EVERY GENRE PROJECT - July 20 - Étude
Genre of the Day - Étude
Album of the Day - Chopin: Études Opp. 10 & 25, composed by Frédéric Chopin, performed by Maurizio Pollini (1984)
How many among us have studied music? Perhaps you played the recorder in school. Maybe you were compelled to sit for your weekly piano or violin lesson in your childhood, churning out the results of your hard work via recital. Perhaps you were a more dedicated young musician, devoting hours per week to the craft as the center of your life. Two-thirds of Americans have played an instrument at some point in their lives. When you’re learning to play music, tirelessly practicing a piece again and again is the only way to properly learn and improve; the rewards are hard to see in the exhausting real-time process of practicing as you painstakingly patch up mistakes and the inevitable finger slips. If you’re anything like me, practice would unravel when it was time for my piano recitals. Stage fright would take over and my hands would shake with the intensity of a chihuahua on the Fourth of July. That corporeal reality would render my hands less precise, and stray notes would inevitably crop up.
Musical pieces dedicated to helping musicians improve their craft and become more dexterous constituting a whole musical form is fascinating to consider. This column is typically about consuming and appreciating music as a listener; these genre studies rarely afford us the chance to situate ourselves in the role of the teacher imparting music through pedagogy and the physical labor of the student drawing forth music.
Études, the French word for studies, are compositions given to students to help them improve their technical dexterity in their instrument. Different études are appropriate for progressive stages in a learner’s development; a simple étude might teach a pianist simply how to play scales, the dynamics of volume, or help them explore the whole range of a piano’s keys. A more complicated piano étude might stand as a marathon to a simpler one’s 5K, prompting a player to leap and bound around the keys with the speed of a hummingbird while taking other facets of refined playing into account, requiring superhuman mental focus and physical preparation.
Études emerged as a form in the 19th century as the piano became widespread, representing sophistication from hallowed concert halls to the grand rooms of well-to-do families. The act of creating études posed a veritable challenge for composers: how do you satisfy the growing need for didactic material for learners while simultaneously fashioning the pieces into compelling, concert-ready works of art? Études have proved a popular mode of composition for classical composers because they create a symbiotic relationship: the composer flexes their chops within a deceptively simple form, and students rigorously consume and learn through the pieces ensuring their endurance.
Frédéric Chopin was a self-taught perfectionist, so it’s no wonder that the études he systematically self-taught as a learner would figure highly in his mind as he began composing. Inspired to craft his own, he composed the first few études in this collection as a teenager. His études reflect a desire to make his life’s obsession, piano proficiency, imbued with his emphasis on individuality. Despite this, they resonate with a universal beauty. The first composition, colloquially titled “Waterfalls” with a portion pictured below, is a total wash of glissandos punctuated only occasionally by a low bass note. It was a vivid musical companion as I observed a sudden flash flood through my window. It’s often easy to hear which physical skills are manifesting—you can visualize the hands jumping from trill to trill on Op. 25 No. 3 “The Horseman.” Op. 25 No. 10 “Octave” on paper is simply a study in oscillating between extreme fortissimo heaviness to feathery light pianissimo restraint; when played, it’s executed as a thrilling ride. He elevates a teaching form to a vast range of moods—while most of the songs feature sonic pirouettes to maximally stimulate the hands, No. 6 “Lament” captures a more plaintive tone while retaining the movement a piece meant to be constantly challenging entails. I can’t make up for the hours I didn’t practice in the past, but Chopin’s études give me a newfound appreciation for that work. The composer proves that developing instrumental mastery can be as entertaining as it is rewarding.