Sun make wise wake Go do great thing

When waking up in the morning, I would encounter an increasingly nagging issue:

I wanted to hear instrumental classical music that elevated my spirit without slowing down my tempo.

For the sake of getting stuff done, my groggy morning spirit craved something light and easy with a kinetic punch to it. Something with an optimistic brevity that sounded like the tiny clockwork of a wristwatch. A sonic manifestation of productivity, itself.

Shortly after embarking to hunt down this sound, I encountered a consistent dilemma. Every classical playlist I found was full of slow, schmaltzy pieces that dragged my energy levels to the bottom of the ocean. Even when checking something as simple as a standard Classical Piano playlist, the selections set forth with the same sluggardly tone. Beethoven’s Fur Elise. Chopin’s Nocturnes, Op. 9: No. 2 in E-flat Major: Andante. Debussy’s Claire de lune. Pieces just as musically important as they are beautiful, yet they didn’t capture the nimble sound of the morning.

Even when looking for more vigorous morning pieces, I could only scrimmage up popular pieces with brooding tones, almost always in minor keys. Moonlight Sonata (Movement III). Vivaldi’s Winter (Movement I). Chopin’s Fantasie-impromptu. All well-renowned pieces with palpable energy, but far too domineering for my morning.

Mornings ought to be abundantly serene. peaceful. Morning Mood from Grieg’s Peer Gynt perfectly encapsulates the appropriate morning feeling. New beginnings, the smell of Spring, clear sunshine warmly illuminating the windows. These pictures fittingly characterize the perfect morning.

One day, however, my journey was forever altered. And it all began with Mozart.

My discovery of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545 “Sonata facile”: I. Allegro held the exact sound I had been looking for. There’s a specific synapse that blooms in my brain when the pianist tingles its numerous runs with ease. The piece’s diatonic purity reminds me heavily of an elementary child performing heavily intermediate pieces like this with ease, promoting an overall productivity aesthetic. Moving up and down the C major scale through its different modes continued this music school aesthetic further reminding me of the music excellence I had been surrounded by in my upbringing.

And of course, the piece sounds effortlessly nimble. That’s the crux.

Upon realizing the secret to this sound lied in the nimble piano etude, I was able to connect the dots to other relevant pieces to begin building a fitting playlist for the quiet, productive, hope-filled morning. The tastes of Masakatsu Takagi, J-Ambient pianist immediately came to mind. Arpeggios and runs from Elijah Fox also consistently wormed their way through my eardrums. Even Reichian phases would influence the likes of Franco Albertini.

Sounds of this nature are a tight balance. With the most iconic classical piano pieces, gallons of sentimentality seep through the seams of each measure. Clair de lune cannot be simply listened to. Within its three minute walls it carries with it a spectrum of beauty too weighty to bear in the simplicity of the morning. The baggage that deeply moving pieces carry in their sorrows and joys renders them unfitting for a truly fresh beginning.

If we are to begin again each day, we must look forward. There is a time and place for everything and the morning is for what bright encounters lie ahead.