Origins of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Hello everyone! One of the most famous themes in the history of music is probably Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I, over my years in music, have heard many "legends" about where it came from. One kid told me that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was the first theme written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Another believed that he had written it, but that it wasn't the first. So, as you can imagine, I listened to my friends and went without checking up on the origins. Until now.
Origins
What I have found, just by reading through the Wikipedia page, is that the theme originates from an old French folk song called "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman." Which several composers, including Mozart, wrote variations on. The English poem, which is used today, was written by Jane Taylor and published with the title "The Star." I found it interesting to read some of the other verses, which have been lost to "popularity" I suppose. Anyway, here is the original French Folk Song:
Some comments I have about the original is that it sounds quite different in comparison to how we know it today. It is much faster, and sounds much more professional. I will say that I am not sure if this is actually the original version, or an arrangement. It is one of the only recordings that I can find that was not the Mozart version. I will say, the original might have been lost to time, and popularity of the modern version (given to us by Mozart I suppose).
Mozart's 12 Variations
I never thought I would spend 13 minutes listening to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but I will say that each variation is unique in character. My personal favorite is number 12 (around 12:13). I suppose Mozart saved his best effort for last. However, I was also appreciative of number 10 and number 7. If you have the time to listen to this, I would recommend it. It is quite interesting to see how Mozart expands on the theme in each of the variations. He does so through many different ideas including rhythm, harmony, and ornaments.
Sources:
** Information **
Thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoyed this short article. I also hope you learned something. Please remember that feedback is always appreciated! See you later!
Also remember to check for: My weekly 7 post, As well as my composer birthday posts (Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.
@cmp2020! You've been featured on Scuzzy's Weekly Music Curation post on behalf of @msp-music.
Here's the link to the original post: https://steemit.com/music/@scuzzy/scuzzy-s-weekly-music-curation-06-22-18-or-msp-music-community-curation-initiative
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
This post has been voted on from MSP3K courtesy of @Scuzzy from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ).
Bots Information:
Join the P.A.L. Discord | Check out MSPSteem | Listen to MSP-Waves
Thanks for the interesting information!
Resteemed, your post will appear in the next curation with a SBD share for you!
Your post has been supported and upvoted from the Classical Music community on Steemit as it appears to be of interest to our community. You can find details about us below.
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeoERDzqJXs2uwJ3BQjuKvTEQf4jjhCxuAr6pt87qkGr5/Classical_Music_smaller.png)
The classical music community at #classical-music and Discord.
Follow our community accounts @classical-music and @classical-radio.
Follow our curation trail (classical-radio) at SteemAuto or help us out with a delegation!