Research On The Composition Of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2

Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was a talent of pianist, composer and conductor in the history of western music, and he was also a musician who gave great contribution in Russian music history. His musical language is impressive, profound, straight hit human’s deep emotions, and his music had not been forgot by us until nowadays, he had been regarded as "later Tchaikovskyist". Symphony No.2in E minor, Op.27is composed in1906-07, is a huge, epic symphonic work based on dramatic and contradictory conception, it had been honored as "Russian lyric symphony". In this dissertation, Rachmaninoff’s symphony No.2in E minor is as the analytic target, and author had finished serial analysis forth is huge symphony in harmony, counterpoint, structure and orchestration.The dissertation had been divided three parts of introduction, main body of dissertation. In Introduction, as the background materials of history, society and humanity, composers’ lifetime, creative characteristic, magnum opus and some informations about composing, premier and performance of Symphony No.2had been introduced as precondition to discuss it deeply. In first chapter of the main body, will discuss the characteristic of harmony in detail that will be divided four parts such as material chord, expansion of tonality and overall arrangement of tonality, harmonic sequence with step. According to examples from four movements, in second chapter, the techniques of counterpoint will be discussed in six parts such as simple imitation and variation imitation, perpetual imitation, figural counterpoint, imitation with sequence, quasi-fugato. In third and fourth chapter, musical structure and orchestration will be discussed successively. Musical structure will be analyzed by listing about material development, tonality and tempo of every movement. Orchestration analysis will be discussed in four parts such as instrument formation, mixed timbre, the rhythm of timbre changing, thought with hierarchical structure. In the conclusion, author will refine the creative art of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2in E minor as a whole.