Visiting Professor for Central European Studies Saskia Jaszoltowski talks about 'lullabies' with the ERC Starting Grant 'CareCentury' team
On May 15, Prof. dr. Saskia Jaszoltowski, the Visiting Professor for Central European Studies this semester at Leiden University, led a seminar on the 'Lullabies' for the ERC Starting Grant 'CareCentury' project led by Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey. Jaszoltowski, who is based at Graz University in Austria, is an interdisciplinary musicologist and throughout her research and teaching she deals with current and historical issues relating to music and media culture.
Preparing a seminar on lullabies, songs or music used to sooth babies and upset toddlers, allowed Jaszoltowski to explore some under-studied aspects of music played near the cradle. Jaszoltowski pulled examples from lullabies both known and under-known, from Johannes Brahms classic Weigenlied, op. 49, Nr. 4 (1868) known as "Guten Abend, gut' Nacht" (in both it's original version and in a fragmented version in the film Ich seh Ich seh (2014), to Yiddish songs like Wiegala and Shtiler, Shtiler and, finally, to some Romanian ("Nani, Nani") and Hungarian ("Tente tente csöppnyi") night-time standards brought to the seminar by the CareCentury team.
Jaszoltowski reminded the seminar that 19th and 20th century ethnographic studies in Europe and beyond (including European colonies) led to the mass collection of musical material for archival and research purposes. Those enterprises often captured lullabies, sometimes sung in situ. For musicologists interested in ethno-musicology or comparative musicology, lullabies offer a useful lens. It is thought that more than 99% of all human societies have used some kind of "lullaby" or "lullaby-like" melody for soothing their young. Further, Jaszoltowski noted, empirical studies on the impact of a caregiver's voice on a child and the impact of music on the development of the child teach us about cognitive and social psychology as well as social linguistics.
She asked the CareCentury team to consider an important, seemingly timeless question: "can any kind of music - almost - function for calming a child, depending on the socialization and cultural environment?"