Great Piano Based Tunes

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

While I can't play the piano I love listening to music or songs where it features heavily. Be it classical or modern. Just listening to an arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon on piano and it's stunning. Can anyone reccomend other great piano tunes be they modern or classical pices. One's I can think of are:

Canon
Moonlight Sonata
Ballad Pour Adeline
Comptine d'Un Autre Été (from Amélie)

Stargal

Matt Bellamy from Muse has worked some amazing piano pieces into some of their songs; 'Butterflies and Hurricanes' from Absolution has an absolutely jaw-dropping piano piece in the middle which sounds like Rachmaninoff; it's technically very intricate but it also suits the tone of the song perfectly.

If you're looking for good piano music in a modern band then Muse are one of the best bets. Bellamy is exceptionally talented.

One of my favourite piano pieces (both to play and to listen to) is The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Michael Nyman (from the film The Piano). It's gorgeous; well worth a listen.

blueskeys

get your hands on the 'koln concert' by keith jarrett. what a great piano instrumental album, i believe it was all improvised (40-minute concert)

Colonel Kurtz

Tom Waits - Closing Time.

Also, to a lesser extent... After the Goldrush by Neil Young.
Plastic Ono Band and Imagine by John Lennon.

Crucifix

Polonaise by Chopin is a good one.
Are you just looking for solo piano, or also concertos and piano based bands and so on?

mike65

We all know Billy Joel is the piano man!

/runs and hides

Mike.

grumpytrousers

Colonel Kurtz wrote:

Tom Waits - Closing Time.

Also, to a lesser extent... After the Goldrush by Neil Young.
Plastic Ono Band and Imagine by John Lennon.

A lot of the work on the lennon albums was a guy called Nicky Hopkins. Here's a list of guest stuff he did...

http://rocksoff.org/nicky-sessions.htm

Kintarō Hattori

Crucifix wrote:

Polonaise by Chopin is a good one.
Are you just looking for solo piano, or also concertos and piano based bands and so on?

Ahh everything really, solo's and in other area's of music too. Basically anything anyone can reccomend.

Thumbs Up for Tom Waits - a class act!

crosstownk

Lots of Queen music feature some good piano. Bohemian Rhapsody, Don't Stop Me Now, Somebody To Love, etc, etc.

Kintarō Hattori

Hmnn I think this could get out of hand. OK say for the moment, solo piano pieces, or instrumental music where the piano takes centre stage. I particuarly welcome some of the classical pieces mentioned above.

Xavi6

As already stated, Matt Bellamy of Muse is the man. A musical genius and his piano based songs are unreal. Check out New Born, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Sunburn, and Citizen Erased (the end bit).

Nightswimming by R.E.M. is one of my favourites. Also Tori Amos' latest album 'The Beekeeper' has some beautiful songs, particularly 'Sleeps With Butterflies'.

grumpytrousers

eo980 wrote:

Hmnn I think this could get out of hand. OK say for the moment, solo piano pieces, or instrumental music where the piano takes centre stage. I particuarly welcome some of the classical pieces mentioned above.

rhapsody in blue by gershwin is alright, innit...

Kintarō Hattori

grumpytrousers wrote:

rhapsody in blue by gershwin is alright, innit...

Ahh it's a quality tune all the way!

Stargal

HMV always has a few Gershwin CDs that have solo piano versions of a lot of his stuff; I got one a while ago that was cheap but had some really gorgeous stuff on it (incl the usual Rhapsody in Blue and a version that was just the piano on its own).

Also I mentioned one piece already, but the whole soundtrack to The Piano is excellent.

Undergod

Er... the intros to 'Star-Crossed' by Arcturus 'Space-Dye Vest' by Dream Theater both focus on piano. The Opeth track 'Shillouette' on Orchid is solo piano, very modern/romantic feel.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

LegacyUser

Bruce Hornsby anyone? Not just 'The Way It Is' - I think 'The Valley Road' and 'Mandolin Rain' are better (and not as overplayed!!)

porn_star

I'm gonna put my vote in for Yann Tiersen, he did the soundtrack for Amelie, but has a lot of his own albums aswell. He does a lot of orchestrial work too, but he's definitly worth checking out for his piano. probably find him on myspace or something.

might wanna check out philip glass aswell, he's got great contempory type pieces that are pretty deadly.


as for modern bands and such, I'm a big fan or tori amos and the dresden dolls, but it depends what type of music you like i suppose.

Saruman

I have loads of piano music Obvious pianists are the like of Richard Clayderman.
did you see the movie "The piano"? Get the soundtrack, hell its not that hard to play with a lot of practice. I used to be able to play it years ago though i cant really play. When i was younger i could play by ear but could never afford lessons so i wasted a talent i had....