![]() ![]() The name Susanna may refer to Foster's deceased sister Charlotte, whose middle name was Susannah. Foster earned just $100 ($2,774 in 2016 dollars ) for the song, but its popularity led the publishing firm Firth, Pond & Company to offer him a royalty rate of two cents per copy of sheet music sold, convincing him to become the first fully professional songwriter in the United States. As a result, it was copyrighted and published at least twenty-one times from February 25, 1848, through February 14, 1851. Blackface minstrel troupes performed the work, and, as was common at the time, many registered the song for copyright under their own names. The song was first performed by a local quintet at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1847. While in Cincinnati, Foster wrote "Oh! Susanna", possibly for his men's social club. In 1846, Stephen Foster moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. It is among the most popular American songs ever written. In the end, they will last for many more years and offer many more smiles and many more interpretations as time passes." Oh, Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. Today, we sing these to feel good and to enjoy their melodies as much as their substance and context. ![]() Maybe “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” is about taxation, maybe it’s about slavery, or maybe it’s about a different type of sheep, plain and simple.Īs for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the verse is about the dignity of a light shining bright, something we don’t fully understand but that is also helpful along our way. Likely, they have multiple meanings, which is why they’ve lasted through so many years. ![]() The meaning of nursery rhymes and lullabies that have subsisted throughout hundreds of years is always fun to parse. In the next oldest surviving printing, Mother Goose’s Melody from 1765, the rhyme is the same, except for the last line, which is changed to “But none for the little boy who cries in the lane.” Final Thoughts Some believe the rhyme points to prized wool, black, and therefore not in need of dye.įirst printed in the 1744 Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, which is the oldest surviving collection of English language nursery rhymes, the original version went like this: Despite this, some have changed the lyric to “Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep.” But while this is easy to surmise, the thought has little supporting historical evidence. More recently, though, the rhyme is thought to point to the slave trade, particularly in the southern United States. Thought to be, perhaps, a reference to the English wool tax of 1275, which survived until the 1400s. In the 1930 book, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Katherine Elwes Thomas suggests that it refers to heavy taxation on wool. The single-stanza version of the rhyme known today goes as follows:īut the meaning of this verse is worthy of speculation. It, too, is sung similarly to the French “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman.” Since that time, the words have not changed. This popular nursery rhyme dates back to publication around 1744. Hill:Īnother version, a parody of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which was titled, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,” is recited in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll’s famous novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by the character, the Mad Hatter. Alternative Versionsīelow is an alternative version, with a similar meaning, from 1896 from the collection Song Stories for the Kindergarten, by Mildred J. These are the original lyrics to the lullaby: Today, the English lyrics of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” include five stanzas, even though only the first of them is widely known. The song is sung according to the French melody of the tune, “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,” which itself was first published in 1761, some 50 years before “The Star.” That French tune was later arranged by several composers, including Mozart via the collection Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman.” That verse was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Jane and her sister Ann. The lyrics for the lullaby stem from a 19th-century poem-” The Star“-written by author Jane Taylor, who was born in 1783 and died in 1824. Origins of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” ![]()
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