The Studies on Chopin's Études, by Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...

, is a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

 études

Études (Chopin)

The Études by Frédéric Chopin are three sets of solo studies for the piano, There are twenty-seven overall, comprising two separate collections of twelve, numbered Opus 10 and 25, and a set of three without opus number.-Composition:...

. (The number of studies is often given as 54, with Op. 25, No. 2 having one study written as a considerably different ossia

Ossia

Ossia is a musical term for an alternative passage which may be played instead of the original passage. The word ossia comes from the Italian for "alternatively" and was originally spelled o sia, meaning "or be it" . Ossias are very common in opera and solo piano works...

 of another; a similar ossia also exists for one of the studies on Op. 25, No. 3, so the total number of studies can be taken to be 55. In contrast, Godowsky's original numbering scheme runs only to 48.) They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C. Schonberg

Harold C. Schonberg

Harold Charles Schonberg was an American music critic and journalist, most notably for The New York Times. He was the first music critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism...

 called them "the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano." Several of the studies (for example, the study "Ignis Fatuus

Will-o'-the-wisp

A will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus , also called a "will-o'-wisp", "jack-o'-lantern" , "hinkypunk", "corpse candle", "ghost-light", "spook-light", "fairy light", "friar's lantern", "hobby lantern", "ghost orb", or simply "wisp", is a ghostly light or lights sometimes seen at night or twilight over...

" on Chopin's Étude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2

Étude Op. 10, No. 2 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 10, No. 2, in A minor, is a technical study composed by Frédéric Chopin for the piano. Composed in 1829 it was first published in 1833 in France, Germany, and England This étude is an exercise in developing the independence of the weaker fingers of the right hand by playing rapid...

) put the original right-hand part into the left hand; several others are for the left hand alone (for example, the study on the "Revolutionary" Étude, transposed to C-sharp minor). Several of the studies even combine two études; the most well known of these, called "Badinage," combines both the G-flat (the "Black Key" Étude of Op. 10 and the "Butterfly"

Étude Op. 25, No. 9 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 25, No. 9, in G-flat major, "Butterfly" is an étude by Frédéric Chopin. -Analysis:Étude Op. 25, No. 9 is a study of staccato - marcato alternations, marked throughout the piece. It is the shortest of the twenty-four, and lasts under a minute played at the indicated tempo. The melody is...

 étude of Op. 25).

Opus 10

Opus 10 No. 1

• 1st Study in C major
• 2nd Study in D-flat major (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 2

• 1st Study in A minor (left hand only)
• 2nd Study in A minor ("Ignis Fatuus")

Opus 10 No. 3

• Study in D-flat major (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 4

• Study in C-sharp minor (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 5

• 1st Study in G-flat major
• 2nd Study in C major
• 3rd Study in A minor ("Tarantella")
• 4th Study in A major ("Capriccio")
• 5th Study in G-flat major
• 6th Study in G-flat major
• 7th Study in G-flat major (left hand only)
• This étude was also combined with the Opus 25 No. 9 étude in the "Badinage" composition.

Opus 10 No. 6

• Study in E-flat minor (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 7

• 1st Study in C major ("Toccata")
• 2nd Study in G-flat major ("Nocturne")
• 3rd Study in E-flat major (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 8

• 1st Study in F major
• 2nd Study in G-flat major (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 9

• 1st Study in C-sharp minor
• 2nd Study in F minor (imitation of Opus 25 No. 2)
• 3rd Study in F-sharp minor (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 10

• 1st Study in D major
• 2nd Study in A-flat major (left hand only)

Opus 10 No. 11

• Study in A major (left hand only)
• This étude was also combined with the Opus 25 No. 3 étude.

Opus 10 No. 12

• Study in C-sharp minor (left hand only)

Opus 25

Opus 25 No. 1

• 1st Study in A-flat major (left hand only)
• 2nd Study in A-flat major (Like a piece for four hands)
• 3rd Study in A-flat major

Opus 25 No. 2

• 1st Study in F minor
• 2nd Study in F minor ("Waltz")
• 3rd Study (A) in F minor
• 3rd Study (B) in F minor
• 4th Study in F-sharp minor (left hand only)
• This étude was also imitated in one of the Opus 10 No. 9 studies.

Opus 25 No. 3

• 1st Study in F major
• 2nd Study in F major (left hand only)
• This étude was also combined with the Opus 10 No. 11 étude

Opus 25 No. 4

• 1st Study in A minor (left hand only)
• 2nd Study in F minor ("Polonaise")

Opus 25 No. 5

• 1st Study in E minor
• 2nd Study in C-sharp minor ("Mazurka")
• 3rd Study in B-flat minor (left hand only)

Opus 25 No. 6

• Study in G-sharp minor

Opus 25 No. 7
There are no studies of this étude in the collection.
Opus 25 No. 8

• Study in D-flat major

Opus 25 No. 9

• 1st Study in G-flat major
• 2nd Study in G-flat major (left hand only)
• This étude was also combined with the Opus 10 No. 5 étude in the "Badinage" composition.

Opus 25 No. 10

• Study in B minor (left hand only)

Opus 25 No. 11

• Study in A minor

Opus 25 No. 12

• Study in C-sharp minor (left hand only)

Trois Nouvelles Études

Nouvelle Étude No. 1

• Study in F minor (left hand only)

Nouvelle Étude No. 2

• 1st Study in E major
• 2nd Study in D-flat major (left hand only)

Nouvelle Étude No. 3

• Study in G major ("Menuetto")

Recordings

These studies are so taxing that only two pianists, Marc-André Hamelin

Marc-André Hamelin

Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, is a French Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was...

 and Carlo Grante, have recorded the entire set. Francesco Libetta

Francesco Libetta

Francesco Libetta is an Italian pianist, composer and conductor.- Biography :Born in Galatone, South Italy, Francesco Libetta studied in Italy , France before basing himself in...

 has performed the complete set in concert (the only pianist to do so from memory). Ivan Ilić

Ivan Ilic

Ivan Ilić is an American pianist of Serbian descent. He is currently living in Paris.-Biography:Born on August 14, 1978, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Ilić attended the University of California, Berkeley where he took degrees in mathematics and music...

 has made a specialty of the 22 études for the left hand alone.

Only a handful of other pianists have ventured to record selected studies. The first was Vladimir de Pachmann

Vladimir de Pachmann

Vladimir von Pachmann or Pachman was a pianist of Russian-German ethnicity, especially noted for performing the works of Chopin, and also for his eccentric on-stage style.-Biography:...

, who recorded the Study on Op. 10 #12 in 1912. Others include Boris Berezovsky

Boris Berezovsky (pianist)

- Biography :Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Following his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, The Times described him as "an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power."In May 2005...

, Jorge Bolet

Jorge Bolet

Jorge Bolet was a Cuban-born but mostly American-resident pianist and teacher.-Life:Bolet was born in Havana, and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he himself taught from 1939 to 1942...

, Ivan Ilić

Ivan Ilic

Ivan Ilić is an American pianist of Serbian descent. He is currently living in Paris.-Biography:Born on August 14, 1978, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Ilić attended the University of California, Berkeley where he took degrees in mathematics and music...

, Ian Hobson, Jacob Jettomersky, Geoffrey Douglas Madge

Geoffrey Douglas Madge

Geoffrey Douglas Madge is an Australian classical pianist and composer.Madge performed long and arduous works, he has twice recorded Sorabji's Opus clavicembalisticum, one of the longest and most difficult works ever written for the piano...

, David Saperton

David Saperton

David Saperton was an American pianist known especially for being the first pianist to play the entire original compositions as well as the complete transcriptions of his father-in-law, Leopold Godowsky. He also recorded a number of Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin's Études as well as other pieces...

, David Stanhope and Victor Schiøler

Victor Schiøler

Victor Schiøler was a Danish classical pianist .-Biography:He studied with his mother, then with Ignaz Friedman and Artur Schnabel. He made his debut in 1914 and from 1919 toured Europe. He made his first American tour after the war in 1948-49. He was also active as a conductor in Denmark...

.