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Bilingual Bedtime/German songs
BewegungsliedAction song

Häschen in der Grube.

Häschen in der Grube saß und schlief

The melody of Häschen in der Grube 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. Häschen in der Grube saß und schlief.hehs-khuhn in dair groo-buh zahs oont shleef.Little hare in the hollow sat and slept.
  2. Armes Häschen bist du krank,ahr-muhs hehs-khuhn bist doo krahnk,Poor little hare, are you sick,
  3. dass du nicht mehr hüpfen kannst?dahs doo nikht mair hewp-fuhn kahnst?that you cannot hop any more?
  4. Häschen, hüpf! Häschen, hüpf!hehs-khuhn, hewpf! hehs-khuhn, hewpf!Little hare, hop! Little hare, hop!

About this song

A circle game written down by Friedrich Fröbel in 1840: children join hands around a crouching hare, and at Häschen, hüpf! it jumps up and hops away. Böhme sets it to the old tune Wer die Gans gestohlen hat, whose second half and repeats are not the ones sung today. Grube is the hare’s hollow.

Where it comes from

The words: Franz Magnus Böhme, Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1897), S. 577.

The tune: Franz Magnus Böhme, Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel (1897), Nr. 409 'Häschen in der Grube', p. 577 (archive.org bub_gb_va1EAQAAIAAJ, leaf n644): the primary engraved melody, headed 'Alte Volksweise: "Wer die Gans gestohlen hat." Mit dem Text wie hier zuerst bei Fröbel', F major, 2/4, transcribed note for note across two five-bar systems: 30 notes, 29 lyric syllables (the eighth-eighth pair on 'und' is a written-out two-note melisma). Böhme also engraves an unrelated second tune for the same words on the same page, headed 'Andere Melodie' and 'In Thüringen gehört' (D major); that variant was not used.

From the book

Bilingual Bedtime

Thirty-Seven German Songs for Children

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Hoppe, hoppe, ReiterAll 37 songsHopp, hopp, hopp
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