Lullabies

Lullabies are songs and recordings made to soothe infants and young children to sleep: slow tempi, soft dynamics, narrow melodic ranges and repetitive, rocking metres, usually in simple verse forms with tender, protective texts. The category spans the art-song tradition descending from *Johannes Brahms*'s "Wiegenlied" (1868) and the folk cradle songs of many cultures, through the twentieth-century children's record industry, to contemporary albums by pop performers such as *Jewel* and *Christina Perri* and the instrumental rock arrangements of *Rockabye Baby!*, all of it produced for the nursery rather than the concert hall.