The Étude

What is an Étude'?

It´s a musical piece, usually short, that focuses on one or several technical problems.

Translated to English, étude means “study”. In this case, a musical study.

The Étude rapidly rose as a popular musical form, particularly in the Romantic period with the growing popularity of the piano and the elaborate concert etudes that composers like Chopin or Liszt wrote.

They elevated the Étude from simple exercises to a true art form.

The bandoneon was never a very popular instrument outside of the Argentinean Tango.

Few études have been written for it. And, compared to other more popular instruments like the piano or the violin, few technical challenges have been posed for it.

With this in mind, I´ve created a set of 14 Études for solo bandoneon, inspired by the tradition of 19th-century Étude forms.

I´ve also recorded them and they´ll be released very soon in my next album.

They pose enormous challenges for the player and have been difficult for me to learn and record. However, the composition process was very intuitive and relatively fast-paced.

I´m very happy with how they came out and hope that new generations of bandoneon players will pick them up and develop their technique and artistry further.

Today I´ve released a single with the 4th of these Études (you might remember that last week I released the 6th one).

You can listen to it here. It´s gentler and slower-paced than the previous one, but don´t be fooled: it is very difficult to play! I´ll talk about its particular challenges in another post.

Enjoy, and have a great day.

Claudio.