Some of Our Favourite Hollywood Piano Music

Starting from the roaring 20s, Hollywood films have featured some beautiful and timeless music, which is now seen as part of popular culture. In this article, we’ll have a look at some of our favourite piano music, from classics like The Godfather, American Beauty and Gone With The Wind.

The Godfather

The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the best movies created, and for good reason too. The performances and characters are both so vivid and alive, and the music is something to behold.

The Godfather theme, written by Nino Rota, is elegant and rich, and definitely a Hollywood favourite.

American Beauty

American Beauty is a film with a similarly dark and beautiful theme. Its main music piece, Any Other Name by Thomas Newman, is relatively easy to play, but this does not in any way diminish the vibrancy of the sound.

American Beauty also has other beautiful piano pieces, including Use Me, Mental Boy, and Lunch with the King. All in all, this is a movie with fantastic music to complement the film.

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind is a moving film about the tragedy of young love and Civil War. It was created in 1939, and yet the piano music in it is as timeless as ever.

Tara’s Theme from Gone with the Wind is softer and warmer than the music in American Beauty and Godfather, and truly sets the scene for a classic Hollywood love.

Casablanca

Casablanca, the movie where we experienced drama and romance and tension, is revered for its storyline, characters and piano music.

As Time Goes By is smooth and soft, and definitely easy on the ears.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a movie about hope and patience, and this is strongly reflected in the piano music that accompanies it. The theme is uplifting and inviting, and a great piece to learn for those reasons.

Nostalgic Piano

These great movies have set the movie scene, and the music they used played a strong role in that. This led to a concept known as nostalgic piano, where modern and upcoming movies use piano tunes from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s to introduce the movies – in an attempt to recreate the success that came from films such as the Godfather and American Beauty.

We can see that in Star Wars, the new Harry Potter series, the Indiana Jones movies and even Ghostbusters.

What does that mean? A few things, including that they are:

Timeless

It means that piano music is so timeless and beautiful that modern movies want to include it just as much as our favourite older classics did.

Here to Stay

It also shows that piano music is a strong part of popular culture, and will no doubt continue to be.

The Pianoforte embraces this, which is why we offer piano lessons, which are a fantastic way for everyone to become involved in the world of piano and music. Who knows? You may even compose the next movie piece to be remembered for years to come!

Interested?

All the music within these great Hollywood movies is learnable and playable. If you would be interested in purchasing a piano, feel free to visit our showroom in Sydney or to contact us to find out more.