The Research Of Arensky's And Rachmaninov's Piano Suites

The powerful influence of the two music centers in Russia,Moscow and St.Petersburg,directly promoted the improvement and development of music art both in Russia and the world from the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century.With the persistent efforts of numerous excellent music theory scholars,great composers and extraordinary piano performers,the music art in Russia had achieved an unprecedented and dramatic accomplishment.In addition,the emergence of double piano suites had undoubtedly become the most dazzling star in those glory days.What is the music creation progress of Arensky and Rachmaninov? What are their artistic charms in piano music? How much do piano suites,especially double piano suites,account for in Russian music art? Which Russian piano performing tradition and which school's theory are continued or practiced in the piano works of Arensky and Rachmaninov? What contributions do the piano suites of the two musicians make to Russia's various fields,including religion,culture,aesthetics,philosophy,art,and etc.? This article,in the view of music ontology research,aims to investigate and illustrate the piano works of Arensky and Rachmaninov,discuss and summarize the unique style and national characters contained in those works,and demonstrate their indelible contribution to Russian music as well as Russian culture,through the methods of music historiography and music analytics.The thesis contains three components,including the introduction part,the body part and the conclusion part.The introduction part gives an overall analysis on the research history and current situation of the piano suites of Arensky and Rachmaninov,points out the research ideas and approaches of music historiography and music analytics,and emphasizes on the discussion of the cultural significance and value of the Russian piano suites,represented by those of Arensky and Rachmaninov.In the first chapter,the author mainly illustrates the origin,formulation,and development of piano suites,concludes and retrospects the emergence and developing progress of music suites based on the existing historical records and research results,and extracts the creation features of suites and the characteristics of the music form of the keyboard music in Baroque Period according to the development track of music history.The author also analyzes the decline of music in Classical Period and the rejuvenation and evolution of the music after Romantic Period,and lays a foundation on the discussion of the piano suites of Arensky and Rachmaninov in the following parts.The second chapter analyzes Russian composers' creation progress of piano suites,continues to introduce the development progress of suites to the piano suites creation in Neoclassicism Period,national music school and modern time,concludes and summarizes the creation techniques and development characteristics,and illustrates the artistic features of those piano suites.Chapter Three focuses on five double piano suites of Arensky and Rachmaninov,and analyzes their musical structures,performance methods and characteristics respectively to illustrate the relationship between the creation of the piano suites works and that of Russian piano duets and show the huge and enduring artistic charms that Arensky and Rachmaninov's piano suites presenting on Russian music history.In Chapter Four,the author demonstrates the styles and performance features of Arensky and Rachmaninov's piano suites,as well as the Russian piano performance traditions and the theory and practice of Russian piano school reflected by those piano suites.The fifth chapter,in the view of Russian multidimensional culture showed by the piano suites of Arensky and Rachmaninov,digs out their implied religious awareness,their pursuit for aesthetic modernity,their reflection of the philosophical thought of irrationalism and their predominant national characteristics,and tries to illustrate the important significance of Russian piano suites to the rejuvenation of Russian musical schools and Russian spiritual culture.The conclusion part demonstrates that Arensky and Rachmaninov promote the improvement of the creation and performance of piano suites.In addition,the research results of this topic provide the theoretical support and exert certain influence on China's academic research and performance practice in this field.