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Bilingual Bedtime/German songs
RingelreihenCircle dance

Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann.

The melody of Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann on a staff, as engraved in the book
Historische Fassung · Historical version
Download the tune

The melody as written on the staff, so you can learn the tune before you sing.

  1. Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann in unserm Haus herum, di-dum!ehs tahntst ain bee-bah-boot-suh-mahn in oon-zerm hows heh-room, dee-doom!A Bi-Ba-bogeyman dances around in our house, di-dum!
  2. Er rüttelt sich, er schüttelt sich,air rewt-tuhlt zikh, air shewt-tuhlt zikh,He jiggles himself, he shakes himself,
  3. Er wirft sein Säckchen hinter sich.air virft zain zehk-khuhn hin-ter zikh.He throws his little sack behind him.
  4. Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann in unserm Haus herum.ehs tahntst ain bee-bah-boot-suh-mahn in oon-zerm hows heh-room.A Bi-Ba-bogeyman dances around in our house.

About this song

Böhme printed this ring game in 1897, from Thuringia and Hesse; the words go back to Des Knaben Wunderhorn of 1808, which has plain Butzemann. His tune is not the one families sing today. A Butzemann is a shaggy house goblin with a sack: circle him, shake yourself, toss the sack over a shoulder.

Where it comes from

The words: Franz Magnus Böhme, Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1897), S. 96.

The tune: Franz Magnus Böhme, Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1897), Nr. 439 'Der Butzemann', S. 96, headed 'Aus Thüringen und Hessen': the tune is engraved on the same page as the words, G major, 2/4, an eighth-note upbeat and a fermata on 'sich.'. Transcribed by eye from the archive.org page image (item bub_gb_va1EAQAAIAAJ, leaf n164) and confirmed on a second scan of the same page (item DeutschesKinderliedUndKinderspiel, leaf n172). Böhme repeats his opening strain with first and second endings; this engraving writes that single pass out so the staff and the printed words agree. Cross-check: this is NOT the tune German families sing today. The de.wikipedia score block for 'Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann' carries a different melody, the one first printed with this text by Johann Lewalter (Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel, Kassel: Vietor 1911, S. 25 Nr. 48) and related to Wenzel Müller's 1794 Singspiel. Lewalter's own page could not be opened: it is not on archive.org, HathiTrust holds it as US-only behind a bot wall (htids inu.30000118321755 and uc1.b3111474), and Google Books search is blocked. The Deutsches Volksliedarchiv's Liederlexikon quotes his text as Edition D ('Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Bozemann in unserm Haus herum didum'), so his headword is Bozemann and his upbeat word is the same two-syllable didum as Böhme's, but that page carries no notation. Böhme's period tune is kept, as the source print's reading is

From the book

Bilingual Bedtime

Thirty-Seven German Songs for Children

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Ringel, Ringel, ReiheAll 37 songsAlle meine Entchen
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