Étude Op.2 No.1

Description

Written in 1887, when Scriabin was fifteen and studying at the Moscow Conservatory alongside Rachmaninoff. It is the first of the Trois morceaux, Op. 2 — one of his very earliest published pieces, and still among the most often played of anything he wrote.

In C-sharp minor and triple meter. The left hand lays down widely spread broken chords and the melody sings inside them. The idiom is thick with Chopin, as an early work would be, but the shadow in the harmony is already Scriabin's own. The right hand moves through fine thirty-second-note decoration, all of it at a held-back dynamic.

An intermediate piece. It is not fast, but the left-hand arpeggios are spread widely enough that smaller hands cannot always reach them; decide in advance where to roll rather than force a stretch. The melody lies in an inner voice of the right hand and has to be kept clear of the notes above and below it.

A collection of études by various composers, including Chopin's famous "Revolutionary" Étude, designed to build finger independence and expressive technique.