Topic: Comparative Difficulty of the Chopin Etudes III (Read 2447 times)

cloches_de_geneve · on: March 25, 2006, 10:31:02 AM

Based on a total of 89 votes obatined in Poll I (51) and Poll II (38), the following six etudes came up as the most difficult:

1. 25/6
2. 25/11
3. 10/2

4. 10/1
5. 10/4
5. 25/12 (tie with 10/4).

In the first Poll most votes went to the first three. In the second Poll, the first three were taken out, and now, most votes went to the second three (see the previous two comparative difficulty polls for details). For the current, third Poll both the first and second triad are taken out.

A few points deserve comment. The exact numeric rankings have to be taken with a grain of salt. It is safer to say that most pianists here agree that 10/2, 25/6 and 25/11 belong to the most difficult triad; and 10/1; 10/4 and 25/12 to the second most difficult triad.

As pointed out with good reason by some forum members, there are some problems with this kind of procedure and, therefore, the results have to be considered indicative; they are not conclusive. For example, the fact that 25/4 is never rated as most difficult could simply mean that very few pianists have played it. It does not necessarily indicate that it is considered easy. Lack of experience with certain etudes may lead to an underrating of their actual difficulty.

A further issue, brought up recurrently, is that all depends on the physical predispositions of the individual pianist -- due to this variation in predisposition it would make little sense to establish "general" rankings. The point of this poll is to identify those etudes that pose a physical challenge to a majority of individuals. The six etudes above appear to do so. But "majority" does not mean "everybody". Some pianists may well find 10/7 more challenging than 10/1, but for the majority it seems to be the other way around.

The aim of current Poll (Poll III) is to continue with this inquiry and obtain rankings of the remaining 14 Etudes (as mentioned, the slow Etudes do not appear here because their difficulties are of a special kind).

In a few days the rankings for these remaining etudes will be available.

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Which of the following Etudes do you consider the technically most difficult?

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