo liao sheewang / Bao bao kuai jang da / Bao bao kuai jang da".

What's your favorite song for soothing the young to sleep? Any language.

---L.

Subject quote from "Bright Morning Stars," Anonymous.

Comments

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Rainbow Connection.

[larryhammer]

Janni likes that too, though it seems a little long for this.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

this version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcNS0c3iuc) of "All the Pretty Little Horses." I had it on an album in my childhood, and I sang it all the time to my kids. But I love-love-love lullabies, and I have tons of others I love.

... I will have to send you guys a CD of lullabies.

[larryhammer]

I grew up with a lot of Pete Seeger, but missed that one. It's lovely.

... You should!

--L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

"Barrett's Privateers" by Stan Rogers. It's got a story, it's long, and it's catchy enough to keep me interested (so I don't go to sleep, too). Plus, if they're very young, the language won't matter. I had another one that I just can't remember, that was a variation on a hymn -- sweet and soft, but also having a mindless "round" flavor to it.

[larryhammer]

I sometimes do "Simple Gifts" a few times through.

---L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

My grandmother used to sing us "Froggie Went a-Courting", but I've never found all the words to that version, so I don't sing it.

[larryhammer]

There are SO MANY VERSIONS. I want to find Pete Seegar's lyrics, to memorize them. Because that's the only one that sounds right to me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I didn't sing to my kids. I read to them.

But many, many years ago my sister, four years younger, wanted me to sing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" when she was upset and we were expected to go to sleep. (We had the same bedtime, something I resented until I discovered that I could read and write by the streetlamp down the street)

[larryhammer]

Not an answer I was expecting, that song ...

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeah--didn't think anything of it at the time, except how much I loved the melody. I suspect she didn't think about the words any more than I did.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

The first part of "O Shenandoah" has worked for us, and sometimes the first part of "Lean On Me." We used to sing the first two bits of "You Are My Sunshine," which I now hate with the brilliance of suns: overexposure.

darkforge liked singing "Rainbow Connection" till it became requested sometimes as a delaying tactic--too long for the purpose. Sometimes I sing a slightly mutilated first verse of "Still Alive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI)"--except the ones who're in bed, and bake a neat bun . . . though I had to cut or slur some of the rest the time she wanted to know whether there's more to it.

ETA Perhaps I should contextualize: we have a longstanding habit of one book (or story), then one song, then out, so we haven't tried singing our daughter to sleep outright. Before age two I sometimes sang another song or three from the hallway, quietly, but the ritual is one and one. Mileage varies, as with everything else!

[larryhammer]

Oh, "O Shenandoah" would be lovely for this, given my history. (Growing up, I spent large parts of my summers in the Shanandoah Valley, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.)

At the moment, the routine is bath, one story, a small bottle (which we're tapering off), then holding till she falls asleep. Lately, that last has been lengthening, and songs (sometimes requested) have been creeping into that part.

---L.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

My favourite lullaby would have to be The Washing Song, though I haven't the voice to sing any child to sleep myself... *squeaking hinge noises*

[larryhammer]

Oh that is LOVELY.

---L.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I haven't kept up with Eliza Carthy's recent projects and was thoroughly disoriented when I hit play. (In a good way--couldn't figure out why her voice was there.) Thanks, and a second thanks because she's an alto. :P

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I can't find any versions of the songs I sang on Youtube that don't make me cringe. They are too peppy, loud and upbeat in those versions to be a lullaby. You can get the melody though, and slow it down and soften it.

Ten In The Bed worked with my son.

"There were ten in the bed and the little one said, Roll over, roll over
So they all rolled over and one fell out.

There were nine in the bed and the little one said, Roll over, roll over
So they all rolled over and one flew out--"

And so on, with me changing how the one falling out of bed left. I changed the last verse too "There was one in the bed and the little one said, I'm lonely, come see me. So they all came back."

The other song I sang endlessly was Hush Little Baby. I alternated between Mama and Papa buying something with each verse. I made up a lot of things for Mama and Papa to buy too. If the rhymes were strained at times, my kids didn't care and I didn't get bored. :)

Kids like slow repetitive songs as you rock them to sleep. Twenty some years later, I still think of these songs in the same cadence and at the same speed as I rocked my son to sleep.

[larryhammer]

Both classics for a reason. I like alternating who buys the stuff.

---L.

[(Anonymous)]

For my son: "Rivers of Babylon" (straight copied from the Melodians)
For my daughter: "Late in the Evening" (slowed down a lot)

If all goes well, my son will devote his music-obsessive years to Jamaican genres and my daughter's earliest memory will be recursive. --Matt

[larryhammer]

Heh. Though of course, things never plan out that way.

Last night, TBD wanted to be sung to sleep with "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

---L.