A lullaby is a soothing song or instrumental piece intended to calm and help infants or young children fall asleep. It is typically slow, soft, and repetitive, with a narrow melodic range and gentle rhythms that mimic the rocking motion of cradling.
While lullabies exist in virtually every culture, they share common musical traits: simple harmonies (often I–IV–V progressions), stepwise melodies, and meters such as 3/4 or 6/8 that suggest sway. Lyrics often reference sleep, safety, night-time imagery, and parental care. In classical contexts, the term “berceuse” (French for lullaby) denotes a lullaby-like character piece.
Archaeological and textual evidence suggests lullabies predate written history, serving as functional songs for soothing infants. One of the earliest recorded examples is a Babylonian lullaby inscribed on a clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia, indicating that the practice was established millennia ago.
Across civilizations—Middle Eastern, South Asian, European, African, and East Asian—lullabies arose as oral tradition, passed from caregivers to children, and tailored to local languages, scales, and customs.
In Europe, lullabies circulated as folk repertoire within communities and households. The songs were rarely notated, but their consistent use of rocking meters, repetitive refrains, and narrow vocal ranges is well documented by later folk-song collectors and ethnographers.
The Romantic era formalized the lullaby in art music as the “berceuse.” Notable examples include Brahms’s “Wiegenlied” (1868) and Chopin’s “Berceuse” in D-flat major, Op. 57. Composers such as Fauré, Ravel, and Stravinsky also wrote lullaby movements or pieces, helping to fix the lullaby’s musical profile in concert literature.
Meanwhile, the early 20th century saw ethnomusicologists like Bartók, Kodály, and Komitas collect and arrange traditional lullabies, preserving diverse regional variants. The advent of recording technology in the 1900s enabled widespread documentation and dissemination.
In the late 20th and 21st centuries, lullabies continued in both folk and commercial contexts: children’s-music artists recorded dedicated lullaby albums; ambient and new age producers crafted sleep-focused soundscapes; and global traditions remained central to family life. Streaming-era “sleep” and “calm” playlists often draw on lullaby aesthetics—slow tempos, gentle timbres, and minimal harmonic tension—while maintaining the genre’s core function: comfort and rest.
