Suo Gân
traditional Welsh lullaby
"Suo Gân" (Welsh pronunciation: [sɨɔ ɡaːn]) is a traditional Welsh lullaby by an anonymous composer.
It was first recorded in print around 1800 and the lyrics were notably captured by the Welsh folklorist Robert Bryan (1858–1920). The song's title simply means lullaby (suo = lull; cân = song).
Lyrics
Melody
Other uses of the tune
The tune is used for several hymns, including:
"As the Winter Days Grow Longer"
"Christ Before Us"
"Christ Has Risen While Earth Slumbers"
"Now the Heavens Start to Whisper"
The American edition of the Orff Schulwerk book Music for Children sets a carol to the tune of "Suo Gân", with the following verses:
In popular culture
An orchestral arrangement by George Weldon is included in the 1979 Classics for Pleasure album "Encores You Love", played by The Hallé orchestra, conducted by Maurice Handford.
"Suo Gân", as performed by James Rainbird and the Ambrosian Junior Choir directed by John McCarthy, is featured prominently in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun, where it is lip-synched by a young Christian Bale. It also appears, instrumentally, in the beginning of the 1991 film Dutch.
The rock band Savatage used the song as a base for their song "Heal My Soul" on the 1991 album Streets: A Rock Opera.
Kathleen Battle performed this song with guitarist Christopher Parkening on their 1996 holiday album Angels' Glory.
"Suo Gân" is sung by the Welsh soprano Charlotte Church on her 1998 album Voice of an Angel.
It is on The Irish Tenors' 1999 album Home for Christmas.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Suo Gân” as traditional Welsh lullaby. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as traditional Welsh lullaby. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1042566. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1800, 1858, 1920 and 1979.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Suo Gân” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.