Your first lovesong was a lullaby
Mothers of the World
Humans made music for millennia before we developed speech.
It’s likely that the earliest songs were lullabies. Passed from generation to generation, the essence of a lullaby is always love. And even as we age, we never grow too old for music that imparts tenderness and peace.
Based on ancient lullabies from around the globe, Mothers of the World is an unusual collection of love songs for humans of all ages.
In many languages and musical styles, its message is universal: in mystical melodies of Greece and Japan, lush harmonies from Wales and Andalusian Spain, Indigenous rhythms, and Afro-Cuban invocations.
The timeless power and beauty of these songs is for everyone.
Lullabies are a global expression of the human spirit, arousing deep memories of comfort, love, and safety. Even as our outward lives have changed, the essence of human love has not.
Intimate, soothing, haunting, and beautiful - Mothers of the World will transport you to a place of reflection, comfort, and peace. Listen below…
Reviews
“The music, and Mason, are amazing.”
New Age Retailer Magazine
“Refuge in a song: My first thought on hearing it was I MUST have this. Mothers of the World is as relaxing as a back rub.”
Edmonton Journal
“Jennifer has the voice of an angel. It would be impossible to express the deep feelings this evoked in me. I predict Mothers of the World will be played around the planet.”
Palm Springs Village News
“Despite its premise this album ain’t a snooze. In fact it might be the sleeper hit of the year.”
National Chart
“As long as babies are born into the world, there will be a place for this album. Powerful, undeniably beautiful.”
Positive Times Magazine, Massachusetts
Listen
This ancient cradlesong comes from Andalusian Spain where several variations have survived. Its haunting flavour is Moorish, from the Muslim North African Berbers who controlled this part of Spain from the eighth to fifteenth centuries. This enduring and beautiful old folk melody was popularized by Manuel de Falla in 1914. “Sleep my little one, my soul, little light. Sleep until the morning.”
This haunting centuries-old Greek melody comes from Izmir, a coastal city now belonging to Turkey where a thriving Greek community has existed from the time of the Byzantine Empire. A mother bribes her child with this promise: “Come on, come on, I will give you the city of Alexandria in sugar and Cairo in rice, and you will reign in Constantinople for three years, if only you will go to sleep.”
No one knows who wrote this beloved Welsh lullaby. It first appeared in print around 1800 titled simply “lull-song” or lullaby. The Welsh words mean “Slumber my child on the warm shelter of my breast. Mother’s arms enfold you closely, Mother’s love speaks in my heart. None compare to you my darling child. Sleep gently my little jewel. When you smile so beautifully in your sleep, the angels are smiling specially on you. Sleep quietly my darling.”
This lovely Afro-Cuban song is an invocation to the Orisha Yemanja - Mother of Waters and loving protector of women, children, sailors, and fishermen. Originating with the Yoruba people of West Africa, it was carried to the Americas by slaves during the African diaspora. Sung as a lullaby, this prayer invokes Her presence and protection for those who journey to the land of dreams. The words are a mix of Yoruba and Spanish. Yemanja (also known as Yemoja or Iemanja), is still honoured throughout Central and South America today, particularly in Cuba and Brazil.
This beautiful lullaby comes from the Izumo area in southwestern Japan, but is well known all over the country. The words are delightful - while urging her child to go to sleep, a mother explains why rabbits have long ears: “It’s because his mother ate the long bamboo grass and the leaves of the loquat before he was born. So, go to sleep.”
The Cayuga Nation (People of the Great Swamp) are one of the original indigenous nation members of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy in North America. Both Canada and the US owe a great debt to the Haudenosaunee people and their principles of governance. This traditional Seed Song is a prayer of thanksgiving to the Creator. “I have come a long way to give thanks, carrying my seeds with me.” Chief Arnie General of the Onondaga Beaver Clan taught me this song and gave permission to record it.
Akanda (or Akhanda) is a Sanskrit word meaning whole, entire, indivisible, full, unbroken and complete. It’s a perfect description for the underlying unity of Being that we all know as love. From the oneness of mother and child, to the myriad flavours of human devotion and connection, we all recognize and yearn for the wholeness and intimacy of love. This is a wordless improvisation on this beautiful Sanskrit sound.
Contemplating Mothers of the World made me reflect on the Mother of us all - Gaia, Mother Earth, our beautiful, precious, blue-green home. Gaia’s song is a journey through a stormy night to the dawning of a new day as she disappears back into the forest. You will hear her message of love in Arabic, Armenian, Dutch, English, Gujarati, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Sanskrit, and Urdu.
Immersed in lullabies, I envision the realm of sleep as a vast ocean - warm, welcoming, and deep. Poems and stories from cultures around the world reverberate with this idea. This song invites you to board a ship and set sail for the land of dreams. “You’ll find our ship is strong, ocean deep, wind so sweet. Stars so bright, dancing on the waves, come out and play. Whispering wind, moonlight on the sea. Let’s sail away. Sail into the night.
About Jennifer
Every life contains the unexpected.
Early in her music career, after years of classical training in voice, piano, and violin, Jennifer developed severe rheumatoid arthritis. She put her opera dreams aside and took an office job, squeezing music in around the edges as her health worsened. After a while, her hands became too deformed to play instruments well, though she continued to sing.
In the midst of this, the idea for Mothers of the World arose, with a desire to make music to communicate love and belonging, in many languages and musical styles. She started researching traditional lullabies from around the globe and found an unimagined richness of beautiful music and intriguing lyrics.
From the moment she began, everything that was needed came in ways that seemed magical: musical connections, financial backing, research assistance and language coaching. Her illness went into remission. Within two years she had released a CD to glowing reviews and signed a contract with a major record label. She thought her dreams were coming true.
And then everything that could go wrong, did.
She crashed into a health crisis that required eleven surgeries and ten artificial joints. She developed thyroid cancer. She experienced betrayal and fraud, and her music was pirated. She was unable to work or make music for a long time.
In those quiet years Jennifer became a visual artist. Then a newly developed medication enabled her to live without pain and everything changed again.
Today she is well, filled with energy and gratitude for life. She sings and paints and walks in the woods. She works as a voice coach, and leads a Threshold choir, a small group of people who sing gentle music at the bedside of those who are ill or dying.
Now, more than ever, we need comfort and loving kindness. Jennifer is releasing a newly mastered version of Mothers of the World to share the sense of love, inclusion and peace that she found in this timeless music. She hopes to record Volume 2.
Why Lullabies?
Lullabies are an essential expression of human love everywhere.
No one knows how or when traditional songs sprang into being, but the lyrics give us a glimpse of those who sang them first, filled with vivid images of their daily lives and traditions.
Lullabies impart both our hopes and fears in a moment of unguarded tenderness, and run the gamut of emotions from joy to sorrow. Usually they express a feeling of intimacy and gentleness. But a lullaby may also be a prayer, a lament, a promise, a fantasy, a bribe, or a heartfelt dream. Often they are benedictions, invoking the protection of angels, or the Divine. Sometimes funny or wistful, bitter or sweet, most often a lullaby is simple, beautiful, and deeply sincere.
Research makes it clear that singing to a baby is good for both the singer and the child, and rhythmic musical sounds are crucial in helping infants learn language, regardless of the song. Lullabies stimulate cognitive development, establish emotional bonds, and relieve stress.
Lullabies are such an elemental art form that many of the world’s great composers have written them. We have pop lullabies never intended for babies, romantic lullabies for lovers, and lullabies in opera, theatre, and movies.
Most of us can’t remember being held as an infant. But lullabies may elicit that feeling of safety and peace. Music can touch us on a physical level, gently entraining heart rate, breathing, and brainwave patterns, calming our bodies and emotions.
Lullabies are a universal expression of the human spirit. Civilizations rise and fall, societies change, languages and cultures evolve. But the love expressed in lullabies endures.