Playlist: Music on Waking
This playlist looks at waking as a musical theme. The pieces explore awakening as stimulation from a change of season or start to a new day, as a move from sleep into consciousness, as a fresh perspective, and as the activation of part of ourselves.
Max Richter, Spring 1
This piece reawakens and reimagines Vivaldi's celebrated musical depictions of the seasons. “It's like shining a light through something from a fresh angle. There's a romance about that, as if a layer of dust has been blown off."
Caroline Shaw, Microfictions V: Waking Up on the Early Side
Taken from a set of short musical stories inspired by the surreal paintings of Joan Miró, this piece depicts a bird repeating its morning song while clouds ‘nod along to the beat’.
Library Tapes, Daybreak
In this soft, evocative miniature a piano is played with the damper pedal held down to create a hazy atmosphere. For me, this represents the transition from night-time to morning light.
Jess Gilham, On the Nature of Daylight (Arr. MacKay)
This ‘meditation on conflict’ sees layers of strings build an intense and heartbreaking sound picture. In this context, waking might refer to a release from emotional tension.
Aulis Sallinen, Sunrise Serenade Op.63
In this piece two trumpets represent a conversation between a melancholy and more optimistic melodic character. The title ‘serenade’ references music in honour of something, perhaps here an awakening in communication.
Ola Gjeilo, Dawn
This work is inspired by the light and stillness the composer experienced at dawn in the West coast of America, which is shared through a musical language of ‘simplicity and open-hearted optimism’.
Judith Weir, Arise! Arise! You Slumbering Sleepers
This piece, based on an English/American folksong, awakens us with the introduction of a repeating bell-like sound. It is dedicated to the impact that can be made by an inspiration figure in our life.
Richard Strauss, Morgen Op.27
‘Tomorrow!’ (translated from German) is the setting of a poem on awakening love: “And tomorrow the sun will shine again…she will again unite us…amidst this sun-breathing earth…and upon us will sink the mute silence of happiness.”
Alexander Goehr, After 'The Waking'
Named after a poem by Theodore Roethke this piece describes awakening as the senses slowly, steadily moving towards reality: “We think by feeling. What is there to know? I hear my being dance from ear to ear. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.”
Lambert, Awake
This track is taken from a body of work inspired by the notion of true versus false. Perhaps the awakening is therefore the act of moving from a place of uncertainty and confusion towards certainty and understanding.
Hausche, Sunrise
The composer utilises the percussive qualities of the ‘treated’ piano (with added tape, felt, and other materials) alongside the energy of dance beats electronic to depict a musical sunrise.
