Many Songs, One Twinkly Tune
Posted on: December 17, 2009
Did you know that you know that…
- ABC
- Baa, Baa Black Sheep
- Twinkle Star
… all use the same tune? It’s true!
And there are a lot more, too…
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LINKS TO POSTS ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL SONGS
All the songs below use the same tune we most commonly know as TWINKLE LITTLE STAR
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ABCs, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/abcs-an-illustrated-song/
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Ah vous dirai-je Maman, an Illustrated Song Sheet by ELEG for SBWE for the Cute French Nursery Song, from which Came the Tune for Twinkle Little Star
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/ah-vous-dirais-je-maman-an-illustrated-song-sheet-by-eleg-for-sbwe-for-the-cute-french-nursery-song-from-which-came-the-tune-for-twinkle-little-star/
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Baa Baa Blacksheep, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/baa-baa-blacksheep-an-illustrated-song/
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Oh Mother Dear Please Listen Up, a Singable English Translation/Adaptation of French Nursery Song, Illustrated Song Sheet avec Guitar Chords by ELEG for SBWE
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/ah-vous-dirais-je-maman-a-singable-translation-and-song-sheet-with-guitar-chords-by-eleg-for-sbwe/
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Scintillate Globule Vivific, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/scintillate-scintillate-globule-vivific-an-illustrated-song-sheet/
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TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE BAT, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/twinkle-twinkle-little-bat-a-singable-poem-with-pictures-and-a-play-on-a-classic/
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TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE SHREW, an Illustrated Song Sheet with Guitar Chords
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/twinkle-little-shrew-a-little-song-and-sheet-with-guitar-chords/
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TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/twinkle-little-star-the-song-the-list/
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ZYXs, an Illustrated Song
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/zyxs-an-illustrated-song/
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SONG TITLES LINKED TO POSTS
- ABC Song
- Ah vous dirai-je maman
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Oh Mother Dear Please Listen Up
- Scintillate Scintillate
- Twinkle Little Bat
- Twinkle Little Shrew
- Twinkle Little Star
- ZYX Song
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Context of Twinkly Tunes in a Nutshell
- Ah vous dirai-je maman is a nursery rhyme and tune that was written in France in the mid 1700’s. Sing Books with Emily has created a humorous English translation which includes a sing-along sheet and guitar chords.
- Baa Baa Black Sheep was also written in the mid 1700’s and is sung to a variant of the tune written for Ah vous dirai-je maman.
- To dispel idea that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the original tune or that he wrote it for Twinkle Little Star, Mozart (born in Salzburg, Austria but lived and worked in many European cities) did famously compose 12 Variations on the Ah vous dirai-je maman tune in 1781 or 1782.
- Twinkle Little Star is a poem that was written by Jane Taylor in 1806. It was matched with the tune written in the 1700’s for the French nursery rhyme Ah vous dirai-je maman.
- ABC Song was copyrighted in 1835 by a music publisher in Boston. It was set to a variant of the tune originally written for the French Nursery Rhyme Ah vous dirai-je maman (you can sing the same tune with the ZYX Song)
- Twinkle Little Bat was written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll for his book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In the book, Twinkle Little Bat is sung by The Mad Hatter. Twinkle Little Bat is a parody of Twinkle Little Star. For a slightly more spooky version, Sing Books with Emily has created a minor key variant of the song with a sing-along sheet and guitar chords.
- Scintillate Scintillate is a humorous obfuscation of the poem Twinkle Little Star, which first appeared in the weekly magazine Household Words, published in England in 1883, edited by Charles Dickens.
- In 1886, French composer Camille Saint-Saëns used an allusion to Ah vous dirai-je maman in the Fossils section of his work Carnival of the Animals.
- In early 2014, Emily created a spooky, minor key variant of the Ah vous dirai-je maman tune for Twinkle Little Bat.
- Oh Mother Dear Please Listen Up is a humorous English translation of Ah vous dirai-je maman, written by Emily Gleichenhaus for Sing Books with Emily in 2014, the link includes printable sing-along sheet and guitar chords.
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5 Songs, 1 Tune: a Set of Illustrated Songs
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/sbwe-singable-picture-book-set-5-songs-1-tune/
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Addendum, 6/14/2015
The set of songs that use the same tune (ABC, Twinkle Star, Baa Blacksheep, and the others) which originated from the French Nursery Rhyme AH VOUS DIRAI-JE MAMAN has proven to be very useful for many different things.
So that I and use the songs interchangeably, altering the order of the songs for different purposes with different groups, I made a binder. Just re-order the sheet protected pages in the binder and you can use the set to sing for emergent readers, to talk about the history of children’s song, to demonstrate how folk music is adapted over time, to use for the Girl Scout Junior’s Musician badge, to talk about poetry, play the guitar, or even just practice American Sign Language.
If you would like to assemble a similar binder, just visit the MANY SONGS, ONE TWINKLY TUNE page to print out song sheet for each of the songs listed. Put each page in a quality sheet protector (the flimsy ones fall apart after just a few uses). Then put all the sheet protected pages into a 3 ring binder that has a “window” in the front for slipping in a sheet of paper as a cover.
I made this to print as the cover:
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ONE TWINKLY TUNE, MANY SONGS COLLECTION FOR SING BOOKS WITH EMILY BINDER COVER
To view or print this page, click here:
one twinkly tune many songs cover & edge
The second page is the binder edge which you can cut out and slip in the long thin side window of the 3 ring binder. I cut out the think slip and then use the rest of the sheet for scratch paper. I hate to waste almost a full sheet of paper!
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To help keep track of what was written and when, I assembled this brief history which you can put in the binder with the other sheets:
ONE TWINKLY TUNE, MANY SONGS COLLECTION FOR SING BOOKS WITH EMILY BRIEF HISTORY
To view or print this page, click here:
one twinkly tune many songs brief history
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Related Posts
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SING BOOKS WITH EMILY SONGBOOK SERIES
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/sbwe-song-book-series/
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SBWE Songbook Series: Many Songs, One Twinkly Tune
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/sing-books-with-emily-songbook-series-for-the-very-young-many-songs-one-twinkly-tune/
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USEFUL TUNES IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/useful-tunes-in-the-public-domain/
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SONG/BOOK SETS
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/songbook-sets/
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TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/twinkle-little-star-the-song-the-list/
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TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE BAT
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/twinkle-twinkle-little-bat-a-singable-poem-with-pictures-and-a-play-on-a-classic/
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ALICE IN WONDERLAND
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-and-through-the-looking-glass-singable/
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SING BOOKS WITH EMILY VIDEO SERIES
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/video-series/
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SINGABLE PLACEMATS
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/singable-placemats/
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ANIMAL ALPHABET, AN ILLUSTRATED MUSIC VIDEO BY KEY WILDE & MR. CLARK
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/illustratedvideoswildeclark/
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GISELLE POTTER
The Singable Picture Books of Giselle Potter
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/giselle-potter-spbs/
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Using TWINKLE LITTLE STAR to Earn Girl Scout Performer Badge
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/using-twinkle-little-star-to-earn-girl-scout-performer-badge/
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GIRL SCOUT SONGBOOK WITH MRS. G AND FRIENDS
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/girl-scout-songbook-w-mrs-g-friends/
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SING-ALONG RESOURCES AND PRINTABLE MATERIALS
This is the place to find Print Materials Created by Emily
https://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/sing-along-resources-2/
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A Book Cover for MANY SONGS, ONE TWINKLY TUNE
Sing Books with Emily, the Blog 
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