Music for Pianos

 Within the compass of its seven octaves, the piano is capable of reproducing all the features and all the configurations of the finest musical creations.  As a result, pianists have at their disposal the greatest collection of solo literature that has been composed for any musical instrument.  In addition to the standard advanced repertoire, there is an even greater library of teaching literature that can be studied in preparation for this advanced repertoire and its study can greatly influence the advancement of a players musical and technical abilities.  Anyone who seriously desires to extend his or her musical knowledge or create something new can ever devote sufficient thought or study to this resource.

It is the aim of Music for Pianos to introduce the visitor to a minute cross section of this literature.  Some old ones, some new ones and some neglected ones.  It is hoped that players and piano instructors may find pieces that are suitable for study, teaching and performance.

Against this background, I consider that any means of making this literature more widely known and popular has some merit.  The MIDI and mp3 files may only give a vague idea to the listener of how these works should sound and the manner in which they should be played, but it is hoped that even these imperfect digital files will now and then reveal a trace, a little obliterated perhaps, of a composers inspiration.  All MIDI files are free to download and have their mp3 equivalent available for instant download. Links are provided for Sheet Music purchases.

The Music for Pianos MIDI site contains self sequenced MIDI files, MIDI files produced by scanning paper Piano Rolls from the 1920's Jazz era and a selection of live MIDI recordings from the Yamaha e-competition.

Eric Halstead (after Franz Liszt)

Visitors are welcome to download the MIDI files for personal listening but any reproduction on web sites or use for commercial purposes must have my prior permission. Do not link directly from your web page or E-mail to the MIDI files on my site.  If you do use a MIDI file, make sure you copy the file via your server to a folder on your computer (Right click on "play midi" then save to a folder on your computer). 

The music playing on opening this page is Variation 18 of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini to listen to the other 23 variations go to The Rachmaninov Page
 

Artist Song Name Composer Composition Instrument

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