The Etudes of Chopin: An Overview

Absolute game changers in warming up and showing off

Pianists always have a warm up routine before learning and reviewing repertoire; included in this are the exercises of Hanon and Czerny. Exercises like those from the aforementioned two help build up technique but are not meant to be for the concert hall. This is where the etudes of Chopin come in: they provide pedagogical value while being worthy of being performed in concert.

The first set, Op. 10, was dedicated to his friend, Franz Liszt. These 12 etudes that compose the first set are youthful works when Chopin was barely out of his teens. These early etudes are virtuosic showpieces really meant for the concert hall. Challenges include wide arpeggios on the right hand for the first etude, playing on the black keys for the right hand for the fifth etude, left hand runs and arpeggios with barely any rest for the twelfth etude to name a few.

Here is Louis Lortie playing the Op. 10 etudes live:

The second set of etudes, Op. 25, are dedicated to Liszt’s mistress Countess Marie d’Agoult. With another set of 12 etudes, Chopin further explored more of the pedagogical aspects of piano playing and harmonic ingenuity; if the Op. 10 set was already difficult enough, Chopin made these even more challenging musically and technically. To name a few challenges, the first etude has broken chords that are mirrored in both hands, the sixth etudes focuses on double note trills (?!), the tenth etude focuses on octaves for both hands while the last etude has arpeggios on both hands going virtually on the same direction non stop.

Here is Louis Lortie performing the Op. 25 etudes from the same concert:

There are pianists who would warm up with one set of these etudes like mad lads. After Chopin’s innovations in the genre, composers like Liszt, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff would have their takes on it as well. Liszt just outright makes them fiendishly difficult that it would be nonsensical to play them as warm ups, Rachmaninoff on the other hand makes his etudes quasi Impressionist; Debussy’s etudes push the abilities of pianists and even his harmonic language. There is indeed no doubt that after Chopin made his innovations, etudes no longer became confined to the practice room but had moved to the concert hall to build technique and show off musical individuality.