12 Etudes Tradition?
There's something that I don't quite understand and maybe it has a pianistic or even logical answer: Why do most piano composers adhere to a set or opus of only 12 etudes? I've noticed this trend but I don't know what's so special about the number 12 aside from the piano's 12 pitches. Bear with me, though, because I'm just a little amateur pianist and I don't know that much about piano anyway.
Let me list the following etudes I know of with 12 in each opus:
Chopin's Op. 10 and 25
Liszt's Transcendetal Etudes
Scriabin's Op. 8
Alkan's Op. 35 and 39
Henselt's Op. 2
Moscheles' Op. 95
Schumann's Op. 13
Debussy's L.136
Now, that's a lot of composers who liked to limit their etude opus to 12 pieces. I know there are those (some even in the above mentioned) that have 6 in each opus, or odd numbers like Saint-Saens and Rachmaninoff; and then there's Hummel's 24, which is still like two 12's added together. But why not an etude set of 8 or 11? There definitely seems to be a trend or "tradition" for twelve. Am I wrong?
Can someone enlighten me about why this magic number of 12 prevails as the limit for a set of etudes? I bet this has a simple answer having to do with the keys (major and minor) or something, but I feel I need to display my ignorance and ask anyway =)
Let me list the following etudes I know of with 12 in each opus:
Chopin's Op. 10 and 25
Liszt's Transcendetal Etudes
Scriabin's Op. 8
Alkan's Op. 35 and 39
Henselt's Op. 2
Moscheles' Op. 95
Schumann's Op. 13
Debussy's L.136
Now, that's a lot of composers who liked to limit their etude opus to 12 pieces. I know there are those (some even in the above mentioned) that have 6 in each opus, or odd numbers like Saint-Saens and Rachmaninoff; and then there's Hummel's 24, which is still like two 12's added together. But why not an etude set of 8 or 11? There definitely seems to be a trend or "tradition" for twelve. Am I wrong?
Can someone enlighten me about why this magic number of 12 prevails as the limit for a set of etudes? I bet this has a simple answer having to do with the keys (major and minor) or something, but I feel I need to display my ignorance and ask anyway =)
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