Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques (/ˌfrɛrə ˈʒɑːkə/, French pronunciation: ​[fʁɛʁ ʒɑk]) (in French; in English: Brother James, in Dutch: Vader(/Pater) Jacob, in German: Bruder Jakob), is a nursery rhyme of French origin. The rhyme is traditionally sung in a round.

The song is about a friar who has overslept and is urged to wake up and sound the bells for the matins, the midnight or very early morning prayers for which a monk would be expected to wake.

Lyrics

The original French version of the song is as follows:

Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

The song is traditionally translated into English as:

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John,
Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Ding, ding, dong. Ding, ding, dong.

A more literal translation of the French lyrics would be:

Friar James, Friar James
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Sound the morning bells! Sound the morning bells!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

Nursery rhyme

A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the late 18th /early 19th century. In North America the term Mother Goose Rhymes, introduced in the mid-18th century, is still often used.

History

Lullabies

The oldest children's songs of which we have records are lullabies, intended to help a child sleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby is thought to come from "lu, lu" or "la la" sound made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and "by by" or "bye bye", either another lulling sound, or a term for good night. Until the modern era lullabies were usually only recorded incidentally in written sources. The Roman nurses' lullaby, "Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta", is recorded in a scholium on Persius and may be the oldest to survive.

Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting" and may be versions of contemporary lullabies. However, most of those used today date from the 17th century. For example, a well known lullaby such as "Rock-a-bye, baby on a tree top", cannot be found in records until the late-18th century when it was printed by John Newbery (c. 1765).

Brother John

Brother John may refer to:

For Children (Bartók)

For Children (Hungarian: A Gyermekeknek) is a cycle of short piano pieces composed by Béla Bartók. The collection was originally started in 1908 and completed in 1909, and comprised 85 pieces which were issued in four volumes. Each piece is based on a folk tune, Hungarian in the first two volumes (42 pieces), and Slovakian in the last two (43 pieces). In 1945, Bartók revised the set, removing six pieces which used tunes which had been inaccurately transcribed or found not to be original folk tunes, and substantially changing the harmonisation of a number of others; the cycle, now of 79 pieces, was reissued in two volumes (of 40 and 39 pieces).

The pieces were written as student works, and progress slightly in difficulty through each half of the cycle. However, in modern times, some concert pianists (notably Zoltán Kocsis) have begun including some of them on their recital programs, citing their musical value even apart from their pedagogical origins.

See also

Mikrokosmos

Baby Songs

Baby Songs is one of the first, and longest-running, American, independent children's home video series. Since 1985, more than 4 million copies of Baby Songs have been sold.

History

In 1985, Amy Weintraub and Brooks McEwan founded the company Backyard Productions, now Backyard Enterprises, Inc., to release Baby Songs. Inspired by the music videos on MTV, Weintraub and McEwan created the first collection of music videos for babies and toddlers.

They partnered with American children's musician Hap Palmer, a recording artist since 1969, to create Baby Songs. The videos starring Hap Palmer feature the singer performing either his original songs or adaptations of folk, nursery rhymes and popular songs to live children. The songs are separated by short animated video segments. Baby Songs also released videos without Hap Palmer, or starring other singers, such as John Lithgow's Kid Size Concert.

The company has released 12 titles on VHS and DVD, and four audio compilations.

Video Titles