![]() ![]() ‘Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.’ It was no surprise that it was a piece by Liszt that opened my imagination to what would follow when I read the following words by him about his inspiring years of pilgrimage and wandering: Knowing this would not pass the ‘sleep test’, I began to expand my idea of what ‘peaceful’ meant – dawn and dreams were now woven into a soundscape with lilacs and butterflies, Venetian gondolas and afternoons of fauns. It instantly transported me to a hike through the alpine meadows of Switzerland, and, despite the jolly up-tempo feel to the work, I immediately felt at peace. I began to expand my idea of what ‘peaceful’ meantĪnd then I heard Liszt’s ‘Pastorale’, from the first (Swiss) set of his Années de Pèlerinage ( Years of Pilgrimage). Before long, I was putting pieces through the ‘sleep test’, playing them on a loop through the night, and scratching them from the list if they woke me up! Soon, the titles of tracks such as Ola Gjeilo’s Before Dawn and Max Richter’s Dream Solo, planted the seed of an idea to tie the music to time. When I was first approached to compile a sequel to Decca’s Peaceful Piano, the work started as a top to bottom list of peaceful works that helped to decompress and relax. Increasingly too, music occupying this space has been explored scientifically – by such composers as Max Richter in his epoch making eight-hour Sleep. ‘Peaceful’ is an increasingly bandied-about word in the music world these days with every appropriate playlist or physical compilation being issued with this moniker. Listen to Peaceful Piano Moods on Apple Music and Spotify now. But first, all the music had to pass the ‘Sleep Test’ … ![]() Morgan Smallbone reflects on the notion of peacefulness as it applies to classical music when curating the Peaceful Piano Moods 4-CD set and its extended 11-hour digital cousin. ![]()
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