As in all of these Etudes, there is a technical purpose behind the music. The object here is a strengthening of the three middle fingers of the left hand. If the player has large hands, then this Etude is one of the easiest in the set.

This whole piece is in two voices only (exept for octave doublings of the melody at certain points), yet of the widespread figurations of the left hand and the effects of the sustaining pedel, the piece sounds full and rich to the ear.

The short-breathed melody in the right hand is full of anguish.

Lina Ramann, in her exhaustive biography of Franz Liszt, openly declares that Nos. 9 and 12 of op. 10 and Nos. 11 and 12 of op. 25 reveal the influence of the Hungarian virtuoso. Figures prove the fallacy of her assertion. The influence was the other way, as Liszt's three concert studies show--not to mention other compositions. When Chopin arrived in Paris his style had been formed, he was the creator of a new piano technique.