Étude

An Etude ( Etude oV ) (French ) in its original sense of the word ( " les études " = study; " étudier " = study ) an instrumental work for a solo instrument to help the playing instruments to greater skills on his instrument. Many piano students associate the term Etude - sometimes in an unpleasant reminder - the name of Carl Czerny.

Precursor of Etude

Piano pieces which, without being explicitly designated as Etude, have the function of an etude for certain technical and / or musical problems, there are almost since the beginning of piano music. So Oscar Bie writes about the piano music of Johann Sebastian Bach:

Unlike most later explicitly named as Etude pieces but the technical exercise value is not yet clearly separated from the intended musical expressive content.

19th century

The authored by Muzio Clementi 1817-1826 Gradus ad Parnassum as a collection of 100 studies or etudes Piano textbook shows the shift in focus from the connecting musical expression values ​​and technical aspects " Etudes understanding " of the 18th century to the more technical / virtuosic understanding of the 19th century. Clementi's work followed in the same sense, the etudes by Johann Baptist Cramer and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

From 1830, in the Romantic period, a separate form of music which, while also studying special skills served, but was also brought as a concertante work to a public hearing evolved from the Etudes. Examples are the Etudes for violin by Niccolò Paganini.

Has revolutionized the piano etude in technical, musical and social terms, by Frédéric Chopin. It was totally new, a pianist Etudes lectured publicly. Chopin Etude thus made ​​the artistic and socially acceptable. His virtuoso etudes were the pieces with which he in the salons most avid listeners. They learned later in 56 "studies" by Leopold Godowsky even further aggravation.

Chopin was followed by Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin with own piano etudes, which increased the technical requirements again.

In the course of time, this form of music away from its original meaning, the attainment of greater dexterity. This is reflected in approaches already in some etudes ( Scriabin ). But the Symphonic Etudes ( Schumann) are an example of the move away from the original idea of an etude, these are but rather variations on a theme. Likewise, it is at the Paganini Variations, Op 35 (two volumes) by Johannes Brahms is a collection of etudes; they bear unmistakably the subtitle name studies for pianoforte.

20th century

The piano technology has radically expanded and are incurred in accordance with the etudes as of György Ligeti.

Collections of etudes

Etudes for Piano

Charles Valentin Alkan

Johannes Brahms

• Paganini Variations, Op 35
• 51 piano exercises

Frédéric Chopin

Muzio Clementi

• Gradus ad Parnassum op 44

Johann Baptist Cramer

• 84 Etudes, Op 50, edited by Hans von Bülow

Carl Czerny

• The School of Velocity, 40 Etudes, Op 299
• Art of Finger Dexterity, op 740

Claude Debussy

• Livre I ( 6 Etudes )
• Livre II (6 Etudes )

Ignaz Friedman

• Op 47
• Op 63

Nikolai Kapustin

• Op 40
• Op 68

György Ligeti

• études

Franz Liszt

• Concert Etudes
• Grandes études de Paganini
• 12 Études d' exécution transcendante

Sergei Rachmaninov

Robert Schumann

• Symphonic Etudes

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin

• Studies

Studies for Violin

Niccolo Paganini

• Op. 14: Etude in 60 variations on the song " Baracubà " for violin and guitar

Jacques Mazas Féréol

• Op. 36: 75 Etudes in 3 volumes

Rodolphe Kreutzer

• 42 Studies ( Caprices ) ( 1796)

Franz Wohlfahrt

• Op. 45: 60 Etudes for Solo Violin

Studies for Acoustic Guitar

• Villa -Lobos Douze Études pour la guitare

Single Documents