An étude (/ˈeɪtjuːd/; French: [e.tyd]) or study is an instrumental musical composition designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano. Of the vast number of études from that era, some are still used as teaching material (particularly pieces by Carl Czerny and Muzio Clementi), and a few, by major composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Claude Debussy, achieved a place in today's concert repertory. Études written in the 20th century include those related to traditional ones (György Ligeti) and those that require wholly unorthodox technique (John Cage).
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👉 Étude in the context of Mikrokosmos (Bartók)
Béla Bartók's Mikrokosmos (Hungarian: Mikrokozmosz) Sz. 107, BB 105 consists of 153 progressive piano pieces in six volumes, written between 1926 and 1939 and published in 1940. The individual pieces progress from very easy and simple beginner études to very difficult advanced technical displays, and are used in modern piano lessons and education. In total, according to Bartók, the work "appears as a synthesis of all the musical and technical problems which were treated and in some cases only partially solved in the previous piano works." Volumes one and two are dedicated to his son Péter, while volumes five and six are intended as professionally performable concert pieces.
Bartók also indicated that these pieces could also be played in different arrangements. In 1940, shortly before they emigrated to the United States, he arranged seven of the pieces for two pianos, to provide additional repertoire for himself and his wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók to play. Tibor Serly transcribed six of the pieces for piano and string orchestra, arrangements which were first performed on the composer's 61st birthday in 1942. In 1969 Huguette Dreyfus recorded selected pieces from Books 3 to 6 on the harpsichord.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Étude
- 👉 Étude in the context of Mikrokosmos (Bartók)
- Étude in the context of Ricercar
- Étude in the context of Music written in all major or minor keys
- Étude in the context of 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)
- Étude in the context of 12 Transcendental Études (Lyapunov)
Étude in the context of Ricercar
A ricercar (/ˌriːtʃərˈkɑːr/ REE-chər-KAR, Italian: [ritʃerˈkar]) or ricercare (/ˌriːtʃərˈkɑːreɪ/ REE-chər-KAR-ay, Italian: [ritʃerˈkaːre]) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ricercar derives from the Italian verb ricercare, which means "to search out; to seek"; many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece. A ricercar may explore the permutations of a given motif, and in that regard may follow the piece used as illustration. The term is also used to designate an etude or study that explores a technical device in playing an instrument, or singing.
In its most common contemporary usage, it refers to an early kind of fugue, particularly one of a serious character in which the subject uses long note values. However, the term has a considerably more varied historical usage.
View the full Wikipedia page for RicercarÉtude in the context of Music written in all major or minor keys
There is a long tradition in classical music of writing music in sets of pieces that cover all the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. These sets typically consist of 24 pieces, one for each of the major and minor keys (sets that comprise all the enharmonic variants include 30 pieces).
Examples include Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and Frédéric Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28. Such sets are often organized as preludes and fugues or designated as preludes or études. Some composers have restricted their sets to cover only the 12 major keys or the 12 minor keys; or only the flat keys (Franz Liszt's Transcendental Études) or the sharp keys (Sergei Lyapunov's Op. 11 set). In yet another type, a single piece may progressively modulate through a set of tonalities, as occurs in Ludwig van Beethoven's 2 Preludes through all the Major Keys, Op. 39.
View the full Wikipedia page for Music written in all major or minor keysÉtude in the context of 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)
The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin were written in groups (seven, five and twelve) by Niccolò Paganini between 1802 and 1817. They are also designated as M.S. 25 in Maria Rosa Moretti's and Anna Sorrento's Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini which was published in 1982. The Caprices are in the form of études, with each number exploring different skills (double stopped trills, extremely fast switching of positions and strings, etc.)
Ricordi first published them in 1820, where they were grouped and numbered from 1 to 24 as Op. 1, together with 12 Sonatas for Violin and Guitar (Op. 2 and 3) and 6 Guitar Quartets (Op. 4 and 5). When Paganini released his Caprices, he dedicated them "alli artisti" (to the artists) rather than to a specific person. A sort of dedication can be recognized in Paganini's own score, where he annotated between 1832 and 1840 the following 'dedicatee' for each Caprice (possibly ready for a new printed edition): 1: Henri Vieuxtemps; 2: Giuseppe Austri; 3: Ernesto Camillo Sivori; 4: Ole Bornemann Bull; 5: Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst; 6: Karol Józef Lipiński; 7: Franz Liszt; 8: Delphin Alard; 9: Herrmann; 10: Theodor Haumann; 11: Sigismond Thalberg; 12: Dhuler; 13: Charles Philippe Lafont; 14: Jacques Pierre Rode; 15: Louis Spohr; 16: Rodolphe Kreutzer; 17: Alexandre Artôt; 18: Antoine Bohrer; 19: Andreas Jakob Romberg; 20: Carlo Bignami; 21: Antonio Bazzini; 22: Luigi Alliani; 23: [no name]; 24: Nicolò Paganini, sepolto pur troppo (to my self, regrettably buried).
View the full Wikipedia page for 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)Étude in the context of 12 Transcendental Études (Lyapunov)
The 12 Études d’exécution transcendante (English: 12 Transcendental Études), Op. 11, are a series of 12 études written from 1897 to 1905 by Sergei Lyapunov. Lyapunov intended them to be the posthumous continuation of Franz Liszt's uncompleted work Transcendental Études, having finished only the first 12 before his death in 1886. The work is also dedicated to Liszt, with the twelfth étude being named after the composer as well.
Inspired by one of his three teachers during his time at Moscow Conservatory Karl Klindworth, a former student of Liszt, along with being heavily influenced and artistically guided by Mily Balakirev, the main ideologue of The Five, these Études use the full gamut of nationalist techniques: From folk-songs and church bells, to Caucasian melodies and sumptuous melodicism.
View the full Wikipedia page for 12 Transcendental Études (Lyapunov)