Étude

An étude (/ ˈeɪtjuːd/; French pronunciation: ​[eˈtyd], a French word meaning study) is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, of considerable difficulty, and 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), those that require wholly unorthodox technique (John Cage), and ones that are unusually easy to play.

19th century

Studies, lessons and other didactic instrumental pieces composed before the 19th century are very varied, without any established genres. The pieces in lute instruction books, such as the celebrated Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610), may be arranged in order of increasing difficulty, but will usually include both simple teaching pieces and masterworks by renowned composers. Domenico Scarlatti's 30 Essercizi per gravicembalo ("30 Exercises for harpsichord", 1738) do not differ in scope from his other keyboard works, and Johann Sebastian Bach's four volumes of Clavier-Übung ("keyboard practice") contain everything from simple organ duets to the extensive and difficult Goldberg Variations.

The Etude

The Etude was a U.S. magazine dedicated to music, which was founded by Theodore Presser (1848–1925) at Lynchburg, Virginia, and first published in October 1883. Presser, who had also founded the Music Teachers National Association, moved his publishing headquarters to Philadelphia in 1884, and his Theodore Presser Company continued the magazine until 1957.

Targeted as much as possible to all musicians, from the novice to the serious student to the professional, The Etude printed articles about both basic/popular and more-involved musical subjects (including history, literature, gossip, and politics), write-in advice columns about musical pedagogy, and graded piano sheet music totaling over 10,000 works. Long-time editor James Francis Cooke (editor-in-chief from 1909 through 1949) added to its masthead the phrase "Music Exalts Life!", and the magazine became a platform for Cooke's somewhat polemical and militantly optimistic editorials. The Etude's sometimes conservative outlook and contents may have contributed to its circulation decline during the 1930s and 1940s, but in many respects it moved with the times, unequivocally supporting the phonograph, radio, and eventually television, and embracing jazz by the late 1930s. By the end, George Rochberg was an editor of The Etude (under Guy McCoy, who had succeeded Cooke as editor-in-chief after over two decades as an assistant), and the magazine's musical content became more in-step with the contemporary.

Étude (instrumental)

"Étude" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984 (see 1984 in music). It is from the album The Killing Fields, the soundtrack album for the film of the same name . It was reissued in 1990, when it was used in a commercial for Nurofen. The 1990 release also featured a track called "Gakkaen" by The Ono Gagaku Kai Society.

"Étude" is taken from the Francisco Tárrega piece "Recuerdos de la Alhambra".

Music video

The music video for "Étude" which appears on the Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield video shows a boy watching parts of The Killing Fields on a television from a reel-to-reel tape machine and looking through photographs. The boy also plays with a Fairlight CMI, which the soundtrack album was composed on.

Track listing

7-inch vinyl

12-inch vinyl

1990 release

References