Twinkle Twinkle little star? I am doing a teaching presentation (PTLLS) and am going to write the music on the board (for beginners to play on chimes) but have been told I need to credit the composer but I have no idea who it was!

Many thanks in advance

Not always accurate, I know, but you could use this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkle_Twinkle_Little_Star as a starting point and follow up what it says.

Thanks for that - I trawled through and ended up (not sure how!) on an online newspaper which discussed all the different people it had been accredited too including Mozart, but it seems to be pretty much a case of no one really knows! so I think I shall just put "traditional childrens' nursery rhyme"

'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' can be traced back to an old German Christmas carol 'Morgen kommt der Weinachtsmann'.

J.C.F. Bach (1732-95), ninth son of J.S. Bach, wrote a Partita based on the tune, so I don't think you are in any danger of breaching copyright.

I'd have thought "trad." or "anon." should be fine.

That sounds familiar, my teacher has lent me a red Barenreiter Urtext book 'Mozart Variations for Piano' I am working on 'Ah, vous dirai-je Maman' K265 (300e)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_UdK9SAMo

The notes at the front of the book say:

Twelve Variations in C Major on the French Song -

The anonymous theme was known in Paris at least from 1761 and became one of the most popular subjects for variations from 1770. Mozart evidently heard it in Paris and wrote a set of variations on it with an eye to his teaching activities. However, his handwriting in the autograph fragments mentioned below precludes the possibility that the work originated in Paris in 1778, as was generally assumed by earlier scholars. Rather, it is most likely to have been written down in 1781 during Mozart's first year in Vienna....