SSA Chorus (a cappella)

Recommended for: Middle School and Older

The tune variously known as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” and “The Alphabet Song” was originally sung in France to the words “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman.” (Ah, shall I tell you, mother). In its oldest forms, the song tells of a young woman’s awakening to love, but a text more suitable for children is sung in the nursery. Mozart’s set of 12 variations on the melody belongs to a long history of arrangements and appropriation. Indeed, the earliest known publication of the folk song, dating from Paris in 1761, already employs the melody as the basis for variations. Beethoven would improvise on the tune in a 1798 concert in Prague, and numerous composers—ranging from Adolphe Adam in his 1849 comic opera Le toréador) to Camille Saint-Saëns (in the 1886 Carnival of the Animals) have utilized it. This new a cappella arrangement, sung in French and English was composed by Francisco J. Núñez for the Mostly Mozart debut of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City in 2017, continuing a distinguished tradition.

Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman Ah! Shall I tell you, mother

Ce qui cause mon tourment? What is tormenting me?

Papa veut que je raisonne Papa wants me to reason

Comme une grande personne. Like a grown-up person.

Moi je dis que les bonbons Me, I say that sweets

Valent mieux que la raison. Are worth more than reasoning.

Twinkle twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are.