Classical Class #11: Étude

Didn't we just all LOVE doing times tables in grade school?  Thank goodness études, or musical "study" pieces are often a lot more interesting...a lot of serious composers wrote intensely crazy "study pieces", which are in fact just really an opportunity to show off an inhuman technique.

Piano legend Vladimir Ashkenazy shows us how it's done!



Composer: Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Nationality: French-Polish
Piece: Étude in C major, opus 10, no.1
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)

That's not to say that there are really boring ones for beginners, but the études written by first-rate composers such as Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff were usually written off to show off a developed technique rather than to teach Little Suzy how to play a scale.

Chopin's études for the piano are probably among my favourite since they are SO evil but they sound SO effortless when played well.  The one in the video is his first étude in C major, sometimes nicknamed the "Waterfall".  It shows off fast arpeggios, obviously!

Of course, études exist for many instruments - vocal ones often come in the form of vocalises, that is - songs without words.

But I love piano études because the piano can do so many crazy things!  I have a book of Chopin's études but I only learned one of them a while back...definitely harder than times tables!

It's going to be a looooooooooong time until I do another Chopin étude...

Music to try:

• Chopin legend Maurizio Pollini plays Chopin's Etudes
• Vladimir Ashkenazy whips through Chopin's Piano Sonatas and Etudes