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Ive been listening and skimming through the notes to Liszt's trancendental etudes and it seems like the first one in C major is the easiest? Anybody else know which are easier and which is the hardest? Just wondering which one(s) to begin with.
Thanks =)

Yes, No.1 is the easiest.

The hardest is hard to say because for advanced pianists each might find a different hardest.

"Trancendental Etudes" translates to everyday English as "Increasingly Difficult Etudes." That might give a clue to what Liszt thought.

BDB, transcendant implies going beyond the norm, but not necessarily in an ascending order. My translation (loosely defined) would be damned difficult etudes. I tend to think of Feux Follets (V) as one of the hardest. I played Harmonies du Soir (XI) and I can assure all that (V) is much harder. They all have their problems to be sure.

The French title, "Etudes d'execution transcendante," under which they were published, means "Increasingly Difficult Etudes."

That would be "ascendante". "transcendant" means transcendental, as in "going beyond".

Yeah, I wouldnt agree with the "increasing difficulty" statement either. I play Numbers 10 and 11, and wouldn't get anywhere near 4 or 5

Bärenreiter translates it as "Studies in increasing degree of difficulty." Whether you find them to increase in difficulty or not does not mean Liszt did not. That is why all these discussions about which piece is more difficult than some other are exercises in transcendental futility.

Sorry, Bärenreiter is incorrect.

Transcendente means these études require a technique beyond anything written previously. As mrenaud said, someone has gotten this confused with the term ascendente.

If you play any of these Études (I play 3/4ths of them) it becomes immediately apparent that they are not ordered by difficulty.

Personally, I find #3 (Paysage) to be the easiest. It is much easier than #1 (Preludio).

BDB, there is definitely no progressive ordering in difficulty -- this is not Czerny or Hanon... Can you provide the exact quote of the Baerenreiter text? I cannot imagine they one of those careful editions would contain such a mistake. The preface of Universal Edition's text refers to "transcendental" as "roughly translated: exceeding the borders of the imaginable".

I wrote exactly what was in the Bärenreiter edition, which is now the EMB edition. You can see the index page with the German version of the title: Etuden in aufsteigender Schwierigkeit, here. That translates directly to "Studies in increasing level of difficulty." There are other editions with the same German title, which no doubt dates from Liszt's first German publication. As I recall, German was Liszt's first language.

That is all from me on this subject. Get off your seats and do your own research.

BDB, it seems certain that you never concede an argument.

But you are wrong. Furthermore, insulting everyone here is exceedingly unhelpful.

If you played these pieces you would understand that they are simply not in order of difficulty. End of story.

Besides, the German word "aufsteigender" (which you pointed us to) does not necessarily mean "ascending". It can mean "more ascending", i.e. transcendent.

It is clear in French, German, or English.

OK, here is some research:

According to Jim Samson in his book "Virtuosity and the Musical Work: The Transcendental Studies of Liszt", the composer "used the Haslinger edition of the Grandes Études as the basis for the Stichvorlage he sent to Breitkopf & Härtel".

"The entire set was published by Breitkopf & Härtel the following year (1852) as Études d'exécution transcendante, and Liszt was careful to point out that this was the 'seule édition authentique revue par l'auteur' ..."

The original title - authorized by the composer himself - was in French, which Liszt spoke fluently.

Lol BDB, I definetely know that NO.5 is way harder than almost all of them, and its in the middle of the set so I dont really think there in order, even though NO.1 MAY be the easiest it doesnt mean the whole set is in order of difficulty.