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Solveig's SongSmartSleep with Classical. Heidi Brende, pianist

music to soothe the soul and develop the mind…

"Ahh will be your immediate response when you slip on the languid and peaceful SmartSleep…Play it and allow yourself and your child to be wholly renewed." – Mothering magazine, July–August 1998

STUDIES SHOW that classical music influences brain development and raises IQ. This collection of fifteen peaceful piano masterpieces is also designed to help you and your child relax and unwind. Regular, repetitive rhythms, coupled with beautiful, slow melodies, give this music a gently soothing quality, perfect for helping your baby calm down and go to sleep.

Pianist Heidi Brende began producing recordings to help her with her now seven-year-old son Carter. When he was four days old, she found that Bach's Aria in G magically put an end to his all-night crying spree. She then played selections for him from Debussy, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven and SmartSleep with Classical was born. Soon she was receiving requests for the music from friends in the community, then from other parents, intensive care nurseries, labor and delivery rooms, surgical centers, child care programs, schools and children's book stores.

You can download an mp3 of the Bach Aria which inspired the whole project here (medium-quality mp3 format, 4 MB).

Suggestions

  • rock or walk your baby in rhythm to the music, talking softly
  • use during naps to help baby's transition from light sleep to deep sleep
  • use during pregnancy to soothe unborn baby and mother-to-be
  • also relaxing for older children and adults

Full Track Listing & Audio Samples

  • all pieces are performed in their complete and original versions
  • click on 'listen' to hear a sample in mp3 format

Johann Sebastian Bach
[1] Aria from The Goldberg Variations  [4.26] listen to complete track [4.26, 4 MB]

Johann Sebastian Bach
[2] Prelude I in C from The Well-Tempered Clavier  [2.11] listen [0.47, 724 KB]

Claude Debussy
[3] Rêverie (Dreaming)  [4.21] listen [0.53, 816 KB]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
[4] Andante from Sonata in C, K 545  [6.10] listen [0.37, 568 KB]

Franz Schubert
[5] Andante from Sonata in A, op. 120, D 664  [4.22] listen [0.57, 880 KB]

Fryderyk Chopin
[6] Andante spianato from Grand Polacca Brillante, op. 22  [4.30] listen [0.57, 880 KB]

Robert Schumann
[7] Träumerei (Dreaming) from Scenes of Childhood  [2.43] listen [0.47, 724 KB]

Robert Schumann
[8] From Foreign Lands and People from Scenes of Childhood  [1.58] listen [0.43, 660 KB]

Edward MacDowell
[9] To a Wild Rose, op. 51  [2.22] listen [0.49, 772 KB]

Edward MacDowell
[10] Summer Song, op. 7 no. 3  [1.36] listen [0.37, 568 KB]

Fryderyk Chopin
[11] Prelude, op. 28 no. 13  [3.02] listen [0.43, 660 KB]

Fryderyk Chopin
[12] Prelude, op. 28 no. 7  [0.59] listen [0.32, 488 KB]

Ludwig van Beethoven
[13] Adagio sostenuto from Sonata, op. 27 no. 2 (Moonlight)  [5.33] listen [0.59, 912 KB]

Johannes Brahms
[14] Waltz in A flat  [1.38] listen [0.41, 632 KB]

Christopher Brennan
[15] Blue Kiss: A Lullaby  [3.33] listen [1.04, 1 MB]

Notes about this Collection

This album begins and ends with music composed for bedtime. The first selection, the lovely Aria (which means "song"), was first written by Bach in his wife's music book, but later became the basis of a huge set of variations written, so the story goes, to soothe Count Kayserling's sleepless nights. The last is a lullaby written especially for this album by Christopher Brennan, composer and pianist of Stories. Each piece in this collection evokes a dreamy, peaceful atmosphere. All of the tempos are perfectly suited to rocking or swaying gently with your baby. If you move to the beat of the music, you will feel a slow, walking tempo (speed) in each piece. Several of the pieces are actually called Andante (Italian for "walking tempo").

In many of the selections, you will also hear repetitive patterns that sound like water rippling or someone swaying back and forth. These features, along with beautiful song-like melodies, are what make this music sound peaceful and soothing.

– Heidi Brende

SmartSleep with Classical cover

*Winner of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award
*Pick of the month, Parents' magazine
*Parents' Choice Approved

Download complete sample track, Aria by Bach (medium-quality mp3 format, 4 MB)

"SmartSleep with Classical…is a quiet-time title containing many familiar pieces beautifully performed on solo piano. I am impressed with Brende's choice of material and her high degree of musicianship, along with the fact that she performs all of these selections in their original versions."
– Fred Koch, "Classical hits for the nursery set," Chicago Parent, May 1999

"The CD serves as a good introduction to the piano repertoire with these miniature gems. Pianist Heidi Brende plays with clarity and emotion, and produces a singing tone from the piano. Her goal, according to the liner notes, was to 'evoke a dreamy, peaceful atmosphere,' and she achieves this with a good deal of musicality."
– Early Childhood Connections, Fall 1998

Featured as pick of the month in Parents’ magazine (May 2001) and Fit Pregnancy (Summer 1999), reviewed in Finland and the UK, and featured without review in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, numerous other local newspapers and local parenting magazines nationwide.

Played on classical public radio stations across the country and on Public Radio International.

Heidi Brende with her five-year-old daughter Emma. Her son, Carter, now seven years old, is pictured on the cover of SmartSleep with Classical, which was recorded when he was a baby.

Blue Kiss: A Lullaby was composed by pianist and composer Christopher Brennan especially for this album. You can find out more about Chris and download the sheet music for Blue Kiss here.

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