Étude in C major

At a glance

• What it isthe eleventh of the twenty piano études in Moritz Moszkowski's Op. 91, a fast piece in C major.
• Who, when, whyMoszkowski, famous as a pianist and teacher, wrote it to train learners' fingers.
• What to listen forthe unbroken run of quick notes, and the clear outline of a melody even within them.

Listen for

• The openingquick notes begin to roll evenly. Try to hear which hand carries the fast notes and which marks the beat.
• The middlelisten for the moments the pitch and color shift. You can almost hear the hand moving across the keyboard.
• The endingit closes neatly in bright C major.

When it was written

Moszkowski was born in Breslau, today Wrocław in Poland, and worked in Berlin as a pianist and teacher. His Spanish Dances, Op. 12, for piano duet, were so popular that they were played in homes everywhere. In 1897 he moved to Paris.

He taught many piano students and left several books of études, which piano teachers still use today. But his last years were lonely. As fashions changed, his music was forgotten, and he died in Paris in 1925 amid illness and poverty.