Swedish Lullaby – arranged by Carol Barnett

Composer: Gustaf Hägg (1867-1925) arranged by Carol Barnett

Text by: J. L. Runeberg

Instrumentation: SATB choir and paino

Duration: Approx. 3 minutes

Date Written:  2012

Composer’s note: Swedish Lullaby is an arrangement of a lovely Slummersång (Cradle Song) by Gustaf Hägg (1867-1925). The original Swedish words are by J. L. Runeberg (1804-1877), "after the German of Franz Carl Heimer (1768-1822)." The English translation by Henry Grafton Chapman appears in the 1909 collection Songs of Sweden: Eighty-Seven Swedish Folk and Popular Songs. The arrangement migrates through several keys, adding harmonic interest while remaining accessible to choirs of many levels. The swaying of the cradle is depicted by the gently undulating piano while the voices sing the child to sleep.

Texts

Slumber, my baby, my darling thou art;
Close thy blue eyes now, thou joy of my heart,
All is as quiet as quiet can be,
Never a fly shall alight here on thee.

Gold are the hours that are gliding away,
Dear one, to-morrow is never to-day;
Come to thy bedside will sorrow and pain,
Ne'er wilt thou slumber so sweetly again.

Angels from heaven, as lovely as thou,
Hover around thee, and smile on thee now.
Angels will also come down by and by,
But 't will be only thy tears for to dry.

Sleep then, my pretty, the dark do not fear,
Mother is sitting and guarding thee here;
Darling, tho' late or tho' early it be,
Mother will never grow weary for thee.