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World Lullaby Project collected by Masguda
Quotes from WORLD LULLABY PROJECT collected by Masguda
Paul Costello (1964): “The sweet sleep comes in a soft blue, in a soft blue, envelopes me, envelopes me, surrounds me. Sleep is surrender – letting go and allowing love to compass.”
Bonnie Quino (1954): “If I cannot sleep I count sheep jumping.”
Abel Rocha Gonzales Pachero (1960): “The Sleep comes to me in a light blue color. I start to have incongruent thoughts, relaxation, mixing thoughts in a strange way, deep breathing. If I cannot sleep I take a cold shower.”
Beth Amsbary (1959): “Sleep comes to me in a deep blue-green color. Sometimes it steals me from wakefulness, sometimes it is nesting in the arms of God and relaxing into them. Busy brain is troubled sleep.”
Emily Teachout (1968): “If you cannot fall asleep look at the inside of eyelids, the swirling colors. White noise, better yet is old-time music drifting through trees.”
Susanne Ohrvic (1962). "Sleep comes to me in a purple color. Soft, quietly. Sleep is sweet, soft, rhythmic, stow breathing dreams processing the day. If I cannot fall asleep I exhaust myself with a boring book."
Lisa Kathleen Johnson Ponder (1956): "Sleep comes soft, slow, and unnoticed – like a fog spreading. Breath slower, shut my eyes, be calm and still. I hear swish of grasses on a sunny day outside with a little gentle breeze."
Charlie Jones (1995): “Sleep comes to me like a light blue color that looks like waves. Sometimes waves, sometimes jumping sheep."
Cynthia FitzGerald (1956): "The Sleep comes to me in a purple color. I think and pray for people I love. Some lullabies are to prevent children's curiosity from taking them toward danger. The lullaby can reinforce a parent's protection of the child."
Margie Hunt (1941): “The good deep Sleep comes to me in a black velvet color. Sleep descends and engulfs me very comfortably. It is a page all covered with black. If I have a trouble falling asleep I think of blackness, especially by the outsides of my eyes and breathe of them. If it does not work, I let one thought lead to another, not allowing myself to remain on any one thought.”
Gwendolyn King (1978): “Sleep is floating over fields of flowers and oceans of fish. Sleep is becoming part of the water as it bends around the trees and rocks.”
Patricia Spaeth (1948): There’s moment when your thoughts get fuzzy and you realize “That’s not logical – good – I’m falling asleep.”
Vicki Nelson (1952): "The Sleep comes to me multi-colored. It slowly lays over me like a blanket. Sleep is a feeling of being safe, wrapped in a cocoon of warmth and peace."
Martha de Carbonel Patterson (1963): "The Sleep comes to me in indigo color, sweet, smooth, velvety slide into warmth. Sleep is soothing, energizing, anticipatory, exiting, healthy, lovely, peaceful, comforting, and necessary.”
Kari Hailey (1968): “Sleep comes to me in a black and purple color. I become still and my mind stops. My breathing calms me.”
Aimee Kelley (1973): Sleep comes to me in stories that travel away from my day and day life.”
Carol Levin (1946): “Waves lapping, wind in trees, train rhythms, overwhelming thoughts bring a Sleep.”
Vicki Nelson (1952): “The Sleep is a cocoon of warmth and peace. It comes to me multicolored like a blanket being laid over me."
Lauren Overholt (1986): “Sleep comes to me in a deep blue color, in a geometrical patterns like a quilt, like a blanket gently falling onto me.”
Rebecca Campbell (1951): “Sleep comes to me swirling through the white light tunnel into the upper world.”
Diana Greenleaf (1949): “When my father was in the process of dying we sang “Irish Lullaby” together to soothe each other.”
Beverly Young (1951): “I love rains. It cleans thoughts. The Sleep comes to me sinking in a bliss.”
Maria Batayola (1954): "My homeland is warm, gracious, peaceful. The Sleep comes to me like warm water, sinking into warm water in a blue color. In my Tagalog language the Sleep called “Matulog". I love the smell of lilac. It reminds me of the soft winds that come, bring smell of Sampagita."
Dusty Collings (1977): “Lullabies in the US are for the calming of the adult as much as the child. Many of them have a scary part. Young families often have no one older around to offer support and confidence. This has been a trend even since the 1700s.”
Dominika De-Klerk (8 years old): The Sleep comes to me in a rainbow colors. It feels like the air pushing my eyes down and I sleep. I like the smell of strawberries because it feels like I am eating them. I like taste of chocolate because it just tastes good!”
Jamie Shilling (1953): "Sleep comes slowly breathing, sometimes moving as a song in my mind. It is a heaviness!”
Judy Healy (1950): "The Sleep whispers in a low sounds. Ocean waves lapping against the shore, a warm darkness, a fading light, an enveloping nest."
Amy Goldberg (1955): "Seed to flower, flower to fruit, fruit to seed, awaken spirit of the wheel, awaken us again."
Margie Hunt (1941): “I love mountain air. It invigorates my body and makes my scalp tingle. I feel very connected to life and earth and loved ones. I feel like I can accomplish anything and enjoy doing it.”
Lullaby.masguda.com
Masguda Shamsutdinova, composer, ethnomusicologist, and writer
masguda@gmail.com
The Lullaby in America
The lullaby is as old as the world. Its main purpose is to calm the child, rocking and lulling the baby to sleep with its monotonous rhythm.
The mother subconsciously composes the lullaby in tune with the beating of her own heart. The biological depth of this synchrony is both obvious and profound.
Singing the lullaby, the mother sends to her baby a memory of his early life in the womb, before he was delivered into consciousness.
The rhythm of lullabies tends to follow the metrical pattern of a trochaic tetrameter: tum-ti, tum-ti, tum-ti, tum-ti... This trochaic rhythm is also used in sacramental incantations to help those with sleep disorders.
The muse of poetic composition arrives with the mother’s belief that the word has mystic meaning. In lullabies, mothers create incantations that promise safety, prosperity, and happiness to their children.
This project would not have been possible without support of the Northwest Folklife, especially Deborah Fant, and the singers, representing the traditional American Lullabies.
Because the titles of the lullabies were passed on in families, the same song may have many names.
It should be noted that in order to make the singers comfortable, lullabies were not recorded in a professional studio, but in the field.
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