Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are !


 
 

History:

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one of the favorite English rhymes. It combines the melody of the 1761 French tune "Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman" with an English poem, "The Star", by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet kind, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, an assemblage of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. A popular misconception, reinforced by its show as an "accurate response" in the new version of Trivial Pursuit, is that the music was written by Mozart. Mozart did not write the new French tune, but he did publish 12 variations on it; these variations are listed as K. 265. Another misconception appears to be that all versions of the song could be qualified as greenhouse rhymes. On the opposite, the new French edition of the textbook was not intended for children's ears, view below.

Several renowned neoclassical compositions have been inspired by the melody: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Theme and Variations. Camille Saint-Saëns, Carnival of the Animals, 12th campaign (Fossiles) quotes the melody. Ernõ Dohnányi, Variations on a Nursery Tune. During the bridge of the Indigo Girls song, "World Falls," Emily Saliers picks the best seven notes of the tune on her guitar as Amy Ray sings "I'm laughing, I'm under a sparkling sky. " Many songs in respective languages have been based on the French new, "Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman. In English, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" shares its tune with the "Alphabet song" from 1834, and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. The German Christmas carol "Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann" with words by Hoffmann von Fallersleben too uses the tune, as does the Hungarian Christmas carol "Hull a pelyhes fehér hó" (the best two lines repeated with distinct lyrics) and the Dutch "Altijd is Kortjakje ziek. The new French verse Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, was far from a children's rhyme. Apparently it originated in the best half of the 18th century. As there was no published edition of the textbook before 1774, several somewhat differring versions of what would get been the "new" edition live.

As for the makeup appointment of Mozart's Variations, earlier the variations were thought to get been composed in 1778, while Mozart stayed in Paris from April to September in that year, the presumption being that the tune of a French song could simply get been picked upward by Mozart while residing in France. Later analysis of Mozart's manuscript of the makeup by Wolfgang Plath quite indicated 1781-1782 as the presumptive makeup appointment. Consequently, in the chronological catalog of Mozart's compositions the makeup was renumbered.