List of etude composers

An étude is a musical composition (usually short) designed to provide practice in a particular technical skill in the performance of a solo instrument.

For the piano

Born 1700–1799

• Johann Baptist Cramer (1771–1858)
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837): wrote 24 etudes (Op. 125)
• John Field (1782–1837)
• Carl Czerny (1791–1857)
• Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870): wrote 12 character studies (Op. 95), three concert etudes (Op. 51)
• Henri Bertini (1798–1876): wrote 24 etudes (Op. 29)

Born 1800–1850

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
• Robert Schumann (1810–1856): wrote the Studies (Op.3) and Etudes (Op.10) after Paganini's Caprices; and the "Symphonic Etudes/Études symphoniques" (Op. 13, in three revisions: 1834, 1852, and posthumously 1893).
• Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): wrote 24 études in two sets of 12 etudes each (Opp. 10 and 25), plus three more (a little easier), for a total of 27.
• Franz Liszt (1811–1886): wrote the set of Transcendental Etudes, with its two previous versions being Etude en douze exercises and Douze Grandes Etudes; six etudes, also with an earlier set, on themes by Niccolò Paganini (among them the famous La Campanella); and six concert etudes (one set of three, another set of two and Ab Irato which also has an earlier version). In contrast with Chopin's etudes, which tend to stress a specific aspect of performance difficulty, Liszt's etudes tend to stress mastery of performance as a whole. Liszt also wrote 12 books of Technical Studies (S.146) between 1868 and 1880.
• Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888): wrote Trois Etudes de bravoure (Op. 16); etudes in all 12 major keys (Op. 35) and in all 12 minor keys (Op. 39); and also three Grande Études (Op. 76).
• Adolf von Henselt (1814–1889): wrote 24 etudes, Opp. 2 and 5.
• Clara Schumann (1819–1896)
• Theodor Kirchner (1823–1903): wrote 12 etudes op. 38 (1878), Études rythmiques et mélodiques Op. 105
• Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): wrote a concert etude, Am Seegestade - Eine Erinnerung
• Julius Schulhoff (1825–1898)
• Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869): wrote Tremolo and Manchega, two concert etudes.
• Johannes Brahms (1833–1897): including two sets of variations on a theme by Paganini (op. 35, 1866) in the "also music" tradition, and 51 Exercises for Piano published in 1893, of the "hardly music" kind.
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): wrote two sets of 6 etudes each (Opp. 52 and 111) and 6 etudes for the left hand (Op. 135)
• Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907): wrote 19 Concert Etudes.

Born 1850–1899

• Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925): wrote three concert studies (Op. 24), Ecole des doubles notes (Op. 64), 15 Études de Virtuositié (op. 72), 12 studies for the left hand alone (op. 92), and 20 technical studies (Op. 91).
• Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855–1914)
• Sergei Liapunov (1859–1924): wrote Douze études d'exécution transcendante in memory of Liszt
• Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860–1908): wrote a concert etude (Op. 36) and 12 etudes (Op. 46)
• Georgy L’vovich Catoire (1861–1926): wrote one etude (Op. 8).
• Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
• Emil von Sauer (1862–1942)
• Felix Blumenfeld (1863–1931): wrote 18 etudes.
• Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937): wrote a concert etude (Op. 13)
• Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
• Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924): wrote six etudes (Op. 16); an Etude en forme de variations (Op. 17); and Six Polyphonic Etudes.
• Jose Vianna da Motta (1868–1948): wrote "Exercices de Virtuosite" (1908), based on Alkan's works.
• Charles Tournemire (1870–1939): wrote Études de chaque jour (Op. 70)
• Leopold Godowsky (1870–1938): wrote 60 Studies on Chopin's etudes, of which 53 are published; three original Concert Studies (Op. 11), and the Etude Macabre.
• Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915): wrote 26 etudes (Opp. 2, 8, 42, 49, 56 and 65)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943): wrote two sets of Etudes-Tableaux (Opp. 33 and 39).
• Charles Ives (1874–1954)
• Józef Hofmann (1876–1957)
• Ernő Dohnányi (1877–1960): wrote six "Concert Etudes" (Op. 28).
• Béla Bartók (1881–1945): wrote three etudes (Op. 18)
• Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971): wrote four etudes (Op. 7)
• Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937): wrote 4 etudes Op. 4 and 12 etudes Op. 33
• Alfredo Casella (1883–1947)
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953): wrote 4 etudes (Op. 2)
• Samuel Feinberg (1890–1962): wrote a Suite (Op. 11) In Etude Form.
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892–1988): wrote Études transcendantes (100) (1940–44)
• Virgil Thomson (1896–1989): wrote 9 etudes
• George Gershwin (1898–1937): wrote 7 Virtuoso Etudes on Popular Songs

Born after 1899

• Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989)
• Louise Talma (1906–1996): wrote Six Etudes (1954) for piano
• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992): wrote four Etudes de rythme
• John Cage (1912–1992): wrote Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales
• Maurice Ohana (1913–1992): wrote Douze Etudes d'interprétation
• Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994): wrote two etudes (1940–1941)
• George Perle (born 1915) wrote two sets of Etudes
• Ned Rorem (born 1923): wrote a set of eight etudes (1975)
• György Ligeti (1923–2006): wrote three volumes of Études (1985, 1988–1994 and 1995)
• Robert Starer (1924–2001): wrote The Contemporary Virtuoso, a set of 7 etudes
• Einojuhani Rautavaara (born 1928): wrote six etudes (Op. 42)
• Pierre Max Dubois (1930–1995)
• Philip Glass (born 1937): wrote his first volume of etudes in 1994
• Nikolai Kapustin (born 1937): wrote Eight Concert Etudes (Op. 40), Three Etudes (Op. 67), Five Études in Different Intervals (Op. 68)
• William Bolcom (born 1938): won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1988 for his Twelve New Etudes for Piano
• Bill Hopkins (1943–1981): wrote nine Etudes en série (1965–72) in three Cahiers
• Michel-Georges Brégent (1948–1993): wrote "16 Portraits, Études Romantiques pour piano"
• Pascal Dusapin (born 1955): wrote Etudes for piano (1998–99)
• Ezequiel Viñao (born 1960): wrote his first book of etudes in 1993
• Marc-André Hamelin (born 1961): wrote 12 etudes in minor keys, and an etude after Rimsky-Korsakov (which was the previous 1st piece of the 12 etudes set, but it was replaced by the Triple Etude after Chopin-Godowsky)
• Unsuk Chin (born 1961): currently working on a set of 12 Piano Studies, of which five have been completed
• Juan María Solare (born 1966) wrote the cycle Postales submarinas (etudes for inside piano) in 2011.
• Daisuke Asakura (born 1967): wrote seven etudes, one for each disc of his Quantum Mechanics Rainbow series
• John M. Page (born 1996): has currently written five etudes; hints at least two currently in sketch form.

For other instruments

In chronological order

• Girolamo Diruta (c. 1554–1610) for the organ
• Jean-Louis Duport (1749–1819): for the cello
• Federigo Fiorillo (1755–1823): for the violin
• Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831): for the violin
• Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer (1783–1860): for the cello
• Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853): for the guitar
• Theobald Boehm (1794–1881): for the flute
• Friedrich Grützmacher (1832–1903): Op.38 Etudes for the cello
• Franz Wohlfahrt(1833–1884): wrote 60 Studies for Violin (Op. 45)
• David Popper (1843–1913) : for the cello
• Joachim Andersen (1847–1909): for the flute
• Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909): for the guitar (Douze Études)
• Julius Klengel (1859–1933): for the cello
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959): for the guitar
• Andrés Segovia (1893–1987): for the guitar
• Lillian Fuchs (1903–1991): for the viola
• John Cage (1912–1992): wrote Freeman Etudes for the violin
• Angelo Gilardino (born 1941): wrote five volumes of Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza for guitar
• Robert deMaine (born 1969): wrote Études-Caprices for cello

By instruments

Organ

• Girolamo Diruta (c. 1554-1610)

Flute

• Henri Altès (1826–1895)
• Joachim Andersen (1847–1909)
• Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier (1782–1835)
• Giulio Briccialdi (1818–1881)
• Louis Drouet (1792–1873)
• Anton Bernhard Fürstenau (1792–1852)
• Giuseppe Gariboldi (1833–1905)
• Philippe Gaubert (1879–1941)
• Ernesto Köhler (1849–1907)
• Marcel Moyse (1889–1984)
• Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
• Heinrich Soussmann (1776-1848)
• Paul Taffanel (1844–1908)
• Trevor Wye (b. 1935)

Guitar

• Fernando Sor (1778–1839)
• Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853)
• Giulio Regondi (1822–1872)
• Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909)
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959)
• Andrés Segovia (1893–1987)
• Leo Brouwer (b.1939)
• Angelo Gilardino (b. 1941)

Violin

• Federigo Fiorillo (1755–1823)
• Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831)
• Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840) wrote nothing he called études, but e. g. his Caprices can readily be used as such (as witnessed also by transcriptions etc. under "For piano").
• Jakob Dont (1815-1888)
• Otakar Ševčík (1852-1934)
• Franz Wohlfahrt (1833–84)
• John Cage (1912–92)

Viola

• Lillian Fuchs (1903–91)

Cello

• Jean-Louis Duport (1749–1819)
• Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer (1783–1860)
• Friedrich Grützmacher (1832–1903)
• David Popper (1843–1919)
• Julius Klengel (1859–1933)
• Robert deMaine (b. 1969)
• Rudolf Matz (1901–1988)
• Sébastien Lee(1805–1887)
• Auguste Franchomme (1808–1884)
• Carlo Alfredo Piatti (1822–1901) wrote nothing he called études, but e. g. his op. 25 Twelve Caprices for cello solo, can readily be used as such