A Study On The Three Sonatas Of Prokofiev In His Later Period

Seregy Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891—1953), a pianist and conductor f Soviet Russia, is one of the world-wide well-known composers in the 20^th century. His work covers almost all the music styles. During his life, he contributed over 130 pieces of music to the humans. As an innovator of music creation, his artistic achievements were no less than any other figures of his time. Especially the piano sonata, which had form the three significant stages of his musical life, played the central role of the 20^th century piano music. The piano sonata should be valued as the masterpieces of piano music, considering the grand structure, the depth of content, the excellent skills and the innovative means of artistic expression. So, it is particular important to investigate on Prokofiev's creative conception, composing skills and artistic pursuit that much differ from others'.This paper is designed to investigate the NO.6,NO.7&NO.8 piano sonata of Prokofiev in his late years, which are now named as "The war sonata" .Based on the theory of composition technique and the three pieces of music, the investigation is trying to study how Prokofiev managed to apply traditional music technique to manifest his modern spirit. This paper consists of five parts. Part One, Introduction ; Part Two, Study on the melody; Part Three, Harmony study; Part Four, Tonality study; Part Five,Study on the form structure. Through a through research on the structural elements, the paper is aimed at revealing the essential characteristics of Prokofiev's music art having an in-depth examination of the relation between tradition and innovation of Prokofiev's.