étude
Encyclopedia : T : TU : TUD : étude
- This article is about the musical form. For the defunct magazine, see The Etude.
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. [link]
Etudes for other instruments have been written as well, for example Rodolphe Kreutzer's etudes for the violin and Villa-Lobos' etudes for the guitar.
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.
An extreme case is found in the etudes that would scarcely qualify as music, being composed of repetitive figures intended purely as physical exercise. Of these, the best known are the 60 etudes of The Virtuoso Pianist by Charles-Louis Hanon (1873).
Some teachers have argued that etudes which are unmusical and serve only to develop the fingers are of no value, and may actually be harmful - Abby Whiteside is one example of a pedagogue who advocated the total abandonment of exercises in the Hanon and Czerny mold.
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): 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 Études symphoniques.
- 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 previous versions being Etude en douze exercises and Douze Grandes Etudes; six etudes on themes by Niccolò Paganini (among them the famous La Campanella); and five concert etudes (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. Liszt's etudes are considered to be among the most difficult pieces to play.
- 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 (1814–1889)
- Clara Schumann (1819–1896)
- 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 51 Exercises for Piano published in 1893
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): wrote two sets of 6 etudes each (op. 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).
- Sergei Liapunov (1859–1924): wrote Duoze études d'exécution transcendante in memory of Liszt
- Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860–1908): wrote a concert etude (op. 36) and 12 etudes (op. 46)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Emil von Sauer (1862–1942)
- 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)
- Józef 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): wrote three etudes (op. 4)
- 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
- Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
- John Cage (1912–1992): wrote Etudes Australes
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994): wrote two etudes (1940-1941)
- George Perle (born 1915) wrote two sets of Etudes
- György Ligeti (1923-2006): wrote three volumes (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 Etudes (op. 40) and Five Études in Different Intervals (op. 68)
- Marc-André Hamelin (born 1961): wrote a set of 12 etudes in minor keys
For other instruments
- Jean-Louis Duport (1749–1819): for the cello
- Federigo Fiorillo (1755–1823): for the violin
- Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831): for the violin
- Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853): for the guitar
- Theobald Boehm (1794–1881): for the flute
- Franz Wohlfahrt (1833–1884): wrote 60 Studies for Violin (op. 45)
- Joachim Andersen (1847–1909): for the flute
- 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
- Lillian Fuchs (1903–1991): for the viola
- John Cage (1912–1992): wrote Freeman Etudes - Books I and II for the violin
- Angelo Gilardino (born 1941): wrote five volumes of Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza for guitar
References
- Date for The Virtuoso Pianist is taken from The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, online edition (retrieved Feb. 5, 2006).
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