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"Sleep now peacefully and sweetly,
look into dream's paradise"
Translated from Johannes Brahm's lullaby
Peace and security are important for a baby’s
first months and years. A wonderful tool for achieving this
objective is the practice of playing soothing music, especially
lullabies.
Also known as cradle songs or the French
“berceuse”, lullabies are intended to “lull” a child to sleep.
Inherent in the quiet, lovely nature of the lullaby is a tried
and true formula. The human heartbeat at rest equals 60 to 80
beats per minute and occurs in a triplet pattern. Hence,
lullabies are almost always in triple meter or in a compound meter such
as 6/8. Melodies and harmonies are simple and tempos are slow and
restful, mimicking the resting heart rate.
Since scientific research on sleep and babies
in the early nineteenth century is
somewhat sketchy, it is interesting to ponder how such composers as
Johannes Brahms and Frederic Chopin learned about, or perhaps intuited,
this relationship between musical meter and heart beat. Brahm’s
lullaby, which fulfills all of the above criteria and is one of
the most famous of this genre, has been putting babies to sleep for
over two hundred years.
The compositions on “Good Night
Lullabies” fulfill this lullaby "criteria” and are a beautiful
and soothing way to gently coax the little ones to sleep. |
