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Who made twinkle twinkle little star5/17/2023 ![]() Sump mouthed to him, “just keep going.” As a polite gesture, I later erased the video.Ībout five years into his piano lessons, Larry sat down on the bench at 3:00 pm one Thursday afternoon and warmed up with his scales and arpeggios. ![]() As a non-player, I would think that this is your worst nightmare coming true. Halfway through “Dreaming of a White Christmas,” Larry lost his place on the keys. Sump arranged to accompany him on another piano a duet of a Christmas carol and the captive audience would be joining in song. He is unfazed lecturing to a room full of docs, but do not put him on a stage with children at a piano recital! His most supportive, proud family had a hard time keeping straight faces whenever he made his way to the grand piano in the Cadek recital hall. Larry can pull a medical lecture out of his hat and without any nervousness, can wax eloquent about the advances of immunotherapy in treatment, or the implications of certain risk factors in a specific cancer. What a good sport! Yes, the kids and I secretly snickered at him. For several years on recital evening, there would be about a dozen kids, aged kindergarten through high school, and Dr. Sump for teaching him that he had a difficult time telling her that he would rather not participate in the twice-a-year recitals that she held for her students. He is really good! And he is nothing if not diligent. It is most impressive that someone could begin at that age and learn to play classical pieces. Piano playing has become his solace and calms his soul after a long day of oncology. Perhaps there is something to be said for unrequited childhood dreams. He was by far the most enthusiastic of the quartet. Sump taught a fourth Schlabach how to tickle the ivories. I promise, unlike my children, I will practice every day.” And so Ms. Sump: “Would you be willing to take me on as a student? I’ve always wanted to learn piano but never had the opportunity as a child. Several years after the last child was finished with piano lessons, I heard their fifty year old father make a phone call to Ms. To varying degrees, they enjoyed learning to play and now have a good foundation, but by middle school, they had all moved on to other interests. Our rule was, lessons through fifth grade and then you have the choice to continue or not. Starting at age seven, all three kids took piano lessons from the wonderful Janet Sump, an instructor at our local Cadek Conservatory of Music, housed at that time at The University of Tennessee Chattanooga. We bought a piano when our kids were preschool age, a nod to how profoundly we valued the effect of learning music on a developing mind. All this time we thought a lowly wet nurse hummed out the childish melody whilst rocking a restless little one to sleep! His work is called “Twelve variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman.” Fascinating to hear of its regal roots. ![]() In his mid-twenties while living in France, Mozart was exposed to a French children’s folk melody called “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman.” From this song, he composed a set of theme-and-variations for the piano. In 1838, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” was set to a piece of music which was scripted by Mozart, nearly six decades earlier. The words of this nursery rhyme are based on a poem written in 1806 by the English poet, Jane Taylor. Ever the teacher, Larry quizzed the ‘rents if they knew the origin of the song. She beamed delightedly as we eagerly made fools of ourselves. The song is in the public domain, and has many adaptations around the world.Yesterday Larry and I were video chatting with our little Nora (and her ‘rents) since conversations with ten month olds are rather one-sided, we sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to her, something we did when we were with her in person. This song is usually performed in the key of C major. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7666. The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. It is sung to the tune of the French melody " Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The poem was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. ![]() The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor, "The Star". " Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English lullaby.
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