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A lullaby or cradle-song, also spelled ''cradle song'', is a soothing song or piece of music, usually played or sung to children of all ages or adults. The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior.〔Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" ''International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music,'' Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), pp. 118–120.〕 Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants.〔Trehub, Sandra E., Trainor, Laurel J. "Singing to infants: lullabies and and play songs" ''Advances in Infancy Research,'' (1998), pp. 43–77.〕 As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times.〔I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), p. 6.〕 ==Characteristics== Lullabies tend to share exaggerated melodic tendencies, including simple pitch contours, large pitch ranges, and generally higher pitch.〔Doja, Albert. "Socializing Enchantment: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Infant-Directed Singing, Music Education and Cultural Socialization" ''International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music,'' Vol. 45, No. 1 (June 2014), p. 120.〕 These clarify and convey heightened emotions, usually of love or affection. When there is harmony, infants almost always prefer consonant intervals over dissonant intervals. Furthermore, if there is a sequence of dissonant intervals in a song, an infant will usually lose interest and it becomes very difficult to regain its attention. 〔Trainor, Laurel J., Tsang, Christine D., Cheung, Vivian H.W. "Preference For Sensory Consonance in 2- and 4-month Old Infants." ''Musical Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal,'' Vol. 20, No. 2 (Winter 2002), pp. 187–194.〕 To reflect this, most lullabies contain primarily consonant intervals. Tonally, most lullabies are simple, often merely alternating tonic and dominant harmonies. In addition to pitch tendencies, lullabies share several structural similarities. The most frequent tendencies are intermittent repetitions and long pauses between sections.〔Mitterschiffthaler, M. T., Fu, C. H.Y., Dalton, J. A., Andrew, C. M. and Williams, S. C.R. "A functional MRI study of happy and sad affective states induced by classical music" ''Human Brain Mapping,'' Vol. 28 No. 11 (November 2007).〕〔O'Neill, Colleen T., Trainor, Laurel J., Trehub, Sandra E. "Infants' Responsiveness to Fathers' Singing" ''Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal,'' Vol. 18, No. 4 (Summer 2001), p. 410.〕 This dilutes the rate of material and appeals to infants' slower capacity for processing music. Rhythmically, there are shared patterns. Lullabies are usually in triple meter or 6/8 time, giving them a "characteristic swinging or rocking motion." 〔(Perry, Nina. "The universal language of lullabies", BBC News, 20 January 2013 )〕 This mimics the movement a baby experiences in the womb as a mother moves. In addition, infants' preference for rhythm shares a strong connection with what they hear when they are bounced, and even their own body movements. 〔Pouthas, V. " The development of the perception of time and temporal regulation of action in infants and children" ''Musical beginnings: Origins and development of musical competence,'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 115–141.〕 The tempos of lullabies tend to be generally slow, and the utterances are short.〔 Again, this aids in the infant's processing of the song. Lullabies almost never have instrumental accompaniments. Infants have shown a strong preference for unaccompanied lullabies over accompanied lullabies. 〔Ilari, Beatriz and Sundara, Megha. "Music Listening Preferences in Early Life: Infants' Responses to Accompanied versus Unaccompanied Singing" ''Journal of Research in Music Education,'' Vol. 56, No. 4 (January 2009), p. 356.〕 Again, this appeals to infants' more limited ability to process information. Lullabies are often used for their soothing nature, even for non-infants. One study found lullabies to be the most successful type of music or sound for relieving stress and improving the overall psychological health of pregnant women. 〔Chang, Mei-Yueh; Chen, Chung-Hey; Huang Kuo-Feng, "Effects of music therapy on psychological health of women during pregnancy" ''Journal of Clinical Nursing,'' Vol. 17, No. 19 (October 2008), pp. 2580–2587.〕 These characteristics tend to be consistent across cultures. It was found that adults of various cultural backgrounds could recognize and identify lullabies without knowing the cultural context of the song.〔 Infants have shown a strong preferences for songs with these qualities.〔Trainor, Laurel J. "Infant preferences for infant-directed versus noninfant-directed playsongs and lullabies" ''Infant Behavior & Development,'' (1996), 19.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「lullaby」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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