My Morning Playlist

Happy new year everyone! I thought I would share my morning playlist with you today. This is a “highly curated” playlist that I religiously play right after my personal devotions. It’s just seven songs, 26 minutes and 25 seconds long. Long enough for me to take a brisk walk (about 3,000 plus steps) and breathe in the fresh morning air.

What I love about these songs is that they’re mostly prayers — praising Him for His lovingkindness and faithfulness, thanking God for the new day, and petitioning Him to guide the thoughts and actions throughout the day. The words of these songs, which were heavily Scripture-based just puts me in that right frame of mind before I fully immerse myself in work and other activities for the day.

And because I always have been a fan John Rutter, this right here is 26 minutes of pure musical bliss. Enjoy!

Look To the Day

4 minutes and 3 seconds

Look to the day when the world seems new again:
Morning so fresh you could touch the sky;
The earth smells sweet and ev’ry flower looks so bright,
Shining in a dewy light as you wander by.
Taking the time to enjoy each moment;
Tasting the fruits spread along your way,
Knowing there’s time to spare,
Dreams you can dream and share:
Look to the day, look to the day.

Look to the day when the earth is green again:
Promise of spring after winter’s sleep.
The sounds of life returning fill the air,
Music that’s forever there for your heart to keep.
Deep in the earth lay the seed of life renewed,
Quiet and strong till the time of spring:
Life in each bud and shoot,
Life in each flower and fruit,
Look to that day when earth shall sing.

Look to the light that will drive out darkness;
Look to the hope that will conquer fear.
God’s strength uphold us till the fight is won,
Till we see our task is done when the day is here.
Look for that day when there shall be no more pain;
Sorrow and sighing shall pass away.
Pray for the day to come,
Trust that the day will come,
Look to that, look to the day.

Lord, we give thanks for the gifts of life and health;
Plant a new seed in our hearts, we pray:
Help us to see, O Lord;
How it could be, O Lord;
Look to the day, look to the day.

CD Liner Notes: Look to the day was also premiered in Ely Cathedral (UK), at a special service in 2007 organized by the charity Cancer Research UK. Their wish for the anthem they asked me to write was that it should give thanks for victories already won and look tot hose still to come. -John Rutter

Eternal God

3 minutes and 7 seconds

Eternal God, we give you thanks for music,
Blest gift from heaven to all your servants here on earth:
In time of joy a crown, in sorrow consolation;
Companion through our days of tears and mirth.

We give you thanks for every sound of beauty:
For sweetest harmony that echoes in our hearts,
For melodies that soar on high like birds at morning,
For voice and instrument in all their parts.

As we are blest, so may our gift bless other:
May hearts be touched and spirits lifted up anew.
Let music draw together those who live as strangers,
Bring joy to those we love, in thankfulness true.

And when at last we come into your kingdom,
All discord over and all earthly labour done,
Then sound and silence yield before one equal music,
And with the Giver shall our souls be one.

CD Liner Notes: The words and music of Eternal God were written in 1999, with the aim of augmenting the meager stock of hymns which make mention of music, or indeed any of the arts, as gifts of God. The lack of hymns on this theme could be because hymn texts tend to have been written by the clergy, whose relationship over the centuries with the musicians who serve alongside them could charitably be described as wary. -John Rutter

Morning has broken

1 minute and 41 seconds

Morning has Broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God’s recreation
Of the new day!

CD Liner Notes: Morning has broken (unexpectedly given a boost to its fortunes by becoming a pop hit in the 1960s) dates back to 1931. While compiling Songs of Praise Percy Dearmer — clergyman, writer, and Vaughan Williams’ co-editor of The English Hymnal and Songs of Praise — asked Eleanor Farjeon, a children’s author, to write a text to fit the old Gaelic melody Bunessan, which came from an 1888 collection called Songs and Hymns of the Gael. The result remains one of the best-loved of children’s hymns.

This is the Day

4 minutes and 24 seconds

This is the day which the Lord hath made:
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
O praise the Lord of heaven: praise him in the height.
Praise him, all ye angels of his: praise him, all his host.
Praise him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light, let them praise the Name of the Lord;
For he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways.
The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand;
So that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even thee that shall keep thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore.
He shall defend thee under his wings.
Be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.

Words from Psalm 118 (line 1), 148 (lines 2-4), 91 (lines 5-10), 121 (lines 6-9), and 27 (line 11).

CD Liner Notes: Commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey as a gift for Prince William and Kate Middleton, this anthem was composer early in 2011, with a brief that it should be about 4-5 minutes in length, for choir and organ, with a text from the psalms. The composer (John Rutter) writes: ‘My first thought was that the text should embrace bot rejoicing and blessing, and I choose verses from five psalms which seemed to encompass what I wanted to express on behalf of us all. My next thought was that I wanted to write music which would be welcoming in spirit to the royal couple, their families, and to the many people witnessing this happy occasion all over the world.’

Be Thou My Vision

4 minutes and 18 seconds

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
Be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
Be thou ever with me, and I with thee, Lord;
Be thou my great Father and I thy true son;
Be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be thou my whole armour, be thou my true might;
Be thou my soul’s shelter, be thou my strong tower:
O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise:
Be thou mine inheritance now and always;
Be thou and thou only the first in my heart:
O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of Heaven, thou heaven’s bright Sun,
O grant me its joys after vic’try is won;
Great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.

CD Liner Notes: The term ‘anthem’ sometimes causes some puzzlement. It is nothing more than a piece of music for choir which is sung at a certain point in a church service, and it can be a setting of any sacred text in any language…Anthems can be short or long, simple or complex, accompanied or for choir alone…In church the accompaniment is generally for organ, but the use of instruments or even whole orchestras is not uncommon…The orchestral version (which I have to admit I prefer, because I love writing for the orchestra) are the ones recorded here.

Be Thou My Vision is an Irish hymn from the 8th century, translated by Mary Byrne (1880-1931) and versified by Eleanor Hull, 1860-1935.

Wings of the Morning

For some reason the Youtube embed code is not working, so here’s the link to the song.

5 minutes and 40 seconds

If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
If I climb up into heaven, thou art there:
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising,
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down,
And art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue,
But lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether:
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Lord, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me;
Even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee:
But the night shineth as the day.

If I take the wings of the morning,
Thou art there, O Lord, thou art there.

(from Psalm 139)

CD Liner Notes: Written in 2002, another Old Testament setting, came about as a result of a request from the Durban Serenade Choir for a new choral piece to sing on their first UK tour. The sixty rich Zulu voices of the choir made an inspiring sound at its premiere in Cambridge.-John Rutter

I Will Sing the Spirit

3 minutes and 2 seconds

I will sing with the spirit, alleluia.
And I will sing with the understanding also, alleluia.

CD Liner Notes: Witten in 1994 is dedicated to another institution, the Royal School of Church Music, who requested a simple anthem to serve as a theme song for their anniversary appeal.-John Rutter

All music tracks are available for purchase with iTunes and Collegium Records. Sheet music are available at Oxford University Press.

CD Liner Notes that I used:
A Song in Season
Sing Ye, Heavens
Mass of the Children
This is the Day

Just so you know, I wasn’t paid to promote this music. 🙂

Question: What songs do you listen to in the morning? Post them on the comment box below!

Like this article? Share it!