12 Transcendental Etudes

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The Transcendental Etudes (French: Études d'exécution transcendante), S.139, are a series of twelve compositions written for solo piano by Franz Liszt in 1851. Although based on a 1837 revision of an earlier series of etudes composed in 1826.

The first version of the etudes was published in 1826 under the title Étude en douze exercices, when Liszt was 15 years old. In 1837, a second version, Douze Grandes Etudes, was revised by Liszt, and was published the next year simultaneously in Paris, Milan and Vienna. The third and final version (the most often recorded version) was published in 1852 and dedicated to Carl Czerny, Liszt’s piano teacher and a composer who wrote etudes prolifically.

The etudes, particularly in their second-version form, are among the most difficult pieces for piano ever written. Robert Schumann declared that they were playable (at the time) by "at the most, ten or twelve players in the world." Liszt realized that his virtuosic piano technique, which influenced the composition of the etudes, was virtually unsurpassable^{[citations needed]}; consequently the etudes in their final form are less difficult, but still pose incredible physical and technical demands for the performer. The fifth étude, "Feux Follets," is among the most demanding of the set.

The twelve Transcendental Etudes are arranged as follows:

• No. 1 in C, "Preludio"; A fast piece to be played like an improvisation
• No. 2 in A minor, "Molto Vivace", or "Fusées" (Rockets)
• No. 3 in F, "Paysage" (Landscape)
• No. 4 in D minor, "Mazeppa"
• No. 5 in B-flat, "Feux Follets" (Will o' the wisp)
• No. 6 in G minor, "Vision"
• No. 7 in E-flat, "Eroica" (Heroic)
• No. 8 in C minor, "Wilde Jagd" (Wild Hunt)
• No. 9 in A-flat, "Ricordanza" (Remembrance)
• No. 10 in F minor, "Allegro Agitato", or "Appassionata"
• No. 11 in D-flat, "Harmonies du Soir" (Evening harmonies)
• No. 12 in B-flat minor, "Chasse-Neige" ("Snow-drifting wind", or "Blizzard")

Liszt added these programmatic titles himself (most of them in French), except for numbers 2 and 10 which he left as "Molto Vivace" and "Allegro Agitato" respectively. The titles "Fusées" and "Appassionata" were assigned to these works at a later time and are not commonly used; the original titles by Liszt, "Molto Vivace" and "Allegro Agitato", are generally used instead.

External links

• Etudes in 12 exercices (first version), Douze Grandes Études (second version), Douze Etudes d'Exécution Transcendante (final version): Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.