Research On Thomson's String Quartet No.1

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), was a great composer, music critic and organist of America in the 20th century. Thomson focused on a multi-layered creation and the originality of music, his creation touched almost every music genres. His musical language is full of wisdom and undisguised humor. And he created a series of original and special works with acute sensibility, which makes indelible contributions to American professional music development. At present, in China, there are not yet any specific studies on Thomson's life and music productions. And this thesis tries to initialize the study of the professional music field of Thomson, to fill in the blank of domestic studies on American professional music. This thesis covers the study of Thomson's life and his String Quartet NO.1. Combining the time background and from the view of composing craftsmanship, to have a macro understanding from the micro analysis, throughout one of his representative productions. This thesis consists of five chapters:ChapterⅠis the Preface. Mainly illustrates the significance of the topic selection, the status quo of studies of domestic and abroad, as well as the content and methodology of this thesis.ChapterⅡis the introduction of the composer's life and the division of his music creation. Dividing his music creation into four phases according to the different music development period. These four phases are: adolescent period and early music learning career (1896-1925); creation period in Paris of France (1925-1940); period of establishing the position of music critic (1940-1954) and music creation of later years (1954-1989).ChapterⅢis the text analysis of The String Quartet NO.1. In the light of Thomson's creation background and craftsmanship, this chapter makes a detailed technical analysis of The String Quartet NO.1, and concludes the characteristics of Thomson's creation in this productionChapterⅣis the review of creation features of The String Quartet NO.1. Longitudinally and macroscopically summarizes the creation features of Integration and personalization, which Thomson showed in The String Quartet NO.1. ChapterⅤis the epilogue– review of the aesthetic connotation on the music structure of Thomson's String Quartet NO.1. Combining the analysis conclusions of Chapter III and Chapter IV, from esthetics point of view, further explanation of significant music thought of Thomson's music creation.