Looking for soft classical music to fall asleep by. So far I have
Debussy - Claire de Lune
Chopin - Op 25 No 1 “Aeolean Harp”
Whitacre - Nox Aurumque & Lux Aurumque
What other songs should I listen to.
Lots of possibilities here: Song recommendations based on Debussy's "Claire de Lune" - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Some more suggestions.
Herbert Howells, A Spotless Rose (get the version by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge)
Francis Poulenc, O Magnum Mysterium
Faure, Agnus Dei and In Paradisum from his Requiem
Randall Thompson, Alleluia
Britten, “There Is No Rose” and “Balulow” from “A Ceremony of Carols.”
Bach - Sheep may safely graze
Mozart - Laudate Dominum, Vesperae solennes de confessore K339
Debussy - Nuages, nocturne for orchestra
Holst, Venus and Neptune from “The Planets”
Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending
(not on Spotify AFAICT, but worth listening to: Holst - Hymn to the Dawn, Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, third group)
Problem with the suggestions in the other thread is they are mostly piono pieces. I’ll listen to the ones you suggested.
“Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben” from Zaide
“O pastorelle, addio” from Andrea Chenier
Bach’s “Air”
Satie’s “Gymnopedie #1”, though it’s piano.
Any of Bach’s chamber music or lute music.
Pictures at an Exhibition puts me to sleep, although I don’t think it’s supposed to…anyway, Mussorgsky
I love Grieg’s* Holberg Suite*-- it’s probably my favorite piece of music. It progresses from light and sweet to almost narcotizingly seductive in the first through fourth movements. The fifth movement, which is one of the best pieces of music ever, is unfortunately not soporific. It is allegretto and usually comes on louder than the fourth movement, but you could turn that movement off for your sleep playlist. It’s normally a violin piece, but there a guitar recording by the Netherlands’ Guitar Quartet that I like. Actually, the fifth movement is not as arousing in this version.
Put me down as someone else who enjoys Faure’s “Silicienne”.
Added moonlight sonata and Holst Neptune before I saw this list. Added a few from the other thread and going to run through these.
First movement only, if you’re going for a “drift off to sleep” kind of mood. The second’s not so bad, but that third movement was never anywhere near “relaxing”.
I kinda withdraw this one. It gets loud at the end.
:smack: Of course it’s on Spotify. Get the version with the Purcell Singers. You might like the Hymn to Vena from that same collection, although it does get loud at the end (well, as loud as a harp and small chorus of women can get).
Maybe try Maurice Ravel, “La flute enchantee” and “L’indifferent”. However, the first does get a little louder in the middle. Get the version with Victoria de los Angeles and Georges Pretre.
Some more recommendations.
Borodin, Nocturne from string quartet #2 in D.
Gluck, Dance of the Blessed Spirits from “Orfeo ed Euridice”.
J.S. Bach - BWV 639 - Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (for organ).
Here’s my post from “Slow, quiet and sad. Classical recommendations”. I knew I’d done something like this before, but I couldn’t remember exactly where. FYI items 2, 3, 4 and 6 are piano pieces.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=16373300&highlight=sarabande#post16373300
Note that some of the other posters there suggest pieces that contain loud passages.
JS Bach: Goldberg Variations and Schlummert ein, ihr matte Augen (particularly the recording with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson)
Canteloube: Baïlero and Soun, soun, béni, béni from Songs of the Auvergne
Any Nocturnes by Chopin or John Field
Satie: Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies
Brahms *Intermezzi *Op. 117/8/9
Vaughan Williams: Norfolk Rhapsodies and Fantasia on Greensleeves
Angelika Kirschlager issued a whole album of lullabies with the title When Night Falls - should be plenty there.