An
étude (; , a French word meaning
study) is an instrumental
musical composition, usually short, of considerable difficulty, and designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the
piano. Of the vast number of études from that era some are still used as teaching material (particularly pieces by
Carl Czerny and
Muzio Clementi), and a few, by major composers such as
Frédéric Chopin,
Franz Liszt and
Claude Debussy, achieved a place in today's concert repertory. Études written in the 20th century include those related to traditional ones (
György Ligeti), those that require wholly unorthodox technique (
John Cage), and ones that are unusually easy to play.