A Study on Compositional Techniques in 《Appalachian Spring》by Aaron Copland and an Original Composition 《Vagueness》by Yi-Ni Hsiao

• Main Authors: HSIAO, YI-NI, 蕭怡倪
• Other Authors: HOU, CHIH-CHENG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/v57p86

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 音樂學系碩士在職專班 === 107 === Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is one of most representative composers of the 20th century in the United States.《Appalachian Spring》was first written for the American dancer Martha Graham (1893-1991) in 1944, and it uses only 13 instruments. This thesis utilizes the version of orchestral suite adapted in 1945. This thesis contains six chapters, the first one provides the introduction. The second chapter studies the life of Aaron Copland, and the third one surveys the American music, including its elements, styles, techniques and representative composers in the first half of the 20th century. Chapter four analyzes the《Appalachian Spring》in detail, including its tonality, formal structure, melody, motives, harmony and modulation. In the following chapter five, an original composition for orchestra by the author,《Vaguness》is offered. This work feature some compositional techniques that can be referenced to the ones found in the 《Appalachian Spring》. The《Appalachian Spring》consists of eight sections with no pause in between, each section features different style and tempo markings respectively. Some musical features used by Copland include mixture of tonality and modality, polychords, quartal harmony, median relationship modulation, pan-triadicism, rhythmic syncopation, hemiola, changing meters …etc. The original composition《Vaguness》has eight sections as well. Besides featureing some similar compositional techniques found in the《Appalachian Spring》, it utilizes the melody of a Taiwanese traditional folk song《June Jasmine》as a theme, which provides a distinctive favor to this piece.