Widmann's Études für Violine solo are in the tradition of Paganini's Capricen or the piano études by Chopin, Liszt and Ligeti: artistically autonomous concert pieces on one specific technical problem each, to be performed individually or in a cyclical sequence. The composer wrote about the present volume 1: ' 'Étude' is taken literally here as a compositional exercise, as a restricted experimental ground, but also as a violinistic study on a certain playing technique: for example, I. is some sort of 'sounding out' of the instrument's resonance possibilities, II. goes on a journey from a three-part chorale to spirited, unbridled virtuosity, and III. mainly is a left-hand étude.'