In Japan, the nostalgic song is much more commonplace-it’s used in many retail stores to notify customers that the store is closing soon. Many people hear “Auld Lang Syne” exactly once a year, when the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. Today, of course, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is much better known than the Gutenberg cantata. In 1855, an English musician named William Cummings made a 1739 composition entitled “Hymn for Christmas Day” fit the Mendelssohn masterpiece. Called “Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säcularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst,” the piece was written to honor the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press. "HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING"īefore “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was a Christmas carol celebrating the coming of the “newborn king,” it was a Felix Mendelssohn cantata that celebrated the coming of Johannes Gutenberg. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the song also became the Danish national anthem, the Prussian national anthem, and the Liechtenstein national anthem, among others. "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER"īaptist minister Samuel Francis Smith didn't match American lyrics to it until 1831, while he was studying at Andover Theological Seminary. Of the three, It seems like the first to use the French tune was probably “The Alphabet Song,” but it’s hard to say for sure. “The Alphabet Song” (“A-B-C-D-E-F-G”) was published as “The Schoolmaster” in 1834, and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” existed under a different melody as far back as 1744. As for which of them came first, “Twinkle Twinkle” was originally a poem published in 1806, but doesn’t appear to have been set to “Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman” until 1838. The three popular children’s songs are basic versions of the tune. It was already popular when a young Mozart composed Twelve Variations on "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” in the 1780s. The tune is based on an old French folk song called "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” (“Ah, Mother, If I Could Tell You”). Which song was the original? None of them.
"TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR" // "THE ALPHABET SONG" // "BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP" Some of the most well-known songs in history, like these eight, were once vastly different than what we've come to know today. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is an example of a contrafactum-when new words are added to an old tune. national anthem at a sporting event, take a moment to consider that it was once a song about drinking and sex.
The next time you proudly sing along with the U.S.