Celia’s Lullaby

Click to view the full-sized score.. Oregon Scribbler.  Click image to enlarge.

 

My mother, Celia Wiebe, has loved music for as long as I can remember.  She often played music on the record player when we were growing up, mostly classical, and encouraged her children from their earliest ages to listen and to participate.  She also sang around the house, and with her children; sometimes she sang solos or duets with my father in church.  Her soprano voice sounded wonderful to me when she sang.

As we grew up, our parents encouraged us to sing.  We sang together at home and especially on longer trips in the car together, passing the time, and undoubtedly keeping we children from tormenting each other.  When we reached our teens, we children weren’t as eager to sing as a family, for the usual awkward teenage reasons.  Even so, we learned to sing freely, at least under the cover of group singing.

Mom also encouraged and supported our music education; each of her six children were given piano lessons, and some of us learned or switched to other instruments later.   She gave each of us the gift of music, not just it’s appreciation, but the joy of making music, which I have written about earlier here.

Mom spent many years of her adult life volunteering to support the Oregon Symphony.  Each of us were given tickets to the symphony on occasion, even into adulthood, sharing with Mom and Dad their love of classical music.

Several years ago, while thinking about my Mom’s influence on my own appreciation of music, I wrote a song for her, intending to express my sense that this gift of music given to us by our Mom began soon after we were born.

Play Celia’s Lullaby (piano accompaniment):

Lyrics for Celia’s Lullaby

Celia rocks her baby gently,
coddled in her arms,
baby stirs and folds against her,
swaddled in mother’s charms.

Celia sings so softly, sweetly,
to her restless child,
baby sighs and slowly settles,
mesmerized and beguiled.