The Star

I came upon this sly parody of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and thought it would be cool to make a fun, easy, singable version of the piece. Most of the piano part is lfited straight from Herr Mozart's Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman piano varitaions (see below). After singing the hepped up astronomy version's three verses the choir then sings the Twinkle verse we all know-- as if the choir and audience can now relax a bit and come back to terra firma- er, sorry, familiar earth!

The Star, now commonly known as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, by Jane Taylor, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems and melodies by Taylor and her sister Ann.  Taylor coupled her poem with the 18^th century French melody "Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman",  a song about love, not a little star. Mozart's Variations on “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman”, originally thought to have been composed in 1778 while Mozart stayed in Paris half of that year, now are believed to have been composed in 1781 or 1782, as reflected in the Kochel catalog listings as K. 265.

The poem, which actually has five verses, has been parodied often, most notably by Lewis Carroll (Twinkle, twinkle little bat, how I wonder what you’re at…). The text used here was probably written by an unemployed astronomer or etymologist with too much spare time!