What kind of classical music do you use to wake up?

[Martin Lind]

I have bought a new alarm clock and for the first time I bought one with a CD player so now I can wake up with the music I like. I bought this yesterday and I tried Vaughan Williams 2nd symphony. This was not a good idea, as the alarm clock is not very loud and the music has many quiet passages. For tomorrow morning I will try Scarlatti on the cembalo, this will be loud all the time. Maybe I should have bought a better alarm clock, this was very cheap.

Do you use special music to wake up and what are your experiences?

Regards
Martin

[mahler10th]

I have bought a new alarm clock and for the first time I bought one with a CD player so now I can wake up with the music I like. I bought this yesterday and I tried Vaughan Williams 2nd symphony. This was not a good idea, as the alarm clock is not very loud and the music has many quiet passages. For tomorrow morning I will try Scarlatti on the cembalo, this will be loud all the time. Maybe I should have bought a better alarm clock, this was very cheap.
Do you use special music to wake up and what are your experiences?
Regards
Martin

When I set an alarm I sometimes use the fourth movement of Bruckners 8th Symphony because it 'charges' in, but more often than not the Dies Irae from Verdis Requiem because it's a sure shot for waking anyone up!  In the 'olden days' of cassette alarm cocks, I used Beethovens 5th by Karajan and Night on a Bare Mountain.   But always, if I REALLY need to get woke up and get going quickly, the Dies Irae does just fine!   

[fridden]

How about Arseny Avraamovs "Symphony Of Factory Sirens" ? 

[Klaze]

Hmm, I don't think I would like to do that, too moody when i just have just woken up...
No, the music won't help, I would just start to dislike it ;]

[mc ukrneal]

I have bought a new alarm clock and for the first time I bought one with a CD player so now I can wake up with the music I like. I bought this yesterday and I tried Vaughan Williams 2nd symphony. This was not a good idea, as the alarm clock is not very loud and the music has many quiet passages. For tomorrow morning I will try Scarlatti on the cembalo, this will be loud all the time. Maybe I should have bought a better alarm clock, this was very cheap.

Do you use special music to wake up and what are your experiences?

Regards
Martin

Music does not work for me as an alarm consistently unless it is strident and irritating. I have found that the stupid beeping noise is the least irritating and wakes me when I need it.

But if you want to use music, maybe something like Scheherezade. It will start slow and then build up (built in snooze). Or, maybe something cheery and happy (a Sousa march, a Coates piece, a fanfare, etc.). If you need something abrupt - Brahms Symphony 1 might work. That starts out with a bang. Or Mars from the Planets - that is fairly insistant.

[Bulldog]

I prefer silence when I wake it, so it's Cage or nothing.

[MishaK]

None. My almost-two-year-old has not yet learned to sing the finale of Bruckner 8 when he decides to wake me at 5:30am every day.

[DavidW]

How about Arseny Avraamovs "Symphony Of Factory Sirens" ? 

This.  If I were to listen to classical with the alarm clock it would be Penderecki's Threnody!

In reality it doesn't matter because it only plays for a few seconds before I shut it off.

[TheGSMoeller]

http://www.youtube.com/v/DWSs58HJ0rs

[mszczuj]

I use no music but think the best would be Bizet Farandola at full volume.

[Opus106]

When I set an alarm I sometimes use the fourth movement of Bruckners 8th Symphony because it 'charges' in, but more often than not the Dies Irae from Verdis Requiem because it's a sure shot for waking anyone up!  In the 'olden days' of cassette alarm cocks, I used Beethovens 5th by Karajan and Night on a Bare Mountain.   But always, if I REALLY need to get woke up and get going quickly, the Dies Irae does just fine!   

No love for the opening of the fourth movement from Tchaikovsky's Fourth?

[Que]

For some reason my daily mental clock works similar to the chronological development of Classical Music. 

I used to listen to Bach in the morning - every day! Later other Baroque music as well and since I got into Early Music, I also use the sounds of Desprez, Machaut and the like to keep the hectic daily life at a distance for just a while... before it inevitably invades my mind.

I keep full-blown Romantic and later music and all the existentialism that comes with it, for later in the day. 0:)

Q

[Mirror Image]

I don't listen to much when I'm bed like I did when I was a younger, but something I have put on loop many times is Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. This is perfect for sleeping and waking up to.

[Bruckner is God]

Mozart piano concertos is the perfect music to wake up to.

[prémont]

I do not listen to music until I am awake. But some early music is ideal listen at 6. a.m.

[DavidW]

What I wake up to is not intended as music: the loudest & shrillest alarm clock available. Then my first priority is to brush my teeth, then fill up my stomach, then browse through news & email, then shave and shower, then don clothes.

Music is best appreciated at the end of the day, after all chores & obligations for the day have been disposed of.
Week-ends can be an exception - Vilvadi's Gloria sure is a bettter way to spend a sunday morning than Candy Crowley.

Yes!  Really I can't enjoy anything first thing in the am.  I just need to take myself from just awoke state to at work state.  When I used to listen to music first thing in the morning it was unsatisfying because I'm not in the mood and I'm barely awake and also have other things on my mind.

[Marc]

What I wake up to is not intended as music: the loudest & shrillest alarm clock available. Then my first priority is to brush my teeth, then fill up my stomach, then browse through news & email, then shave and shower, then don clothes.

Music is best appreciated at the end of the day, after all chores & obligations for the day have been disposed of.
Week-ends can be an exception - Vilvadi's Gloria sure is a bettter way to spend a sunday morning than Candy Crowley.

Almost the same patterns here.
Exceptions:
- I brush my teeth after filling up my stomach.
- I browse through the news in the train, on my way to work.

In that same train, I listen to my first music of the day (on an old style disc man): harpsichord, organ or vocal works from the baroque period preferably.
Walking to the office with f.i. Bach's BWV 544 on my headphones is quite thrilling!

After work, I can listen to anything possible, even Sex Pistols or Stockhausen.
But, again, it's mainly Renaissance or baroque stuff that I choose.

In the weekends, I'm able to take more time to listen to orchestral/symphonical music, even in the (early) morning. Nothing wrong with waking up during Schubert 5 or Bruckner 1.

But a Sunday morning without Bach is almost impossible to think of.

[Marc]

Once I get out of bed, wash up and have a small bite to eat I am at the most alert & fresh in the morning (best time for listening) .. things go down from there as the day & events wear on .. night times usually aren't that good because I've just spent the whole day doing stuff and i am exhausted once i sit  .. winding down for bedtime & sleep.

Fresh in the morning.

Say no more, I've had many complaints about that.

(Women. You can't live with them, you can't .... et cetera.)

But there's this strange thing with yours truly.

Without doubt I'm a Morning Man, but somehow concentrated listening to music doesn't seem to be part of that.
And during the evening or night I'm often quite exhausted, too, but listening to music makes me feel alive and alert again!

Which leads to a huge problem: having trouble to find the right time to go to bed ....

[eyeresist]

Related to the awesome choral music poll, Sea Symphony or Mahler's 8th would both be a pretty awesome way of waking up.

my first priority is to brush my teeth, then fill up my stomach

Wrong way round, surely?

[Geo Dude]

I used to listen to Grieg's Peer Gynt suite to wake up, but I grew to hate Morning Mood, so I stopped.  I now use an alarm clock buzzer whenever I need to wake up particularly early.