Etudes

Immediately identifiable as Glass with their fingerprint materials of repeating scales, arpeggios and syncopated rhythms, the 20 pieces for solo piano that make up his Études have an introspective intimacy that builds, collectively, into an epic statement. Written across two decades, from the mid-1990s to 2012, when the sequence stopped, they give an overview of the composer’s creative process during a sizable stretch of his career. And their title is significant. An étude is a study piece, designed for a performer to develop his or her technique; as a performing pianist, Glass wrote études largely for himself to become, as he admitted, "a better player"—though that objective seems to have shifted over time. Published as two Books that divide numbers 1-10 from 11-20, Book 2 is less virtuosic than Book 1 but more harmonically interesting. And despite a variety of moods, from haunting elegy to driven energy, there’s a broad sense of moving from the lullaby-like calm of Études 1 and 2 into more assertive statements, and then turning full circle by Étude 20, which has the gentleness of Schubert—a precedent for Glass in much of his keyboard writing.