Episode 7: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

In Episode 7: This week, Gina talks about "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and is surprised to discover the known facts about this nursery rhyme. Join her were she discusses literary forgetfulness, Star Trek, and creepy dolls! 

Transcript

 Hello, and welcome to episode number seven of a A Tisket Tasket Podcast.  

I'm your host, Gina and I am here today to talk about the nursery rhyme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song  index number of 7666.  This nursery rhyme is very different from the previous nursery rhymes that I've talked about, not in melody and not particularly in words, but by the fact that I actually have a real hard cold facts on where this nursery ride came from. 

And so I'm very excited to present that to you today and talk about more interesting facts about this nursery rhyme. 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was first published in 1806. In the book Rhymes For the Nursery a collection of poems by Jane Taylor. Meant for her sister Ann Taylor. So Jane Taylor loved her sister so much that she wrote a book of nursery rhymes, one of which that became so popular that we not only still use it today, but it's a universal nursery rhyme. 

Now I did a little bit more digging on who Jane Taylor was, and I'm really sad to see that her name has kind of been lost in literary history. She was a very interesting, fascinating, and brilliant woman. She was born on September 23rd, 1783 in London, England. And she died in 1824 at unfortunately the age of 40 of breast cancer. Her whole family were literary and she frequently published works with her sister, Anne Taylor. 

Her mother was also Ann Taylor and a very popular writer in religious texts. Her father was Isaac Taylor. And was an engraver and later a minister. 

Both of them were frequent writers on morality and religious advice. And they frequently had their work published. 

Jane Taylor was also credited by the famous poet Robert Browning. In an introductory note to the late poem Raphen. Which she states with suggested by a very late very early collection of prose stories by her.

I'm not going to go on a feminist rant today, but I want you to remember that  this was in the late 18th century, in the early 19th century where women's voices were often silenced. And so I think her literary career is very fascinating because she first published a book called Original Poems for Infant Minds by Several Young Persons. 

She first published this book anonymously and the main contributors were actually three young women Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor, and Adelaide o'Keeffe. 

She also later credited that her family helped out as well. And that was an 1804. 

And when it proved successful. The publisher Donnelle Ru. 

Later helped her publish her later works, including the book in which Twinkle Twinkle Little Star appeared. And so. Hats off to Jane Taylor. We don't speak of her like we do Jane Austin or the Bronte sisters, but we're still singing her nursery rhymes. You know, we're still talking about her work today and from what I've researched, a lot of researchers lament the fact that her work is almost always uncredited. So. 

My requests for all of you is next time you hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star talked about or read or sung to a child. I want you to inform whoever is around that the author was none other than Ms. Jane Taylor. Brilliant young woman who certainly died before her time.  

 Originally the poem was called The Star and it consisted of five stanzas. And I'll go ahead and read it for you. 

Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are up above the world. So high. Like a diamond in the sky. When the blazing sun has gone, when he nothing shines upon, then you show your little lights, twinkle, twinkle all the night. 

Then the traveler in the dark. Thank you for your tiny spark. He could not see which way to go if you did not twinkle so. In the dark blue sky, you keep in often though my curtains peep. For you never shut your eye till the sun is in the sky. As your bright in tiny spark lights, the traveler in the dark. 

Though. I know not what you are. Twinkle twinkle little star. 

And there we have it, the first five stanzas of twinkle, twinkle little star. Originally the poem was called the star And

It was first published with its melody that we know and love today. Mozart's Au Vou Dierji Ja Maman

If you have not, please listen to my episode of Baba black sheet, because I go in depth about why boats arts. Melody is so popular and why it's paired with nursery rhymes.

And it was first published in the singing master first-class tune book in 1838. 

Now I'm going to play a more modern, still older version. A twinkle, twinkle little star. It was published in 1934. And it's a record by Frank Luther in Decca records. And here we have twinkle twinkle little star. 

 Now, this is the version I know in love. 

 Other appearances of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and it is very popular and it has appeared. Among. A number of pieces of literature. Including parodies. It appeared in an 1840 novel, poor Jack by Frederick Marriott. 30 something years after it was originally published. It appeared again 

in 1896 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten by Madrid J hill.  And I imagine I'll be doing more research on this Mildred hill because she seems like another very influential. Woman on the writing and publishing of nursery rhymes. As I was researching this. 

Episode, so I'm really excited to see what else she has done. And. How else she's influenced the, this world in which I find myself researching. 

It appeared again and most famously sung by the Mad Hatter as twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's adventures in Wonderland published in 1865. So again, this is. About 60 years after the song was first written and we still see it quite prevalent in, in literature. And my absolute favorite. 

And this just made me crack up. When I was researching, I was just laughing like a loon sitting at my computer. And adaption of the song named Twinkle Twinkle Little Earth written by Charles ran off green, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy, as in, yes. We'd love to see it, Mr. Spock. And it was included on me, Moise Leonard Nimoy presents a Mr. Spock's. 

Bach's music from outer space in 1967. Now I really wish I could play it on this podcast, but of course it is still under a publishing license. But I will post some on the album images on my blog and I just love it. I'm a huge fan of star Trek. I am particularly a few. A huge fan of Vulcan's and Mr. Spock. And if you haven't listened to it yet let her name, we also did a parody song about Bilbo Baggins with a very 1970s, trippy music video. And I laugh so hard every single time. I watch it, check it out, just YouTube and Google Leonard Nimoy, or Mr. Spock and Bilbo Baggins, and watch it. 

I am positive. It'll make your day and maybe make you cringe a little bit. So that was by far my favorite adaptation of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that I found was Twinkle Tinkle Little Earth published in 1967. 

Other recordings include, if you listened to last week's podcast episode about Hickory Dickory Dock and by the way, I did not know this until I started researching this nursery rhyme. And so I love how these things kind of pair up to what I talk about in previous episodes. But anyway. If you listen to last week's episode, you will have heard a really awesome recording by Edison's laboratory. 

On a Edison. Talking Reel in which Edison was trying to invent a talking doll and this invention isn't. Groundbreaking today, right? Like you can go to the store and find all sorts of crazy recordings and music playing and everything for a kid. Nursery rhymes included. I'm thinking of the wheel that says the cow says Moo, you can find all sorts of, of things that have embedded in them audio, but this is Edison we're talking about in the late 19th century. 

And So in these Edison talking reels, Edison recorded a few nursery rhymes that he was trying to insert into these dolls. 

There is an Edison Reel of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from around 1888 preserved by the Thomas Edison national historical park in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the reel itself is bent and historians did not believe that they could ever hear the tune. They thought it was just lost to history. However, in 2011, and if you Google this, it was like, 

You would think it was like the biggest invention since sliced bread. Sound engineer Carl Haber repaired it. And I say this slightly, cause you'll listen to it a little bit later. Using 3d scanning technology. And so we can listen to it today. It's incredibly distorted, but I'm going to go ahead and play the 1888 recording. Maybe the first audio recording. 

Of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

 And again, if you are a listener of my podcast, you can tell that very creepy woman's voice who recorded these. Nursery rhymes. And again, I think if I got a doll that sounded like that, I think I'd have more nightmares than I would be soothed to sleep. But again, this is incredibly fascinating that this is probably the first. 

Audio recording an 1888. Over 80 years. After this nursery rhyme was originally written. 

If you are interested in learning more about how this Edison reel was repaired and the historical significance behind it. I have linked on the blog, a 2011 CNN article. Feel free to check out my references and on the blog for more information. And speaking of Thomas Edison and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

One of the very early gramophone recordings made in 1887 was a 23 second recording of Thomas Edison himself reciting the first two stanzas of the nursery rhyme. And it is known as the oldest commercial recording of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In here it is. 

So here you have it folks. I bet you never thought you were going to hear Thomas Edison's voice on my podcast, but there you go. And I know this is a little bit of a tangent, but I think Thomas Edison, commercial talking dolls ideas. Are incredibly fascinating. And I found myself spending hours reading about it. And how ever you feel about Edison, you know, Edison versus Tesla, et cetera, et cetera. 

I think he was incredibly innovative and incredibly bright to think about. How to market these new inventions. So not only was he fascinated with videography and audio and Animation and things like that, but he was also interested in how you could bring it to the world, of course, how to make a dollar off of it, but really how could he spread this to the world? 

If you like me have been sparked to research more about this or are interested in, in this any way, I've actually included a number of references that I've read through this week. That is very tangential to this episode, but if you'd like to learn more, please visit my blog at atiskettasketpodcast.com 

to learn more about the fascinating inventions, especially revolving around nursery rhymes of Thomas Edison. 

   So, what have we learned this week about twinkle twinkle little star? Well, I feel like this week was a little short because I didn't really have to delve very far about the who, what, when and why of Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Little STar we know that it was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a Collection of Poems written by a young Jane Taylor meant for her sister Anne. 

And originally it was called the star. And it was paired with Mozart's Au vous dieraj ja maman 

in. The stinging master first-class tune book in 1838. We know that it was recorded a number of times after that, including by Edison using his Edison talking reels and a number of children's records, including the one I played by Frank Luther and DECA records that was recorded in 1934. We also know it has appeared elsewhere, including in novels like Poor Jack and Alice is adventures in Wonderland and in other song compilations like songs, stories for kindergarten. 

 We know that star Trek's famous Leonard Nimoy even got on the bandwagon of this famous nursery rhyme by publishing his own Twinkle Twinkle Little Earth in his own record. 

And so yet again, I feel like this podcast kind of goes full circle. Things that I have researched in the past, including things like Hickory Dickory Dock come to  really inform and influence this episode of this podcast. So I hope that you learned something today and have enjoyed my research of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

I hope you stay tuned for next week's episode , where I will research yet another nursery rhyme and uncover its secrets. If you are interested in supporting my love and passion of talking of nursery rhymes, please feel free to check out my website at a  atiskettasketpodcast.com, where you will find links to my PayPal and Patrion. 

I also have an email address at info@atiskettasketpodcast.com. Email me, let me know what you think I'd love to hear from you. I want to hear what you want me to research. I want to hear what you think about my podcast. I want to hear your crazy conspiracy theories. Of where you think if some nursery rhymes came from. 

And lastly, I want to thank you. The listener for tuning in. To listen to me, talk about my passion. Say to next week, why we'll continue to talk about the weirdness. Of nursery rhymes.