Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony "

Content: As one of the leaders in the "New Nationalism Musical School" of Britain in the 20^th century, Vaughan Williams is the most important representative in the "British Renaissance of Music". In all the nine symphonies he composed, the third work Pastoral Symphony is regarded as a milestone, which represents the full maturity of the composer's musical creation. This dissertation consists of two essential chapters, and will give a synthetic analysis of the work in multi-respect. Chapter one is concerned with the development of music in Britain before and around the musical renaissance campaign, the historical-social environment Vaughan Williams faced, and the slot of composer's living and creation in his life time, in order that the effects his life experience and the changing environment brought to him could be emerged. The kernel of this research lies in chapter two, it is divided into three parts, narrates and analyses the work in detail in the following aspects: "background of creation", "schematic descriptions of the thematic materials and music procession", and "analysis of the artistic feature", last part is the focal point. On the basis of preceding discussion, in the last part, the relationships between the work and the western music tradition, the national music tradition are interpreted, furthermore, the distinct characteristic of his music is summarized, and the stylistic and humanistic meaning hiding in the superficial compositional technique is revealed. In conclusion, Pastoral Symphony is a typical work, in which the composer lies his creative root in the great cultural tradition of his own nation, absorbs nutrition in various music style from Europe, and combines the professional technique of European music with the marrow of folk and traditional music of his country characteristically, it reflects the nationalism music with his own character sufficiently. By doing research on the creation methods of Vaughan Williams' music, a little enlightening guidance is supposed to make for the modern national music undertaking in our own country.