Download Classical Piano Music Mp3 Free
Leticia Troung
I'm really not in on the "piano scene," but I play and listen to a lot of classical pieces on YT. This got me thinking: I only know of famous pianists who are either dead or play music written by dead people. That seemed like a significant gap.
Surely, there are exceptional, prodigious pianists who are writing their own classical piano masterpieces today, right? Where can I find the best of the best - the pieces that virtuoso pianists will play to standing ovations in concert halls 200 years from now? Thanks!
Hi everyone, I've recently gotten really into classical music, mainly the solo piano. I am wondering though, as I like dark and depressing music, if there are any composers or albums, etc, that focus on a lot of dark music, not the bright, sunny, joy to all type of stuff.
Chopin composed his most well-known nocturne at the tender age of 20, which perhaps accounts for its youthful passion. The build-up from the main theme and waltz-like accompaniment to the dramatic trill-filled finale makes the Nocturne in E-flat Major a strong contender for the most beautiful piano work ever written.
Rebecca Clarke was a 20th-century British composer, who trained at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London before crossing the pond and spending the rest of her life in America. Her music is always thrilling, experimental and enormously powerful. Her Viola Sonata is considered one of the greatest pieces ever written for the instrument. And just listen to the power packed into her Piano Trio for piano, cello and violin.
Patients undergoing ophthalmologic procedures also benefit from listening to music. Bellan and colleagues[11] reported a large-scale study of 144 patients undergoing cataract surgery and found that listening to music before surgery was associated with decreased anxiety. Cruise and coworkers[12] reported that a cohort of 121 patients undergoing cataract surgery under retrobulbar block were more satisfied with their experience if they heard relaxing music rather than operating room noise alone during the surgical procedure.
A classically trained pianist who was also the study surgeon played the piano. Each patient had been informed beforehand that the surgeon would be playing relaxing classical piano music for them before they were sedated for the procedure.
The surgeon played the piano as patients were being transported into the OR from the preoperative holding area. The preoperative holding area was located in another section of the hospital beyond auditory range of the music. The patients were exposed to a random selection of music chosen from the piano pieces shown in Table 1.
After Institutional Review Board approval (RP#07-104-2-HMC1E), the authors performed a retrospective, nonrandomized case-series study. A chart review was done to compare MAP, HR, and RR of the 115 patients undergoing various ophthalmic surgical procedures before and after exposure to the piano music (group 1). The study included only those patients having surgery for the first time. A demographically similar group of 88 consecutive patients from the senior author's practice who had had surgery in the preceding 4 months was used as the control (group 2) and was not exposed to the live piano music. The surgeon performed all procedures for both groups in the same operating room.
Two sets of measurements were taken at 2 distinct intervals in group 1 and group 2. The first set of measurements of MAP, HR, and RR were taken while the patients were in the preoperative holding area. Patients given anxiolytic medications in the preoperative holding area were excluded from the study. The second set of measurements was taken after the patients had been transported into the OR and had been exposed to at least 10 minutes of the piano music and before administration of anxiolytic medications.
There are few published reports on the effects of listening to music during ophthalmic surgery. The studies done by Bellan and Cruise and their colleagues documented the benefits of music during cataract surgery based on the patients' subjective feedback. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the effect of classical piano music on the vital signs of patients undergoing ophthalmic surgery. Furthermore, this study showed the effect of the classical piano music played live in the operating room. It was important to note that no complications occurred during or after surgery due to the presence of a piano in the OR.
Our bibliography lists numerous studies in which recorded music had an anxiolytic effect on patients. In this paper, the surgeon who was about to perform the operation played the piano. This may have added a further level of confidence in his surgical skill, which in turn may have alleviated the anxiety that is normally felt by patients about to undergo a surgical procedure. While no formal psychological testing was done in this study, the authors plan to compare recorded piano music versus live piano music in a future study.
In this study, we found a statistically significant decrease in the preoperative MAP, HR, and RR of patients exposed to live piano music. We also found a statistically significant increase in the preoperative systolic MAP, HR, and RR of patients who were not exposed to music.
The piano pieces used in this study were a classical or semiclassical genre chosen by the surgeon for their relaxing qualities. All arrangements were played in a slow to medium tempo to effect a relaxing mood. In addition, patients in both study groups were exposed to the usual operating room noise. Although music has repeatedly been shown to relax patients before, during, and after surgical procedures, only a few studies have considered the type of music used.
Ovayolu and colleagues[20] chose prerecorded Turkish classical flute music during colonoscopy. They reported decreased anxiety, pain, and dissatisfaction levels in the patients exposed to the music. A study done by Chan[21] used Chinese and Western classical music with slow beats on patients undergoing a C-clamp procedure. The study found that heart rate, respiratory rate, and pain scores were statistically reduced in the experimental group.
It is common for surgeons to play music during surgery. Inasmuch as studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of music during surgery, with regard to the type of music further studies may have to be done. In this study, that the surgeon was playing the piano before the procedure leads us to speculate whether the patients' cognizance of this fact influenced the profound decrease in their vital signs upon exposure to the live classical piano music (see video).[22] This paper would have been strengthened if it were done as a prospective study; however, the piano was available in the OR only for a finite amount of time. Although having a piano in the OR may be difficult for most settings, this study reiterates the beneficial effect of classical piano music on objective parameters, such as patients' vital signs.
There are two main types of piano: the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano offers better sound and more precise key control, making it the preferred choice when space and budget allow. The grand piano is also considered a necessity in venues hosting skilled pianists. The upright piano is more commonly used due to its smaller size and lower cost.
In the nineteenth century, influenced by Romantic music trends, the fortepiano adopted changes such as using the cast iron frame (which allowed much greater string tensions) and aliquot stringing gave grand pianos a more powerful sound, longer sustain and richer tone. Later in the century, as the piano became more common, it allowed families to listen to a newly published musical piece by having a family member play a simplified version. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, and for composing, songwriting and rehearsals. Despite its weight and cost, the piano's versatility, extensive training of musicians, and widespread availability in venues, schools, and rehearsal spaces have made it a familiar instrument in the Western world.
The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments. Pipe organs have been used since antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers,[1] which were used since the Middle Ages in Europe. During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings.[2] By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well developed. In a clavichord, the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord, they are mechanically plucked by quills when the performer depresses the key. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown instrument builders the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and mechanical action for a keyboard intended to sound strings.
The English word piano is a shortened form of the Italian pianoforte,[3] derived from clavicembalo col piano e forte ("key harpsichord with soft and loud").[4] Variations in volume (loudness) are produced in response to the pianist's touch (pressure on the keys): the greater the pressure, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound produced and the stronger the attack. Invented in the 1700s, the fortepiano was the first keyboard instrument to allow gradations of volume and tone according to how forcefully or softly the player presses or strikes the keys, unlike the pipe organ and harpsichord.[5]
Cristofori's great success was designing a stringed keyboard instrument in which the notes are struck by a hammer. The hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it, because continued contact would damp the sound and stop the string from vibrating and making sound. This means that after striking the string, the hammer must quickly fall from (or rebound from) the strings. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently (thus preventing notes from being re-played by accidental rebound), and it must return to a position in which it is ready to play again almost immediately after its key is depressed, so the player can repeat the same note rapidly when desired. Cristofori's piano action was a model for the many approaches to piano actions that followed in the next century.
df19127ead