Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is the English name of a popular French melody named Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman. It was first published in 1761, but the true origin is unknown. Today it is one of the most popular nursery rhymes. (see also: twinkling)

Table of contents

1 Melody 2 French lyrics 3 English lyrics 4 Parodies

Melody

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

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in ABC notation, C major:

CCGGAAG

FFEEDDC

GGFFEED

GGFFEED

CCGGAAG

FFEEDDC

It is also viewable in sheet music notation, typeset using GNU LilyPond, from the LilyPond music collection.

The melody of Baa Baa Black Sheep is very similar, and a variant has been used for singing the alphabet "ab cd ef g, hi jk lmno p,...". Several famous compositions are based on it:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Theme and Variations K265
• Joseph Haydn, "Surprise" Symphony #94

Listen to it

French lyrics

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

(Ah! I would tell you, Mom
what causes my torment.
Papa wants me to reason
Like an adult.
Me, I say that candy
Is worth more than reason.)

Variants also exist:

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.

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 ritournelle

English lyrics

The English lyrics are normally as follows:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the earth so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Then a traveller in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark

He could not see which way to go

If you did not twinkle so

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

The English words are from the poem in couplet form, "The Star", by Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and her sister Jane Taylor (1783-1824) first published in 1806. The Alphabet song is also set to the melody. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a song sung to children and infants.

Parodies

A transliteration of the English lyrics into deliberately obfuscated English was cited in the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak. Though it rhymes well, this version is difficult to sing as it does not fit the traditional melody.

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

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