From ancient times, humankind has not just relied on the sun; we have worshiped it. It’s no surprise then that the sun has been a potent inspiration for artists and musicians across the centuries.
So put on your sunglasses and grab your sunscreen! Today we’re looking at ten of the best pieces of classical music about the sun.
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William Byrd: O God that Guides the Cheerful Sun (ca. 1611)
English composer William Byrd included his song “O God that Guides the Cheerful Sun” in his 1611 song collection Psalmes, Songs, and Sonnets.
The song’s subtitle is “A Carol for New Year’s Day.” The lyrics compare the cycle of the sun rising and setting with the cycle of an old year ending and a new one beginning.
The song has six parts. A solo voice sings the first part, and a larger group sings the chorus.
Thomas Arne: The Morning Cantata (1755)
Composer Thomas Arne was born in 1710 in Covent Garden in London. He is best known for writing the patriotic song “Rule, Britannia”, although he wrote many other works, too.
The first movement of his cantata The Morning is called “The Glitt’ring Sun.”
It describes the rising sun and all of the sights and sounds that follow: a warbling lark, growing flowers, and shepherds playing on their pipes.
The narrator also wistfully describes the absence of Delia, the “lovely maid” who is the narrator’s beloved.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet No. 63 “Sunrise” (1797-98)
Haydn’s “Sunrise” quartet comes from his opus 76, which is a set of six string quartets.
The fourth quartet from this set – Haydn’s sixty-third overall – is nicknamed “Sunrise” after the work’s opening violin line, which slowly climbs upward, much like the sun rises in the sky.
This “sunrise” motif is supported by sustained chords in the other three instruments. That motif shifts from instrument to instrument throughout the first movement. In between, thrilling, bustling passagework breaks out.
Carl Nielsen: Helios Overture (1903)
In 1903, sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen won a prize called the Anckerske Grant, which enabled her to travel to Constantinople and Athens to study art. She brought along her husband, Carl Nielsen, who was deeply inspired by the landscapes they saw.
Nielsen wrote the Helios Overture in 1903. Over the course of ten dramatic minutes, it portrays the rising and setting of the sun over the Aegean Sea.
This is Nielsen’s own description of the program of this work: “Silence and darkness, The sun rises with a joyous song of praise, It wanders its golden way and sinks quietly into the sea.”
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Songs of Sun and Shade (1911)
British-Sierra Leonean composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor wrote his five Songs of Sun and Shade in 1911, the year before his early death at the age of thirty-seven from pneumonia.
The lyrics were written by British poet Radclyffe Hall.
The first song describes the narrator’s beloved, asleep in the sunshine. The third personifies “sunshine” and the “stormwind”, describing how the two met and created a rainbow.
The sunshine met the stormwind
As he swept across the plain,
And she wooed him till he lov’d her,
And his kisses fell as rain…
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (1912)
This ballet tells the story of the romance between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. It’s most often heard today as a concert piece instead of a ballet.
The opening of the second suite is one of the most famous portrayals of a sunrise ever composed, complete with chirping birds in the woodwinds.
In the score, Ravel instructs the violinists to start the work with their instruments muted. From there, he asks them to take off their mutes one by one, which makes the music’s volume grow organically as the sunrise grows brighter.
Lili Boulanger: Hymne au soleil (1912)
Lili Boulanger was a remarkable French prodigy. She started attending classes at the Paris Conservatoire with her older sister Nadia when she was just five years old.
She struggled with poor health throughout her life. In 1912, at the age of eighteen, she competed in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition, but she grew too ill to finish. (Luckily she persisted, trying again the following year and winning.)
In 1912 she wrote Hymne au soleil (Hymn to the Sun). It’s written for choir, alto solo, and piano.
The lyrics are written by poet Casimir Delavigne. “Let us bless the power of the reborn sun,” the choir sings.
Amy Beach: Canticle of the Sun (1924)
In 1924, American composer Amy Beach came across the famous text to the “Canticle of the Sun.”
This is a text written by St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century. It includes lines such as “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, / especially through my lord Brother Sun.”
The narrator also gives thanks to God for Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Mother Earth, and Sister Bodily Death.
Beach later wrote of the work’s composition, “I took it up and read it over – and the only way I can describe what happened is that it jumped at me and struck me, most forcibly! As if from dictation, I jotted down the notes of my Canticle. In less than five days, the entire work was done.”
Ferde Grofé: Sunrise from the Grand Canyon Suite (1929-31)
Ferde Grofé was an American composer and musician. He played a wide array of instruments at an extremely high level, including piano, viola, horn, cornet, and drums. His facility with instruments came in handy when he made a career as a music arranger, which is what he is best-known for today.
However, his most famous original music is probably his Grand Canyon Suite, which evokes various experiences that travelers can have in the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest.
The first movement portrays a majestic sunrise, and the finale is a sunset.
Gerald Finzi: Fear no more the heat o’ the sun from Let Us Garlands Bring (1929-42)
English composer Gerald Finzi worked on his song cycle Let Us Garlands Bring for a long time, setting various texts from Shakespeare.
The third song, “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun”, is a funeral song from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline. Although the play could be classified as a comedy, the poem is genuinely moving.
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Finzi’s setting for piano and baritone is gentle, stately, and majestic. In death, heat and sun are no longer a cause of earthly misery.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our tour of classical music about the sun! Did we miss any sun-inspired pieces? Which ones are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
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