An etude (from the French word étude meaning "study") is a short musical composition designed to provide practice in a particular technical skill in the performance of a solo instrument. For example, Frédéric Chopin's etude Op. 25 No. 6 trains pianists to play rapid parallel chromatic thirds, Op. 25 No. 7 emphasizes the production of singing tone in a polyphonic melody, and Op. 25 No. 10 covers parallel octaves. Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized sound, though definitions may vary. ... Frédéric-François Chopin ( March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) is widely seen as the greatest of Polish composers and among the very greatest of composers for the piano, the instrument for which he wrote almost exclusively. ... This article deals with those who play the piano. ... In music theory, an interval is the distance in pitch between two notes, the lower and higher members of the interval. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... For the numerical computation software, see GNU Octave. ...

Musical studies have been composed since the 18th century, most notably by Carl Czerny, but it was Chopin who transformed the etude into an important musical genre. Chopin wrote 24 etudes in two sets of 12 etudes each (Op. 10, Op. 25), plus three more, for a total of 27. Other noted composers of etudes are Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Etudes can be in many forms and are sometimes grouped into larger schemes - Robert Schumann's Études symphoniques bears the title, in its second version, Études en forme de Variations. [1] (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/67166-N.asp) (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Carl Czerny (sometimes Karl; February 21, 1791 – July 15, 1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian; Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist in the Romantic period of Classical music. ... Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of romantic music. ... Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Скря́бин; sometimes transliterated as Skryabin) ( January 6, 1872 – April 27, 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. ... Claude Debussy Claude Achille Debussy ( August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918), composer of impressionistic classical music. ... Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, also Sergey Rachmaninov or Serge Rakhmaninov (Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов), (April 1, 1873 – March 28, 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. ...

Etudes for other instruments have been written as well, for example Rodolphe Kreutzer's etudes for the violin. Rodolphe Kreutzer (November 16, 1766 - January 6, 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, composer and conductor. ... The violin is a stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ...

Chopin's etudes tend to stress a specific aspect of performance difficulty; Liszt's etudes tend to stress mastery of performance as a whole.

The etudes that are most widely admired are those which transcend their practical function and come to be appreciated simply as music. For example, Chopin's etudes are considered not just technically difficult, but also musically very powerful and expressive. In contrast, Czerny's are generally regarded by pianists and audiences as being only technically difficult. Thus Chopin's etudes are continually performed before appreciative audiences, whereas Czerny's are confined to the practice room.

See also

• Aeolian harp