SSC Music Trivia

Play our new online trivia game!

Each month a new piece of music performed by members of our faculty will be revealed along with weekly questions posted each Monday that will tease the best musical minds. Play along!

Etude pour les arpèges composés (Claude Debussy)

Etude pour les arpèges composés by C. Debussy Siyuan Li, piano Second Place, 2009 Duxbury Music Festival Solo Competition



 

• An étude (French for “study”) is, generally, an instrumental composition written to address a specific technical skill associated with a particular instrument.
• With the rapid rise of the popularity of the piano during the 19th century, many études were written for the instrument.
• A majority of the études written for the piano during the early part of the 19th century were used primarily as teaching material.
• Composers of these primarily pedagogical études include Carl Czerny and Muzio Clementi.

• During the 19th century, the piano grew in popularity as a domestic instrument.
• As a result of its increased popularity, “method” books (instruction books) grew in number and began to contain technical exercises addressing technical/performance issues regarding the instrument.
• These early “etudes” were not intended for performance but merely “aerobics for the hands”.
• During the mid-1800s, composers began to write music that served dual purposes: technical exercise and musical composition.
• Compositions having both didactic and musical values were often entitled concert studies.
• Composers of these studies include Ignaz Moscheles and Muzio Clementi.
• The 24 études of Frederic Chopin (Op. 10 composed in 1833 and Op. 25 composed in 1837) are among the finest ever written, each one addressing a technical and/or musical issue (playing octaves, thirds, sixths, arpeggios, legato, staccato).
• Franz Liszt, renowned virtuoso pianist/composer, was the first major pianist to master these pieces, performing them in public recitals.
• Liszt composed his own set of études (Transcendental Etudes, final version of published in 1852).
• Many late-19th and 20th century composers have tackled the étude and have created compositions which have become part of the standard repertoire, including Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Ligetti, Debussy.