Percussive Elements And Its Performance Of 20～(th) Century Piano Works

When composers of the 20th century set out to compose works for the piano, they were not only experimenting with styles, but also exploring the possibilities of performance, which is testified by the introduction of some brand new performance elements serving to broaden the performance function of the piano. As evidenced by the documentation available today, the piano was regarded by some 20th century composers as percussion instrument, while at the same time a rebellious spirit against romantic aesthetics was practiced in composing the piano works, which accounted for the sharp and bright tone of the rendition of certain works. Therefore, more complicated and various ways of touch had to be adopted by the pianists in their efforts to achieve the acoustic effects underlined by the work itself and to represent the composer's intended message. Gradually, the percussive elements, a new acoustic element in piano performance, has come into the attention of the pianists and has become an important research subject for music theorists. Although the author of this thesis has acquired and browsed all the relevant papers and articles available in China, to her dismay no one has touched the subject in a systematic and in-depth manner. Hence comes the purpose of this thesis: to provide systematic theoretical rationales for the piano players by studying the percussive elements and its performance of 20th century piano works. Hopefully, such a preliminary study may facilitate and lead the piano players to a better, clearer and more thorough understanding of the 20th century piano works they are about to play.As an intensive study on representation of the percussive factors, this thesis sets the purpose of categorizing the diversified performance of the percussive elements, much of which is achieved by an ontological study of 20th century piano works. Four chapters are devoted to illustrating the diversified performance of the percussive elements. The thesis consists of four chapters: chapter one—reflection on the formation of percussive elements; chapter two—representation of percussive elements; chapter three— a focused study on nuance of percussive elements; chapter foui—study on the performance of percussive elements.Based on the analysis and interpretation of the percussive elements in piano performance, the major finding of this thesis comes forth as: there are multiple possibilities of percussive elements and its performance. Such a finding may contribute to enriching the expression of the 20th century piano works by up scaling the pianist' s sensible know-how of percussive performance onto a higher level of rationalized awareness. Meanwhile, the author has also realized that percussive performance is neither the only possible way of representing the 20th century piano works, nor is it the ultimate: it is only a means of performance that is emphasized for certain (the 20th century) piano works. Percussive elements are among outcomes during the evolution of the piano performance; itself may vary and evolve, or be totally replaced by some new tone effects. Again, it needs to be pointed out that the corner stone of this thesis is the analysis of the current percussive elements in an attempt to offer some theoretical references for the piano performances of our times, which, in the author' s humble opinion, is the only possible way of acquiring some genuine awareness valuable for the piano performances.