ARTICLE: Why are so many lullabies also murder ballads?

[Ryan Goble]

This article seems like excellent fodder for a lesson plan. My fav. passage for student consideration:

In particular, lullabies embody a mother’s fear of loss, said Joanne Loewy, lead author of the April 2013 study in Pediatrics and director of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in New York.

“This makes sense as the first infant/toddler years of life are fragile ones.” “Rock-a-Bye Baby”, for example, reflects the common fear of crib death, Loewy said.

Read the full article @ PBS newshour.

[camille napier bernstein]

When my daughter was 2 1/2, her favorite song -- the one we had to sing IN FULL every night -- was "Clementine," a song, if you remember, about a non-swimming miner father who could not save his daughter from drowning.  Macabre but she loved it.

[Ryan Goble]

I hear a creepy lesson plan!