"After a period of less involvement with keyboard instruments since the 1950s, the first book of Études pour piano confirmed Ligeti's return to writing for...

"After a period of less involvement with keyboard instruments since the 1950s, the first book of Études pour piano confirmed Ligeti's return to writing for the piano. The Trois pièces pour deux pianos composed in 1976 stand as a central work in the composer's oeuvre and compositional development. The importance of rhythm is omnipresent, and his interest in this parameter would increase in the early 1980s with the discovery of the polyrhythms of African musicians and the vast complexity of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano, as revealed by his Études.

György Ligeti composed his eighteen Études pour piano over a period of more than seventeen years. His first book of six Études was published in 1985. From the outset, the composer planned to compose a second volume, also comprising six Études. The reference to the piano tradition and the collections of six and twelve études by Chopin, Liszt, or Debussy is obvious. The second book, composed between 1988 and 1994, finally contained eight études. His third and last book includes four more Études composed between 1995 and 2001." -Cathy Krier