This is the perfect playlist for those early mornings with little ones. As the first rays of the sun are streaming through your windows and everyone is slowly waking up, turn on this playlist as a delicate way to start the day. Check out the videos below for a bit of information on each piece. Find our online library of playlists here.
J.S. Bach- Suite No. 1 in G major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007
This is the first movement of the first of six suites Bach wrote for solo cello. This well-known piece is regularly used in TV and film.
Bach- Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, 1st movement
Featuring a string orchestra, this light orchestral classic is the perfect backdrop to an early morning. It is bright and lively without being in your face.
Edvard Grieg- Peer Gynt: Morning Mood
We couldn’t make a playlist about early morning music without including Morning Mood from Peer Gynt. Listen to the sunrise during this famous piece.
Bach- Minuet in G Major
This minuet is often one of the first pieces learned on the piano, and for good reason – it’s simple but interesting. Bach was an expert at creating simple melodies and harmonies that work together to imply complex music (even when your ear is hearing only two notes, your brain can be tricked into thinking it’s hearing even more depending on the music that precedes or follows.)
Handel: Water Music suite no. 2 in D major – Alla Hornpipe
Fun Fact: This piece was first performed on a boat floating down the Thames, while King George and other royalty listened from a nearby boat. The shores were filled with Londoners and the piece was immediately a huge success.
Mozart- Oboe Concerto Movement I
This upbeat concerto features the oboe and a chamber orchestra. It is sunshine-y and playful and features the oboe hopping up and down almost it’s full range of notes.
Saint- Saens: Valse nonchalante en re-bemol majeur
This is a delightful waltz for piano. Saint-Saens wrote only 7 waltzes for piano, and this one was his favorite of them all.
Ralph Vaughn-Williams: Oboe Concerto 1st Movement
Vaughn Williams is one of the best-known English composers. You can almost hear the English countryside in this piece of music featuring the oboe and string orchestra.
Saint-Saens – The Carnival of the Animals: XIII, The Swan
This is a beautiful piece of music to accompany a slow wake-up. It was written to feature the cello, though it has been recorded by many other instruments as well.
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition – Tuileries
This piece describes a painting the Maurice Ravel saw showing children and their caregivers running around the Tuileries gardens in Paris.
Intermezzo, from Cavalleria Rusticana
Cavalleria Rusticana is an opera composed in 1890. This intermezzo is a an orchestra piece that happened between main scenes in the opera.