For the next few weeks I’m going off on a tangent and showing you some music written by people still alive and writing as opposed to the “old dead white guys” of Classical music. Don’t worry I will return to them in the future. To start this process I want to introduce you to an Italian composer by the name of Ludvicio Einaudi.

Einaudi was born in Turin, Italy in 1955 and both his parents were musicians while his grandfather was President of Italy for 7 years after WWII. As with many musical families he was destined to study at Italy’s best music Conservatory in Milan, graduating in 1982 with a degree in Composition.

His music is meditative and very quickly people in TV and film asked him to adapt his music to the tempo of the scenes. Just about all of his music was composed without TV or film scenes in mind but some were changed or lengthened to fit the particular scene. While the TV and films that adapted his music were forgettable and never very popular, putting his music on YouTube led him to a worldwide enthusiastic audience.

Like many composers, he adapted his music with orchestras and string instruments in mind. He is self taught on the piano with Guitar being his primary instrument. Einaudi’s music is looked down on by most of the Classical music industry as being too easy and melody centered. There is much music in the Classical compositions that were specifically developed to show off the composer’s piano skills. In other words a lot of unnecessary complexity that is not pleasant to the ear. Einaudi’s music is very melody centric which is one of the reasons for his continued popularity among people who just like to listen to music. On the other hand, his music is popular with our piano students because it does not take a lot of work to play and yet is well received by their audience.

Here is a few samples of Einuadi’s music to introduce your ears to his very pleasant sounds.
Primavera
Divenire
Nuvole Bianche
Andare