Overview
Franz Liszt’s Études en douze exercices, S.136 (1826) is a formative work in the evolution of the piano étude and an important milestone in Liszt’s own development as a composer and virtuoso. Below is an overview of its context, content, and significance:
🎼 Overview: Études en douze exercices, S.136 (1826)
Composer: Franz Liszt
Year composed: 1826 (published in 1826 in Vienna)
Catalogue number: S.136
Age of composer: 15 years old
Number of pieces: 12 études
Dedication: Carl Czerny (Liszt’s teacher)
🧠 Context and Purpose
This early set of études was composed when Liszt was a teenage prodigy under the tutelage of Carl Czerny, himself a student of Beethoven and a master pedagogue.
The Études en douze exercices are technical studies, modeled after Czerny’s exercises, with clear pedagogical aims: to train agility, finger independence, and basic technical coordination.
These are not yet the mature, dazzling Lisztian études we associate with works like Transcendental Études or Grandes Études.
However, they foreshadow Liszt’s later virtuosity, harmonic boldness, and interest in thematic transformation.
🎹 Musical Characteristics
Technical focus: Basic finger patterns, passagework, broken chords, scales, repeated notes, etc.
Style: Clear classical influence (especially from Czerny and early Beethoven), but with hints of Liszt’s personal voice emerging.
Tonality: Mostly conventional, often diatonic, rooted in classical harmony.
Structure: Short and concise; the études are not “concert pieces” but instead didactic in intent.
🔁 Evolution of the Work
Liszt reworked this set twice:
1837 – Douze Grandes Études, S.137
These were massively reworked and expanded, demanding extreme virtuosity.
Considered nearly unplayable by most pianists of the day.
1851 – Transcendental Études, S.139
The final version, a condensation and refinement of the 1837 version.
These are mature concert études, each with a programmatic title (e.g., “Mazeppa”, “Feux follets”).
Represents Liszt at the height of his pianistic innovation.
🎯 Why S.136 Still Matters
Offers a glimpse into Liszt’s early training and how he digested Czerny’s technical language.
It’s a rare example of Liszt in a “student composer” phase, before his full artistic identity took shape.
Students and scholars study these to trace the evolution of his pianistic style and transformation of technical material into art.
Characteristics of Music
The Études en douze exercices, S.136 by Franz Liszt (1826), are musically modest but important in laying the groundwork for his later virtuoso style. Composed when Liszt was only 15 years old, these pieces are essentially student studies inspired by the pedagogical works of Carl Czerny, and their musical characteristics reflect both their didactic purpose and early signs of Liszt’s creative voice.
🎼 Musical Characteristics of the Collection (S.136)
1. Purpose and Functionality
The études are intended for technical development rather than concert performance.
They target specific finger techniques, aiming at dexterity, evenness, and strength.
Each étude focuses on a particular mechanical challenge, such as scales, arpeggios, broken chords, repeated notes, or hand independence.
2. Form and Structure
Generally short and sectional, with clear binary or ternary forms.
Phrases are built in balanced Classical-style periods (often 4 or 8 measures).
There is little thematic development—the focus is on figuration rather than motivic transformation.
3. Tonality and Harmony
Tonality is conventional and diatonic, using straightforward major and minor scales.
Chord progressions are predictable and textbook, with basic tonic–dominant relationships.
Some early chromaticism and modulations appear, hinting at Liszt’s future harmonic freedom.
4. Texture and Figuration
Primarily homophonic textures with right-hand passagework over a left-hand accompaniment.
Textures vary between:
Running scalar passages
Broken chord patterns
Alberti-like accompaniments
Simple chordal support
Some études hint at two-hand contrapuntal independence, a skill Liszt would later master.
5. Melodic Writing
Melodies are often implied rather than lyrical, embedded in technical patterns.
Some études offer early thematic hints, but the material is generally motif-light and built on scale fragments or arpeggios.
6. Virtuosity
By Liszt’s later standards, these are not virtuosic.
However, for a 15-year-old composer, they are technically sophisticated and precursors to his future brilliance.
There are rudimentary signs of later Lisztian gestures: wide leaps, rapid note repetitions, and rhythmic drive.
7. Stylistic Influences
Strong influence from Czerny, both in form and content.
Occasional echoes of early Beethoven and Hummel, particularly in harmonic pacing and phrasing.
More conservative and restrained than even Liszt’s early published fantasies and transcriptions.
🧩 Overall Suite Characteristics
Although Liszt did not assign programmatic titles or a narrative arc, the études can be viewed as a progressive suite:
Études 1–6 focus on basic finger technique and scalar motion.
Études 7–9 explore broken chords, arpeggiated textures, and wider hand movements.
Études 10–12 begin to show greater ambition in rhythm, texture, and harmonic variety.
🔍 Summary
Category Characteristics
Purpose Pedagogical; foundational technical studies
Tonality Classical, diatonic, mostly major/minor
Texture Homophonic, with occasional polyphonic suggestions
Virtuosity Mild to moderate; not concert études
Form Binary/ternary; classical phrasing
Influences Czerny, early Beethoven, Hummel
Lisztian traits Early signs: arpeggios, broken octaves, scalar runs
Analysis, Tutoriel, Interpretation & Importants Points to Play
Below is a comprehensive guide covering the analysis, tutorial, interpretation, and piano performance tips for each of the twelve études in Études en douze exercices, S.136 by Franz Liszt.
🎼 Études en douze exercices, S.136 – Complete Guide
General Purpose of the Set:
Serve as foundational technical exercises
Introduce key aspects of finger independence, articulation, and motion
Early 19th-century pedagogical structure, influenced by Czerny
🎹 Étude No. 1 in C Major
Focus: Right-hand five-finger and scale-like motion
Form: Ternary (A–B–A), straightforward phrasing
Tutorial Tips:
Practice slow, legato five-finger patterns.
Work on precise finger articulation and avoid overusing arm weight.
Interpretation:
Keep the tone even and clean.
Shape each phrase musically, despite technical focus.
🎹 Étude No. 2 in A Minor
Focus: Broken chords and melodic figuration
Form: Two-part form with rhythmic repetition
Tutorial Tips:
Isolate right-hand arpeggios and practice for evenness.
Keep left-hand chordal accompaniment soft and controlled.
Interpretation:
Emphasize the singing quality of the melody hidden within figuration.
Maintain phrasing over the pattern repetition.
🎹 Étude No. 3 in E Major
Focus: Rapid sixteenth-note scales and arpeggios
Form: Binary with contrasting material
Tutorial Tips:
Use rhythmic grouping for practice (e.g., in 3s or 4s).
Apply light wrist rotation in ascending/descending patterns.
Interpretation:
Make the flowing lines lyrical and uninterrupted.
Slight dynamic swells help shape long phrases.
🎹 Étude No. 4 in C-sharp Minor
Focus: Chromaticism and finger agility
Form: Binary with central contrast
Tutorial Tips:
Chromatic scale fingering: avoid tension by maintaining flexible fingertips.
Practice slowly, increasing tempo gradually.
Interpretation:
Bring out the contrast between chromaticism and diatonic passages.
Use subtle rubato to enhance drama.
🎹 Étude No. 5 in B-flat Major
Focus: Repeated notes and staccato precision
Form: March-like, with rhythmic clarity
Tutorial Tips:
Use finger staccato without stiffening the wrist.
Practice accents on different beats to stabilize rhythm.
Interpretation:
Keep a playful or march-like character.
Use dynamics for phrasing contrast.
🎹 Étude No. 6 in G Minor
Focus: Octave displacement and rhythmic contrasts
Form: Dramatic with syncopated middle section
Tutorial Tips:
Practice hands separately to manage jumps.
Use arm motion for wider octave displacements.
Interpretation:
Emphasize rhythmic drive and syncopation.
Convey a darker, more dramatic character.
🎹 Étude No. 7 in D Major
Focus: Arpeggios in both hands
Form: Flowing arpeggiated texture
Tutorial Tips:
Coordinate hand crossings and maintain smooth transitions.
Break down large arpeggios into hand-position zones.
Interpretation:
Maintain a harp-like, fluid sonority.
Emphasize resonance and pedal control.
🎹 Étude No. 8 in F-sharp Minor
Focus: Broken sixths and thirds
Form: ABA structure
Tutorial Tips:
Practice intervals slowly to develop hand shape and precision.
Use finger substitution for smooth legato.
Interpretation:
Aim for a lyrical melancholy; let inner voices sing.
Use pedal subtly to blend voices.
🎹 Étude No. 9 in E Major
Focus: Wide skips and right-hand agility
Form: Virtuosic figuration over stable LH
Tutorial Tips:
Use wrist rotation for fast skips.
Keep LH bass rhythm steady and non-intrusive.
Interpretation:
Give the RH a “sparkling” character.
Phrase RH as a light, swirling melody.
🎹 Étude No. 10 in C Minor
Focus: Rapid chord alternation and finger control
Form: Binary, compact structure
Tutorial Tips:
Practice blocked chords slowly, then introduce rhythm.
Develop strength in fingers 3–4–5 for inner chord clarity.
Interpretation:
Create a stormy and intense mood.
Use accents and dynamics to carve phrases.
🎹 Étude No. 11 in A-flat Major
Focus: Right-hand runs and lyrical shapes
Form: Flowing, almost improvisatory
Tutorial Tips:
Practice RH separately to shape runs musically.
Play with a light, elevated wrist for brilliance.
Interpretation:
Let melody lines unfold gracefully from the texture.
Consider adding rubato to highlight Romantic flair.
🎹 Étude No. 12 in F Minor
Focus: Coordination and tension-building
Form: Larger scope, prefigures Liszt’s later style
Tutorial Tips:
Practice in sections, focusing on difficult passages in isolation.
Align RH flourishes with LH harmonies.
Interpretation:
Convey drama and intensity—this is the most mature of the set.
Shape the climax carefully; avoid rushing.
🔚 Conclusion: Important Performance Points
Articulation is key: Each étude develops touch—legato, staccato, broken phrasing.
Balance hands: RH often dominates with figuration, but LH should always support musically.
Evenness > Speed: Accuracy and even tone are more valuable at this stage.
Shape phrases: Even simple études should have musical phrasing and dynamics.
Pedal sparingly: These are early Romantic works—use pedal for color, not to cover mistakes.
Observe form: Identify structure to better pace and breathe through longer études.
History
The Études en douze exercices, S.136, occupy a unique place in Franz Liszt’s artistic journey—they are not dazzling showpieces like his later études, but rather earnest studies, composed during his teenage years, that foreshadow the technical and expressive genius he would become.
Liszt wrote this collection around 1826, when he was just 15 years old, while studying in Paris under the tutelage of Carl Czerny, a student of Beethoven and a celebrated pedagogue. Czerny’s influence is strongly felt throughout these works: they are deeply rooted in the pedagogical tradition, focusing on dexterity, finger independence, and fundamental technique. However, they also show glimmers of Liszt’s emerging personality, including daring hand crossings, subtle chromaticism, and ambitious textures.
At the time, Liszt was striving not only to master the piano but also to gain recognition as a serious composer. Like many young virtuosi of the early 19th century, he began by writing studies—not merely exercises, but pieces that would train both the hands and the imagination. The Études en douze exercices were his earliest full-length set of studies, and although they were not widely published or performed during his lifetime, they form the earliest layer of what would become an evolutionary chain of increasingly complex works.
Liszt later revisited and transformed these twelve studies into more virtuosic and artistically mature forms. In 1837, he revised them into the Douze Grandes Études, S.137, which dramatically expanded the scope, difficulty, and musicality of the originals. Then in 1851, he reworked six of them once more to produce the legendary Transcendental Études, S.139—works of such technical and poetic ambition that they remain cornerstones of the concert repertoire today.
Therefore, the Études en douze exercices, S.136, represent the first step in a three-stage metamorphosis. They reveal Liszt’s foundational technique and early grasp of form, phrasing, and keyboard writing. While modest in difficulty and scope compared to his later works, they are historically essential: the chrysalis before the butterfly, a window into Liszt’s youthful mind, and a testament to how even a prodigy must begin with fundamental building blocks.
Popular Piece/Book of Collection at That Time?
No, Liszt’s Études en douze exercices, S.136 were not widely popular or commercially successful at the time of their composition or publication. In fact, this early collection of études remained relatively obscure for much of the 19th century and was quickly eclipsed by Liszt’s later, more mature works.
📜 Historical Context and Reception
Composed in 1826, when Liszt was just 15, the Études en douze exercices were likely conceived more as private pedagogical material than as concert or commercial pieces.
They were not published during Liszt’s youth in any widely distributed edition, and they did not circulate as much as the works of his teacher Carl Czerny, who was dominating the didactic repertoire at the time.
The études lacked the dramatic flair and innovative technique that later made Liszt famous, so they didn’t stand out in a competitive market of piano études, where composers like Czerny, Cramer, and Hummel had already secured reputations.
There is no strong historical evidence that these études were a popular book or best-selling sheet music in the 1820s or 1830s.
📘 Liszt’s Own Perspective
Liszt never returned to promote or publish this early version (S.136) in his mature career.
Instead, he focused on reworking the material into the Douze Grandes Études (1837) and ultimately the Transcendental Études (1851), which were far more artistically and commercially significant.
These later versions became the ones associated with his legacy and genius, especially the S.139 set, which was admired and performed by leading pianists like Hans von Bülow and Ferruccio Busoni.
📉 In Summary
The S.136 études were not popular, widely performed, or financially successful at the time of their release.
They gained retrospective interest only because of their role as a precursor to Liszt’s mature études.
Today, they are studied primarily by historians, scholars, and pianists interested in Liszt’s artistic development—not because of their popularity in the 19th century.
Episodes & Trivia
Here are several interesting episodes and trivia related to Études en douze exercices, S.136 by Franz Liszt—a lesser-known but historically fascinating early work by the future virtuoso:
🎹 1. Liszt wrote them as a teenager—but already with big ambitions
In 1826, at only 15 years old, Liszt composed the Études en douze exercices while still living in Paris and studying with Carl Czerny. Though Czerny was known for functional technique drills, Liszt was already experimenting with ways to elevate études into art, even at that young age. This ambition would define his later career.
📝 Trivia: Liszt was already a performing sensation in salons at the time he composed these, though he still referred to himself humbly as “un petit compositeur.”
🧠 2. The études are a hidden “ancestor” of the Transcendental Études
Each étude in S.136 corresponds exactly in number and key to the later Transcendental Études, S.139. That means:
Étude No. 1 in C major (S.136) → becomes “Preludio” (S.139)
Étude No. 4 in C♯ minor → becomes “Mazeppa”
🎭 Trivia: “Mazeppa,” one of Liszt’s most dramatic and famous études, began life as a basic student finger exercise in S.136. The original form is nearly unrecognizable next to the final version.
📉 3. Liszt never performed them in public
Unlike his later études, which were concert staples, Liszt never included the S.136 pieces in his performance repertoire. They were likely considered too simple—or not mature enough—for the public stage.
🎹 Trivia: By the time Liszt became a touring superstar in the 1830s, he had already abandoned the S.136 set for more elaborate and expressive showpieces.
📚 4. They were essentially “lost” until modern editions revived them
Because Liszt never pushed for their publication in his lifetime, and because they were overshadowed by later versions (S.137 and S.139), the S.136 études remained largely unknown until the 20th century. They became of interest only to musicologists and pianists tracing Liszt’s evolution.
📖 Trivia: Today, critical editions such as the Neue Liszt-Ausgabe include them in full, alongside the revised versions, allowing side-by-side comparison of his compositional development.
🧬 5. They show Czerny’s influence—but hint at rebellion
Many of the finger patterns, broken chords, and scalar runs resemble Czerny’s exercises, but here and there Liszt adds unexpected turns of harmony or dramatic intervals. These are small glimpses of the innovative voice that would later shock the world.
🧨 Trivia: Some phrases in S.136 use enharmonic modulation or expanded leaps—features not typically found in Czerny’s more conservative études.
🧒 6. They were meant partly to discipline his technique
Liszt, even at a young age, was aware of the risk of developing flashy but uneven technique. These études were likely part of his own self-training to stabilize finger independence and hand balance, not just to compose showy material.
🛠 Trivia: Liszt’s father, Adam Liszt, who managed Franz’s early career, was deeply concerned with proper technical training and encouraged Czerny-style practice alongside composition.
Similar Compositions / Suits / Collections
Here are several similar compositions or collections to Franz Liszt’s Études en douze exercices, S.136—early technical studies or pedagogical works composed by young or developing composers, especially those that were later transformed into more mature works, just like Liszt’s études:
🎹 1. Carl Czerny – The School of Velocity, Op. 299
Why it’s similar: Czerny was Liszt’s teacher, and this collection focuses on finger velocity, independence, and articulation—many of the same goals as Liszt’s S.136 études.
Trivia: Liszt would later far surpass Czerny in terms of musical depth, but these exercises laid his technical foundation.
🎼 2. Frédéric Chopin – Études, Op. 10
Why it’s similar: Also written by a young composer in his 20s, Chopin’s Op. 10 études combined technical challenge with artistic beauty—a model Liszt would later follow in his Transcendental Études.
Trivia: Liszt praised Chopin’s études and likely saw them as a challenge to elevate his own early studies.
🧒 3. Felix Mendelssohn – Six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35
Why it’s similar: Composed when Mendelssohn was still in his teens, these works blend contrapuntal discipline with Romantic expression—similar to how S.136 shows Liszt’s developing voice within a classical shell.
✍️ 4. Franz Liszt – Douze Grandes Études, S.137
Why it’s similar: This is the direct revision of S.136 made in 1837. It’s much more difficult and expressive, and bridges the gap between dry exercise and concert étude.
🌟 5. Robert Schumann – Études symphoniques, Op. 13
Why it’s similar: While not student exercises, these variations function like études in disguise, focusing on different textures and moods. Like Liszt, Schumann turned the étude into a poetic and structural form.
🎻 6. Niccolò Paganini – 24 Caprices, Op. 1 (for solo violin)
Why it’s similar: These are virtuosic studies written by a young Paganini to push technical limits. Liszt admired them and later transcribed several for piano, applying similar ideas to keyboard writing.
🎵 7. Johannes Brahms – Exercises for Piano (51 Übungen and others)
Why it’s similar: Though written later, Brahms’s piano exercises are highly systematic and aimed at solving technical problems in a musically aware way, much like Liszt’s youthful studies.
🎼 8. Sergei Rachmaninoff – Études-Tableaux, Op. 33 & 39
Why it’s similar: Although written much later, these études show a mature version of what Liszt hinted at in S.136: the fusion of piano technique with vivid imagery and expression.
(This article was generated by ChatGPT. And it’s just a reference document for discovering music you don’t know yet.)
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