Search - Various Artists :: World Sings Goodnight: World Lullabies

Lullabies from around the World to put your kids to sleep

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 02/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always had a pet theory that with babies and small animals HOW you say something is always more important than WHAT you say. "The World Sings Goodnight" would certainly seem to put that theory to test as it offers lullabies from 33 different cultures, each sung in its native tongue. This means only a handful are sung in English and that until they are old enough to read the liner notes your little ones are never going to know what these songs are about. This is probably a good thing because there are songs that tell children "to wake you up we'll cut off your ears" and contemplate giving them to a witch or a bad man. My favorite is the lullaby from Egypt where the parent promises to bring the child two pairs of pigeons to eat or two pairs of black beetles to play with, but quickly explains to the animals that this is only being said to the baby so he will sleep. These lullabies are sung either a capella or with the simple instrumentation of the culture, which can mean anything from end-blown bamboo flute to hurdy-gurdy to goat bells and hammered dulcimer. There is even on song accompanied by crickets. One nice thing about this album is that gender does not matter when it comes to singing a baby to sleep. Males sing the Indonesian lullaby where the mother pleads "Sleep and grow up well, honey, so that you can protect me later, because your father has gone away and forgotten you" and the Ogalia Sioux song where a woman sees the ghost of her dead husband (thus we learn that lullabies do not need to contain the typical lullaby references found in every typical lullaby to be an effective lullaby). There are also several nice examples of lullabies involving sweet harmonies between a pair of singers, including a piece written by producers Tom and Susan Wasinger that is quite lovely. These songs collected from five continents are song by "folk" voices in an effort to have these songs sung by people who have really had to persuade babies and young children to go to sleep. Final Note: I was listening to this CD in the morning and I almost fell asleep, so there is a very good chance it will work on your little ones as well."

Superb Collection

Thomas E. Jones | Boulder, CO | 07/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Excellent collection of lullabies from around the world. Beautifully produced. Adults will enjoy this one just as much as the younger set. Listen to this and skip your valium."