A lullaby (), or a cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults, see music and sleep). The purpose of lullabies vary. In some societies, they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior.Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), pp. 118–120. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants.Trehub, Sandra E., Trainor, Laurel J. "Singing to infants: lullabies and play songs" Advances in Infancy Research, (1998), pp. 43–77. As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries and have existed since ancient times.Iona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), p. 6.
Etymology
The term 'lullaby' derives from the Middle English lullen ("to lull") and by[e] (in the sense of "near"). It was first recorded circa 1560.
A folk etymology derives lullaby from "Lilith-Abi" (Hebrew for "Lilith, begone").Hines, Kathleen. "The Art of the Musical Zz: Cultural Implications of Lullabies around the World." Miwah Li, John Moeller, and Charles Smith Wofford College (2013): 74.Pathak, Vrushali, and Shefali Mishra. "Psychological effect of lullabies in child development." Indian Journal of Positive Psychology 8.4 (2017): 677–680.Levin, S. "The evil eye and the afflictions of children." South African Medical Journal 32.6 (1958). In the Jewish tradition, Lilith was a demon who was believed to steal children's souls in the night. To guard against Lilith, Jewish mothers would hang four amulets on nursery walls with the inscription "Lilith – abei" ["Lilith – begone"].The Human Interest Library: Wonder world, Midland Press, 1921, p. 87Hoy, Emme. "How do shifting depictions of Lilith, 'The First Eve', trace the contexts and hegemonic values of their times?." Teaching History 46.3 (2012): 54.
Characteristics
Lullabies tend to share exaggerated melodic tendencies, including simple pitch contours, large pitch ranges, and higher pitch.Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), p. 120. These clarify and convey heightened emotions, usually of love or affection. When there is harmony, infants almost always prefer consonant intervals over dissonant intervals. Furthermore, if there is a sequence of dissonant intervals in a song, an infant will usually lose interest, and it becomes very difficult to regain their attention.Trainor, Laurel J., Tsang, Christine D., Cheung, Vivian H.W. "Preference For Sensory Consonance in 2- and 4-month-Old Infants." Musical Perception, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Winter 2002), pp. 187–194. To reflect this, most lullabies contain primarily consonant intervals. Tonally, most lullabies are simple, often alternating tonic and dominant harmonies.
In addition to pitch tendencies, lullabies share structural similarities. The most frequent tendencies are intermittent repetitions and long pauses between sections.Mitterschiffthaler, M. T., Fu, C. H.Y., Dalton, J. A., Andrew, C. M. and Williams, S. C.R. "A functional MRI study of happy and sad affective states induced by classical music" Human Brain Mapping, Vol. 28 No. 11 (November 2007).O'Neill, Colleen T., Trainor, Laurel J., Trehub, Sandra E. "Infants' Responsiveness to Fathers' Singing" Music Perception, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Summer 2001), p. 410. This dilutes the rate of material and appeals to infants' slower capacity for processing music.
Rhythmically, there are shared patterns. Lullabies are usually in triple meter or time, giving them a "characteristic swinging or rocking motion." This mimics the movement a baby experiences in the womb as a mother moves. In addition, infants' preference for rhythm shares a strong connection with what they hear when they are bounced, and even their own body movements.Pouthas, V. " The development of the perception of time and temporal regulation of action in infants and children" Musical beginnings: Origins and development of musical competence, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 115–141. The tempos of lullabies tend to be generally slow, and the utterances are short. This also aids in the infant's processing of the song.
Lullabies almost never have instrumental accompaniments. Infants have shown a strong preference for unaccompanied lullabies over accompanied lullabies.Ilari, Beatriz and Sundara, Megha. "Music Listening Preferences in Early Life: Infants' Responses to Accompanied versus Unaccompanied Singing" Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 56, No. 4 (January 2009), p. 356. Again, this appeals to infants' more limited ability to process information.
Lullabies are often used for their soothing nature, even for non-infants. One study found lullabies to be the most successful type of music or sound for relieving stress and improving the overall psychological health of pregnant women.Chang, Mei-Yueh; Chen, Chung-Hey; Huang Kuo-Feng, "Effects of music therapy on psychological health of women during pregnancy" Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 17, No. 19 (October 2008), pp. 2580–2587.
These characteristics tend to be consistent across cultures. It was found that adults of various cultural backgrounds could recognize and identify lullabies without knowing the cultural context of the song. Infants have shown a strong preferences for songs with these qualities.
Cross-cultural prevalence Lullabies are often used to pass down or strengthen the cultural roles and practices. In an observation of the setting of lullabies in Albanian culture, lullabies tended to be paired with the rocking of the child in a cradle. This is reflected in the swinging rhythmicity of the music. In addition to serving as a cultural symbol of the infant's familial status, the cradle's presence during the singing of lullabies helps the infant associate lullabies with falling asleep and waking up.Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), pp. 118–122. Kogan and Gintsburg, in a study of the mainly preliterate, non-media-exposed people on the island of Socotra, found that lullabies in this culture shared many of the features of lullabies in the western and oriental tradition: the repetition of 'nonsense syllables,' the creation of a warm affective space, and the allusions to ancient customs and beliefs. On the other hand, these lullabies lacked the 'counting elements' found in other traditions, and defined safety as a spiritual space, while danger was conceptualised as both physical and spiritual.
Therapeutic value Studies conducted by Dr. Jeffery Perlman, chief of newborn medicine at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital's Komansky Center for Children's Health, find that gentle music therapy not only slows down the heart rate of prematurely delivered infants but also helps them feed and sleep better. This helps them gain weight and speeds their recovery. A study published in May 2013 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics under the aegis of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City found that the type of music matters. Therapeutically designed "live" music – and lullabies sung in person – can influence cardiac and respiratory function. Another study published in February 2011 in Arts in Psychotherapy by Jayne M. Standley of the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy at Florida State University suggests that babies who receive this kind of therapy leave the hospital sooner.
Additional research by Jayne M. Standley has demonstrated that the physiological responses of prematurely delivered infants undergoing intensive care can be regulated by listening to gentle lullabies through headphones. In addition to slowing heart and respiration rates, lullabies have been associated with increased oxygen saturation levels and the possible prevention of potentially life-threatening episodes of apnea and bradycardia. Gentle music can also provide stimulation for premature infants to behave in ways that boost their development and keep them alive. Lullabies can serve as a low-risk source of stimulation and reinforcement for increasing nipple sucking (feeding) rates, providing infants with the nutrition they require for growth and development. Lullabies are thus associated with encouraging the rapid development of the neurological system and with a shorter length of hospitalization.
More recent research has shown that lullabies sung live can have beneficial effects on physiological functioning and development in premature infants. The live element of a slow, repetitive entrained rhythm can regulate sucking behavior. Infants have a natural tendency to entrain to the sounds that surround them. Beat perception begins during fetal development in the womb and infants are born with an innate musical preference. The element of live breathing sounds can regulate infant heart rate, quiet-alert states, and sleep. Live lullabies can also enhance parent-child bonding, thus decreasing parental stress associated with the intensive care. In short, live lullabies sung by music therapists induce relaxation, rest, comfort, and optimal growth and development. "Hush, Little Baby" has been observed cross-culturally and is known to have a natural capacity for soothing and energizing infants, as well as nurturing caregiving bonds.
Many lullabies, regardless of the meaning of their words, possess a peaceful hypnotic quality. Others are mournful or dark, like a lament. The Gaelic lullaby "Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh Beag" was written in 1848 during the potato famine, which caused much hardship in the Scottish Highlands. The song mentions soft potatoes, the mother's situation, and her fears for her child."Lullabies and dandlings", Foghlam Alba , EducationScotland.gov.uk In the 1920s, poet Federico García Lorca studied Spanish lullabies and noted the "poetic character" and "depth of sadness" of many of them. Lorca's theory was that a large part of the function of the lullaby is to help a mother vocalize her worries and concerns. In short, they also serve as therapy for the mother.
Combined with lament, lullaby can have "restorative resounding" properties for hospice inpatients and their families. Lullabies typically soothe people through the awake/sleep transition, and similarly can soothe people through the life/death transition. Music therapists have called these tunes "lullaments", that which sustain the spirit, support psychological structure, and enable resilience during times of vulnerability to the effects of adversity. Lullaments are music-contextualized expressions of attachment and detachment, sadness/tears and happiness/laughter, privilege and loss, nurturance and grief, deterioration, stasis and moving forward.
Many Christmas carols are designed as lullabies for the infant Jesus, the most famous of them being "Silent Night".
Mother–infant interaction Infants exhibit a natural preference for infant-directed over non-infant-directed lullabies and their own mothers' voice over that of another female.