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Hi all, this is for a student who loves movie music especially John Williams. He will obediently tolerate classical. He is an intermediate player having recently completed Schumann/Knight Rupert, the non-simplified arrangement of Williams/Hedwig's Theme, and one of the Anna Magdalena Bach minuets (Suzuki students get these late and learn to play both voices as beautiful melodies, not just typed out as notes.)

I want to help him connect the dots between classical and movie music and would love help brainstorming. I am looking for inspiring pieces equal to or easier than Knight Rupert that are by excellent classical composers of the era that most directly inspired movie music. Debussy, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninoff etc. I already have a bunch of orchestral works for him to listen to but I want to find things he can play as well. Original piano pieces please, no arrangements or simplifications.

What did Rachmaninoff write that's easier than that Schumann piece?

Try the Nino Rota preludes. Here's one of the more accessible ones:

http://youtu.be/L7wOW8EUbMA

Nino Rota, what a great idea AZNpiano. I see he has some other little piano pieces like waltzes, bagatelles and a "for children" collection. Will investigate.

I see my post from last night didn't make it. How about Yoshinao Nakada? He has some very accessible music. I recommend Song of Twilight.

If he really likes John Williams, is there some Stravinsky that he could play? I've always felt that Williams was highly influenced by Stravinsky. Listen to the Firebird Suite and the soundtrack from Hook, for instance.

If he really likes John Williams, is there some Stravinsky that he could play? I've always felt that Williams was highly influenced by Stravinsky. Listen to the Firebird Suite and the soundtrack from Hook, for instance.

Steve posted twice to make up for your post last night that didn't make it, Morodiene.

LOL. How kind of him.

This was my favourite piano music when I first started piano at 10 (I knew no other piano music then....). My poor piano teacher was never allowed to leave our home without having played it at least once :
http://youtu.be/zOBJhG72Riw

There's also Michael Nyman's music for The Piano, though it might be too difficult for your student: http://youtu.be/ZOMD8WRkZYk

And Nino Rota's music for The Godfather is also available in piano versions (there's a CD of it played by Massimo Palumbo).

+1

I have a couple early-intermediate Stravinsky pieces, like the Larghetto from Easy Pieces on Five Notes, which is pretty but a little.... tame Any other Stravinsky suggestions?

I appreciate the suggestions of additional movie music, but this student's family also knows movie music pretty well and keeps him well supplied with it. I'm more looking for classical pieces. Classical pieces by composers who did both are fine.

Thanks for the Nakada recommendation -- it looks like he has a very nice collection of pieces for children, which I will be ordering!

There's Piano Rag Music, but it isn't that easy.

Have you looked at Bartók's Mikrokosmos? There're some gems there, like 'Merry Andrew' which I recall playing for Grade 5 ABRSM. And some of Prokofiev's Visions fugitives aren't too difficult. (Prokofiev wrote the music for the movie Alexander Nevsky).

There's also the piano version of Howard Blake's "Walking in the Air" from the animated film The Snowman.

Among British composers, there's Elgar's Nimrod (in his own transcription - there's also Grainger's, which is actually easier) and Peter Maxwell Davies's "Farewell to Stromness":
http://youtu.be/3ek11B_3klM

Ooo yeah, Walking in the Air! And the animated film is available on youtube so you could send him the link for motivation/inspiration. Nice one.

"Morning" by Grieg? That's used in tv/movies a lot.

The principal originators of American film music were Enrich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner - both from the Vienese operetta tradition - basically Wagner inspired.

Actually, lots of great music in anime these days, and not all of it is super-difficult, and I believe you can download the sheet music for free in many cases.

Some ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVXQd8cKT4

Sheet music:

http://ichigos.com/

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone.
Anything specific by Korngold for piano at this level? I'd love to get my hands on some.

There isn't much by Korngold that's suitable (easy enough) for this level.

Probably Four Little Caricatures for Children, Op.19 (Schönberg, Stravinsky, Bartók and Hindemith), and maybe one or two of the Märchenbilder, Op.3, and the Four Waltzes for Piano.

Or you could try making a simplified transcription of this lovely melody:
http://youtu.be/NXDuBKvQ8-U

http://www.osbornmusic.com

Aram Khatchaturian wrote some film music. His Adventures of Ivan are absolutely wonderful. One of my favorite pieces to teach; students love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeVaKkSb5zE