Study On The Harmony Of Art Songs Of Hugo Wolf

Hugo Wolf(1860--1903) was one of the most famous composers in the history of art song of Germany and Austria during the later period of romanticism in the 19 century, who lived in Austria. He initiated the new form of art song, which combined music and poems and acted a very crucial role in the progress of style evolution from later romanticism to early 20 century.As an important representative figure of traditional harmony during later 19 century to 20 century, Wolf is famous of the radical harmony in his art songs. In this thesis, through generous analysis, the harmony style and the expressed significance of art songs of Wolf was deeply studied by the following means:the characteristic of chord utilizing, the development of basic harmony phrase, the distinguishing feature of tonal thinking. It is the central conclusion of this paper that with inherit to traditional harmony system of the major and minor tonal and taking it to be the fundamental of his composing, further more, enlightened by Wagener's passion style, Hugo Wolf advanced the traditional technology toward to extreme and formed his distinct characteristic of style. The harmony language of Wolf was path-breaking which was founded on the base of traditional theory and experience. Prominent times feature and distinct character could be visibly visualized in his harmony language. In view of this, elaborated and profound art infectivity was endowed to his art songs.