Étude

This article is about the musical form. For the defunct magazine, see The Etude.

An etude (from the French word étude meaning "study") is a short musical composition designed to provide practice in a particular technical skill in the performance of a solo instrument. For example, Frédéric Chopin's etude Op. 25 No. 6 trains pianists to play rapid parallel chromatic thirds, Op. 25 No. 7 emphasizes the production of singing tone in a polyphonic melody, and Op. 25 No. 10 covers parallel octaves.

History and function

Musical studies have been composed since the 18th century, most notably by Carl Czerny, but it was Chopin who transformed the etude into an important musical genre. Etudes can be in many forms and are sometimes grouped into larger schemes — Robert Schumann's Études symphoniques bears the title, in its second version, Études en forme de Variations. [1]

Etudes for other instruments have been written as well, for example Rodolphe Kreutzer's etudes for the violin.

The etudes that are most widely admired are those which transcend their practical function and come to be appreciated simply as music. For example, Chopin's etudes are considered not just technically difficult, but also musically very powerful and expressive. In contrast, Czerny's are generally regarded as being only technically difficult. Thus Chopin's etudes are continually performed before appreciative audiences, whereas Czerny's are confined to the practice room.

List of etude composers

For the piano

Born before 1700

• Girolamo Diruta (c. 1554–1610)

Born 1700–1799

• Johann Baptist Cramer (1771–1858)
• John Field (1782–1837)
• Carl Czerny (1791–1857)
• Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870)
• Henri Bertini (1798–1876): wrote 24 etudes (op. 29)

Born 1800–1850

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
• Robert Schumann (1810–1856): wrote the "Symphonic Etudes".
• Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): wrote 24 etudes in two sets of 12 etudes each (his op. 10, op. 25), plus three more, for a total of 27.
• Franz Liszt (1811–1886): wrote the set of "Transcendental Etudes", with its two revisions; six etudes on themes by Niccolò Paganini (among them the famous La Campanella); and five "Études de Concert" (one set of three and another set of two). 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.
• Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888): wrote 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
• Clara Schumann (1819–1896)
• Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): wrote a concert etude, Am Seegestade - Eine Erinnerung
• Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869): wrote Tremolo and Manchega, two concert etudes.
• Johannes Brahms (1833–1897): including 51 Exercises for Piano published in 1893
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): wrote two sets of 6 etudes each (op. 52 and 111)
• Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907): wrote 19 "Concert Etudes".

Born 1850–1899

• Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925): wrote 15 Études de Virtuositié (op. 72), 12 studies for the left hand alone (op. 92), and 20 technical studies (op. 91).
• Sergei Liapunov (1859–1924): wrote Duoze études d'exécution transcendante in memory of Liszt
• Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860–1908): wrote 12 etudes (op. 46)
• Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
• Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937): wrote a concert etude (op. 13)
• Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
• Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924): wrote six etudes (op. 16)
• Leopold Godowsky (1870–1938): wrote 60 paraphrases 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 (op. 2, 8, 42, 49, 56 and 65)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943): wrote two sets of Etudes-Tableux (op. 33 and 39).
• Charles Ives (1874–1954)
• Josef Hofmann (1876–1957)
• Ernö 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)
• Alfredo Casella (1883–1947)
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953): wrote 4 etudes (Op. 2)
• George Gershwin (1898–1937): wrote 7 Virtuoso Etudes on Popular Songs

Born after 1900

• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
• Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994): wrote two etudes (1940-1941)
• Robert Starer (1924–2001): wrote The Contemporary Virtuoso, a set of 7 etudes
• Einojuhani Rautavaara (born 1928): wrote six etudes ASDF (op. 42)
• György Ligeti (born 1923): wrote three volumes (1985, 1988–1994 and 1995)
• Philip Glass (born 1937) (1994–)
• Nikolai Kapustin (born 1937)
• Marc-André Hamelin (born 1961): wrote a set of 12 etudes in minor keys

For other instruments

• Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831): for the violin
• Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853): for the guitar
• Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909): for the guitar
• Julius Klengel (1859–1933): for the cello
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959): for the guitar
• Andrés Segovia (1893–1987): for the guitar