Instrumental Lullabies and Nineteenth-Century Representations of Childhood, Girlhood, and Motherhood

Abstract

Instrumental lullabies appeared in publications of imaginative children’s music throughout the nineteenth century. Through music, titles, poetry, and illustrations these lullabies attracted young, middle-class pianists – particularly girls – and engaged them in modes of patriarchal and aetonormative socialization that sought to define and control childhood, girlhood, and motherhood.