Schubert lullaby for baby

What this sound is

The Schubert lullaby is the Wiegenlied Franz Schubert composed in 1816 at the age of nineteen, listed as D. 498 in the Deutsch catalogue. The card in the app says it in one line: D. 498, around since 1816. The melody moves in a slow, almost motionless four-four: short phrases, small steps, long resting notes. Of the three lullabies it is the least animated: Brahms rocks, the Mozart lullaby stirs gently, Schubert stands still. The melody is in the public domain; the version in Agubu plays, like the other two lullabies, in a music-box tone and without words, repeating until the timer fades it out. That stillness makes it the piece for the very end of the routine, when your baby's eyes are about to close.

Why it may help

A lullaby does not mask; it gives a sleep signal learned through repetition. When the same melody plays in the same order every evening, a baby starts to recognise the signal within a few weeks; the routine matters more than the sound. The still tempo suits moving your baby from your arms to the cot: as the motion slows, the music is slow too, and the transfer is less noticeable. On the evidence, small studies suggest lullabies calm babies, mostly sung live; for recordings the evidence is weaker. It will not work for every baby; for some, a melody this slow means nothing and a steady noise does better. Keep the routine a few weeks; the sleep log will tell.

Safe use

Because the melody is slow and quiet the urge to turn it up is natural; the rule is the same as for the noises and is set out in the white noise guide.

• Keep the volume low: the level recommended for hospital nurseries is about 50 decibels. The practical test is simple: if you can talk in a normal voice in the room and still be heard easily, the level is fine; if the sound drowns you out, it is too loud.
• Do not put the phone or speaker in the cot or on its edge. Keep it at least one to two metres away, and avoid headphones, sound toys attached to the cot and any speaker close to the baby's ear.
• Use the timer. Fading the sound out 20 to 30 minutes after your baby has fallen asleep is usually enough. If you leave it on through the night, keep the level genuinely low.
• Turn it down once your baby has settled, and do not let a loud setting become the habit even briefly. Do not leave it running all day while your baby is awake, because it masks the speech they learn from.
• If the silence after the melody ends wakes your baby, put low rain or pink noise underneath and set the timer for that instead.

How to play it in Agubu

1. Open Agubu, go to the Sounds tab at the bottom and tap the Schubert's lullaby card under Lullaby. This sound is part of the Premium library, so the card shows a Premium badge until you subscribe. The eight free sounds and the timer stay open to everyone. It plays on your device offline, with nothing to download.
2. Set the volume with your own ears first: if you can speak in a normal voice in the room and still be heard, it is low enough. Place the phone one to two metres from the cot.
3. Tap Timer and pick a duration. When it runs out the sound does not stop abruptly; it fades down slowly. Twenty to thirty minutes after your baby has fallen asleep is enough on most nights.
4. If you like, layer it in the Mixer: a low womb sound or rain under the Schubert lullaby avoids the drop into silence when the melody ends. The Mixer is a Premium feature and blends up to four sounds at separate levels. Sounds play without ads and the app needs no internet connection.

When to use it

• As the very last step of the bedtime routine, while moving your baby from your arms to the cot.
• After the evening fussy hour has passed, as the final signal that carries a calmed baby into sleep.
• At night wakings, when you want to resettle your baby with a familiar signal without picking them up; kept low.