Lullabies of the World by Dorothy Berliner Commins

Lullabies are love songs. Sometimes they are gay and sometimes they are sad; but, whatever the mood, they are always tender. They are the expression of one of the deepest emotions of the human spirit. A lullaby is born in a mother's heart to live on in the child's memory, for a lifetime and even longer; for lullabies are passed on from generation to generation.

The world today is changing swiftly. No pattern of family life in any part of the world can be definitive. Lives do not set like concrete, nor is folklore cast in bronze. The characteristic of folk music has been its flexibility, its power to keep identity while borrowing and assimilating elements from other cultures. Today diverse and distant cultures touch upon each other, for technological development has made time, distance, and natural barriers dwindle.

One day we may find ourselves members of one world. This will be only the fulfillment of the human condition; for, in real sense, there has been one world since beginning of human history, the family of man. Mother love is universal. It survives in folk lullabies all over the world. Though cultures may change, nations rise and fall, languages evolve and vanish, there will always be lullabies. This collection is designed to preserve something of the past and at the same time to look forward to the future.

To the child in the cradle or mother’s arms, these love songs are the first melodies heard. They are sung at an hour when the mother’s presence and the sound of her voice mean safety and comfort. While the mother rocks her child back and forth, old melodies are recalled and return. She sings what she remembers hearing as a baby, what her mother sang to her, and her mother’s mother. New words are added. Slight changes in the melody occur, but the substance and her spirit are unchanging.

The character of most lullabies can be identified with the history of a people. They belong to no composer. They belong to all mothers of a nation or a culture. Like all folklore, the lullaby came into being spontaneously. Need for it gave a birth, and it flowered with a vitality all its own. It has always been so with folklore, whether the form of expression is a nursery rhyme, a fairy tale, an epic or a legend. The first tellers of tales and singers of songs will be forever unknown. Much must have been lost and much must have been gained the new, added to the old, kept alive the folk song and story. The familiar analogy to the tree in the forest is apt. From year to year its fruit is plucked or falls; its leaves are shed, and often branches wither away or are struck down. New seasons continually bring new branches, new leaves, blossoms, and fruit.

Of all folklore, the lullaby may have the simplest and most direct appeal. It needs no words, and even words are used, the infant is usually too young to understand them. The sounds and rhythms suffice. Whatever the words mean, it is the mother alone who really appreciates them. The thought of a cradle swaying perilously on a treetop would only terrify an infant.  Wind blowing and the whole bough breaking and falling with a crash would probably be good a raw material for nightmares if the child really grasps the meaning of the words. What can a Greek baby, for example, know and care about ruling over Alexandria, Cairo, or Constantinople, though the mother blithely promises these to him if he will only go to sleep? Gentle rhymes convey all the meaning to the mother. They express the hopes mothers always cherish for their children.

It can be assumed that most lullabies originated among the peasantry and working classes. Mothers of aristocracy were seldom required to devote themselves exclusively to their infants. They could easily engage wet nurses and governesses. These servants came from the land and brought with them the traditions and beliefs and songs of the people. They lulled an infant to sleep in their arms while they swayed in gentle, rhythmic movement. And when hands could not be spared from many chores that fall to the lot of women, the foot-rocking cradle was invented.

Even when cradles are not used (as, For example, in Japan and in some parts of Asia and Africa) the infant usually strapped to the mother’s back so that her hands will be free for work in the fields or at home.

No one, however, could complain that a song interfered with work in progress. The mind can wander free and the voice can rise and fall in tender cadences while the hands are busy. How can one account for the persistent note of great sadness running through the words and melodies of many lullabies? Prospects less than promising exist for many a child in his crib. Since time began mothers have seen their bright dreams for their children shattered. Sons have marched off to wars; others have lived lives of grinding poverty, of hopeless illness and defeat. But equally important are their visions of a better life and happier times which enter into lullabies. Cares are banished and poverty is forgotten. Courage and gaiety replace longing and despair. Even the song shifts in mood. Lightness and charm come into melody.

A number of the lullabies in the collection have been taken down directly from singers or tape recordings. It was necessary to create a simple piano setting not only to help establish the mood of each melody, but also to convey something of the spirit and character of songs which come from the far corners of the globe. This has required some adjustment. It is well known that the music of cultures outside the western tradition cannot be considered in a western frame of reference if the artistic values are to remain fully intact. For example, the music of the Far East is not based on a harmonic system. It is linear, and it is the melodic line, replete with decoration, embellishment and often great subtlety, which is most significant. The melodies evolve out of highly complex modal systems, often much more intricate than western modes. Our staff and our system of notation are not designed to catch all the subtleties of pitch and inflection. In every instance, however, an attempt has been made to capture this beautiful expression of the human spirit and to preserve it before it is lost. The lullaby is worthy of a place with all the other treasures of man’s endeavor which have been passed on to posterity.