The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is remembered for his precociousness, his prolific output, and his beautiful and memorable melodies. With all due respect to the famous opening bars of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, probably the most familiar melody associated with Mozart is known to English speakers as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Indeed, it is commonly believed that the tune was one of Mozart’s earliest compositions, written when he was a child for his elder sister, Nannerl. Alas, the story isn’t true.
What is true is that Mozart composed a set of variations of the tune for piano. Those variations were probably written in the early 1780s, when Mozart was a young man, and they may have been intended as piano exercises for the music students he taught. The complete work was published in 1785 and was described as variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman,” a French folk song that was popular at the time. Here’s a rough translation of that song’s lyrics (ah, the silliness of pre-Revolutionary France):
Ah, Mother, if I could tell you / What causes my torment / Father wants me to reason / Like a grown-up / But I say that sweets / Are worth more than reason
So who composed the tune itself? No one knows. The melody of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” was first published (without words) in Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy (1761), a collection of music to be played at garden parties. The collection is attributed to a man named Boüin, but there is no evidence that he personally wrote the music. Although some scholars have suggested that the tune might be as old as 1740, the identity of its composer is still a mystery.
As for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” it originated as a poem written by the English author Jane Taylor and was published in 1806 as “The Star.” Sometime later the poem was set to the melody of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman.” (The earliest known appearance of the words and music together dates to 1838.) As you may have already realized, it’s not the only set of alternative lyrics for the tune. Among other songs that have made use of the melody are “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” the alphabet song (“A-B-C-D-E-F-G”), and a German sing-along (“Ist das nicht ein Schnitzelbank?”).