Explaining the Most Bizarre Piano Etude of the 19th Century

Some say it sounds like 8-bit video game music. Others hear Rush E, Ravel, or even Steve Reich. But this bizarre piano étude was written in 1840 by Charles-Valentin Alkan, one of the most eccentric and imaginative pianist-composers of the 19th century.

This video breaks down what makes this étude so rhythmically strange and texturally bold. From paradiddle-inspired patterns to tresillo-like accents, Alkan’s forgotten study challenges everything we expect from 1840s French piano music.

🎹 Recorded on an 1849 Érard piano (Pianoteq)
📜 Score excerpts, analysis, historical context, and performance

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
Étude in A minor WoO, first published in Joseph Zimmermann’s Encyclopédie du Pianiste-Compositeur (Volume II, 1840)

📝 IMSLP links:
• Encyclopédie du Pianiste-Compositeur (Vol. 2): imslp.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A9die_du_pianiste_compo…)
• Alkan’s Etude in A minor (WoO): imslp.org/wiki/Etude,_WoO_(Alkan,_Charles-Valentin)

👇 Let me know in the comments what you think it sounds like

00:00 Introduction
01:37 Analysis
03:54 Reception
05:35 Performance

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