For millennia, mothers around the world have sung lullabies to their babies to induce sleep or stillness. But it has not always been tenderness or love that drives them. Some contain a scolding to the child for crying, or a serious threat if he continues to make noise. The oldest documented song recently discovered in what was once Babylonian dates back four thousand years. It warns the baby – in cuneiform writing – that his crying will awaken the devil, and that if he does not shut up immediately, the devil will have no choice but to eat him.
Fortunately, the English lullabies, French berceuses, or German Wiegenlied of the much later and romantic 19th century show other moods, where tenderness and affection are lavished – the construction of attachment, we would say today, modernly. Usually in 6/8 rhythm and with scarcely another chord beyond tonic and dominant, a good part of the romantic composers worked the "form", because it was in demand of a nascent middle class. But there was one that greatly distanced itself from its peers, to this day. It is the work of Johannes Brahms.
Wiegenlied, opus 49 N° 4
Perhaps the most popular and world-renowned lullaby, it was published in 1868 and is dedicated to a lady friend of Brahms on the occasion of the birth of his second child, a lady with whom he is said to have been in love in his youth. With verses from German folklore, it was first performed in public on December 22, 1869, in Vienna. It was sung by the German soprano Louise Dustmann accompanied on piano by Clara Schumann.
In a version for cello and piano, it is presented here by the Hungarian cellist Lászlo Fenyó and the Russian pianist Kirill Krotov. As is obvious, it lasts less than two minutes.
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