Originally "Wiegenlied" ("Lullaby"; "Cradle Song"), Op. 49, No. 4, is a lied for voice and piano by Johannes Brahms which was first published in 1868. It's the lullaby (Schlaflieder) that my own Grand-mother would sing to me as she tucked me in to sleep on those nights when I got to stay with her. My relatives came from Germany and the language has always been associated with love, gentleness, prayers, warmth.
The cradle song was dedicated to Brahms's friend, Bertha Faber, on the occasion of the birth of her second son.[5][6] Brahms had been in love with her in her youth and constructed the melody of the "Wiegenlied" to suggest, as a hidden counter-melody, a song she used to sing to him. The lyrics are from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poems. Later,Brahms adapted a second verse from an 1849 poem by Georg Scherer.
