Whilst learning any instrument is not easy, the piano does sometimes seem to have more than its fair share of technical challenges. If only there were some pieces by great composers that were not so hard to play but made you sound like an absolute pro…
The fact is, there are!
For those in the know, there are some works that sound absolutely brilliant, are played by even the most eminent concert pianists and yet they are surprisingly easy to master. Many early years pianists know this and use this secret knowledge to dazzle (and maybe intimidate) their fellow learners. We feel that this knowledge should be shared!
Here, then, is our picks of some of the best of these works. Prepare to dazzle your fellow musicians (without frazzling your fingers).
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When listening to music it’s often easy to feel that it is painting pictures or telling a story, even where a piece is entirely ‘abstract’. Abstract pieces are intended to be enjoyed for the sake of the sound itself—even though they may invoke a mood, or have a specific purpose, such as for dancing.
Sometimes, however, composers intentionally write ‘programmatic’ music, where the music evokes a specific image, story or idea. Such pieces are normally purely instrumental, with the music alone conveying the narrative, unlike, for example in an opera where there is also a sung text, set design and lighting.
Here are some of the very best of these most colourful works. Be sure to check out our sheet music—just follow the links—so you too can enjoy playing the best tunes from them.
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There have been many great opera composers down the centuries, but none has surpassed the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), whose instinct for drama was only bested by his ability to clothe it in the most divine music imaginable.
Mozart wrote 22 music dramas, some of which were small scale occasional pieces or pastiche pieces written when he was very young. Even these works contain much to be admired. Here, however, we rank to his mature masterpieces, the works for which he is truly remembered.
We also pick out our favourite music from these works—follow the links so you too can enjoy playing these iconic melodies!
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Beloved by brides and grooms everywhere, Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is probably the most well-known, well-loved and frequently played wedding march in the repertoire, and that’s in the face of some pretty stiff competition from the likes of Wagner, Purcell, Jeremiah Clarke and others.
But there’s much more to this piece than meets, the eye. Far from being a one-off work intended for nuptial events, it actually is taken from a much larger piece, a set of incidental music for Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
The story of how this came to be written is a fascinating one, starting when the composer was starry-eyed 17-year old and ending just a few years before his death…
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These days, thankfully, composing is much less of a ‘boys only’ occupation than it used to be. Some of the greatest recent and living composers have been and are women, including figures such as Kaaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, Helen Grime, Errollyn Wallen, Olga Neuwirth, Unsuk Chin and Rebecca Saunders. There are many, many others….
It was not always this way. Though women were never officially banned from composing, the traditional view of women as mothers and home-makers meant that there was not much encouragement either. These attitudes often meant that those who did compose were limited to writing in more ‘lady-like’ forms such as art songs and characteristic piano pieces. Longer forms and especially works for orchestra were not considered appropriate for women.
Despite all this, and often with considerable courage and determination, some women were able to forge a path as composers. Here are some, but by no means all, of the greatest.
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It sold more than a million copies on its release in 1962, becoming one of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits—the piece he reserved for the final climax of live concerts. And it remains popular to this day, a survey in 2020, for example, finding I Can't Help Falling in Love to be one of the most frequently used pieces for the first dance of newly married couples.
Despite its association with The King of Rock and Roll, however, its composition dates back to the 18th century and a little known composer named Jean-Paul-Égide Martini…
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Any attempt to pick a definitive list of the best ever symphonies is, let’s face it, doomed to failure. Debate is inevitably dominated by taste, with some people simply preferring the sound of Mozart to Mahler; Beethoven to Brahms; Schubert to Shostakovich.
So though making this list might be controversial, it is fun and not totally without merit—we might not have got it totally right, but all the works included are certainly brilliant.
We have also highlighted the best melodies from them, with links to our exclusive arrangements of these tunes, so you can experience and play these pieces yourself.
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The modern concert band, with its colourful range of woodwind and brass instruments, not to mention well-stocked percussion section, is a relatively recent invention—many of the instruments that now are commonly found in it had barely been invented, let alone incorporated into it, before the twentieth century.
But that is not to say that there was no wind band music before this time—the tradition for writing for winds is an old and venerable one. Here is a brief history of that tradition, told through its greatest pieces.
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A lullaby (‘berceuse’ in French, ‘wiegenlied’ in German) is traditionally a soothing song for infants, especially to help them to sleep. It is one of the loveliest of musical forms, with an emphasis on simple, gentle melodies and equally simple harmony. There are many traditional lullabies, but the form has also been widely adopted by classical composers, where it has sometimes been greatly expanded in scope, whilst not losing contact with its musical roots.
Here are some of the loveliest lullabies ever to have been written, complete with links to the sheet music.
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The unkind butt of many a musical joke, the viola sometimes gets a bad press. But we think it’s one of the loveliest instruments in the orchestra—in its upper range almost as brilliant as the violin, it’s lower range utterly distinct: veiled, melancholic and mysterious.
Its role in the centre of an ensemble means that it hasn’t attracted so much of the limelight as a solo instrument down the years, but there are, nevertheless, some really wonderful works written for it. Here are five of the best.
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