![]() So literal, Christmas Eve is a good night. Unrelated, the word for Christmas Eve in Spanish is "Nochebuena." "Noche" is the word for night and "buena" is the word for good. This one is called "Hull A Pelyhes Fehér Hó." Another Christmas song uses this tune in Spain, "Campanita del Lugar." The song is about ringing the "little town bell" because Jesus is born. Ernö Rossa wrote another song about Santa using the same melody. In Germany, it became a song about Santa bringing presents entitled "Morgen kommt der Weinachtsmann." The trivia gets crazier, as the lyricist is the same one who penned the German national anthem, Hoffmann von Fallersleben. In France, the song is called "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman" and is about a child telling the mother how the father would like the child to use grown-up reason but the child finds sweets worth more than reason. Bouin published in Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy as a recreational piece without lyrics. Follow him at ken-jennings.Turns out that this is a popular tune with many lyrics set to it, including the alphabet song and "Baa Baa Black Sheep." The tune is originally by M. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Ken Jennings is the author of six books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. Quick Quiz: What novel features an off-kilter parody of the famous rhyme that begins, "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at"? The words come from the poem The Star written by English author Jane Taylor in 1806. He has a pretty solid musical résumé to fall back on, with or without "Twinkle Twinkle." Twinkle Twinkle Little Star originates from several sources. But don't feel too bad for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The melody would have been enormously popular with or without Mozart, and he certainly didn't originate it. But so did plenty of other classical composers, including Franz Liszt and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. How did Mozart, of all people, get the credit? Around 1781, when "Ah! vous dirais-je Maman" was already an old classic, Mozart composed twelve variations on the simple tune. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was born. The last stanza repeats the end sounds of the first with are and star ending lines three and four. ![]() ‘ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ by Jane Taylor is a five stanza poem that follows the simple rhyme scheme of AABB CCDD, and so on, changing end sounds as the stanzas progress. About fifty years after the melody was first published, it was borrowed for "The Star," a nursery rhyme written by London poets Jane and Ann Taylor. Structure of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. The melody to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is ubiquitous-you may or may not have noticed that we also use it for "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "The Alphabet Song." But it's an actually an old French folk song called "Ah! vous dirais-je Maman" ("Oh! Shall I Tell You Mommy"). Who else would compose one of the world's most famous kids' songs but the world's most famous kid composer? I've seen the claim in Frommer's travel guides, children's books about Mozart, and even (ironically) a book about scientific misconceptions by Phil Plait, who blogs at Bad Astronomy. The little-known fact that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the melody for the children's song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is not so little-known as the wiseacre typically volunteering the "fact" would have you believe. The Debunker: Star Myth #4: Did Mozart Write "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"? These are some misconceptions of truly astronomical proportion. In this month's Debunker columns, he'll set us straight on a whole sky full of starry slip-ups. Luckily, Jeopardy!s Ken Jennings is the author of a new book about the mysteries of the cosmos, the Junior Genius Guide to Outer Space. Even today, over 400 years after the Age of Enlightenment began, plenty of people are still getting plenty of stuff wrong-not just about our home planet, but about the whole universe. Human ignorance, sadly, isn't limited to planet Earth.
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