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I'm to select a transcendental etude. Kind of scary. Please rank them for me in order of difficulty. I don't want to play the easiest one necessarily, but I don't want to kill myself, either. I like most (but not all) of them.

thanks

MaryC- Honestly, I think getting other people's opinons won't really help you to chose what YOU want to put hours into learning.

I think you should somehow get access to the scores and recordings of all of the etudes. Then simply listen while following in the score, and lastly you decide on which etude you will work on based on your current ability and determination to practice.

Good luck.

I suppose you should approach this with an idea of what you are hoping to achieve. When your motivation is identified, you will have a clearer idea of which etude is 'correct'

Here is my ordering from easiest to hardest for the third, most refined, version of the transcendental etudes:
3, 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 7, 10, 5, 4, 12

Some are pretty equal depending on your technical abilities, since they range widely on the type of techniques being studied.

I know you didn't ask for favorites, but my favorites are: 3(Paysage), 5(Feux Follets), and 10. Second tier favorites are 9(Ricordanza) is beautiful, 4(Mazeppa) is powerful, 8(Wild Jagd) is striking, and 2 is shockingly refreshing.

If you are to the level of playing these wonderful challenging works, then you should be able to browse through the music and determine your own difficulty ordering. Or you can find one of the many great recordings of the full set and determine by listening (my recommendation Jorge Bolet ).

Good luck!

I agree that someone who is equipped with enough technique to be able to take on any of the Transcendental Etudes should be able to judge which one(s) is (are) most suitable to that person's taste and level of accomplishment.

They're all off limits for anyone who's not an absolute master of the instrument, except for Preludio and Paysage.

Thank you very much, Chopin952, for your guidance. I'm thinking I may attempt the 11th one. I have looked at and listened to them dozens of times and it is really hard to decide.

The 11th would certainly be a good choice. Later you should try Feux Follets. It's an extremely difficult piece to learn. But I've found that, as you play it, it gradually decreases in difficulty as your fingers and wrists become used to the motion. It's most definitely the most beneficial piece, technically, of the whole set. Good luck MaryC!

I find 1-8-11 are good starting points for the TEs.

4-5 and 12 are the beasts (no particular order).

Thank you all for your thoughts. I am having a wonderful time learning Harmonies du Soir.

Mary

Please, I sight-read through them last week... :p