Johannes Brahms - Wiegenlied Op. 49 No. 4 (Lullaby)

Cradle Song is the common name for a number of children's lullabies with similar lyrics, the original of which was Johannes Brahms's Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht ("Good evening, good night"), Op. 49, No. 4, published in 1868 and widely known as Brahms's Lullaby.

The lyrics of the first verse are from a collection of German folk poems called Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the second stanza was written by Georg Scherer (1824--1909) in 1849. The lullaby's melody is one of the most famous and recognizable in the world, used by countless parents to sing their babies to sleep. The Lullaby was first sung by Brahms's friend, Bertha Faber, as the piece had been written to celebrate the birth of her son. Brahms had been in love with her in her youth and constructed the melody of the Wiegenlied to suggest, as a hidden countermelody, a song she used to sing to him.