Study On The Characteristics Of Texture And Harmony Of Ravel's Piano Suite Gaspard De La Nuit

Maurice · Ravel(1875-1937)is one of the outstanding French composers,and is also a world-renowned master orchestrator,conductor and pianist.His achievements in his life covered many fields.Although there are few piano solo works by Ravel,he plays a decisive role in the history of piano,and his piano works has a great influence on later generations in terms of harmony and orchestration.Among them,the piano suite "Gaspard de la Nuit"is one of the most representative and mature works of Ravel,and it is also a masterpiece that can reflects his musical style well.This work not only retains the creative form of traditional classical music,but also embodies the features of impressionist music and twentieth century music.And it also integrates the composing characteristics of Ravel's"Gaspard de la Nuit".That is to say,it implies his direction in the later stage of creation,and reflects his early composing style as well.Accordingly,the work is a collection of abstruse and excellent technique as well as unique and profound musicality,which makes the work odd and exquisite.This piano suite "Gaspard de la Nuit" has the same name with a collection of essays by French poet Bertrand where Ravel's inspiration comes from.On the basis of retaining the traditional music form,Ravel added the new composing characteristics of the 20th century to this piano work.Through using typical musical language,Ravel traced out different musical images and artistic conceptions which appeared in the poem in order to reflect poetic musicality.In the"Gaspard de la Nuit",we can find the influence of classical music on Ravel clearly.Ravel always adhered to the precepts of Vienna Classical Music,and used these traditional precepts uniquely to form his own unique musical language and works.In addition,Ravel had the inner spirits of the Spanish Spartan in his blood.Therefore,the characteristics of the Spanish dancing also reflected vividly.In addition,there are many creative innovations in the”Gaspard de la Nuit"as "chromaticity",classicality" and "virtuosity",which reflect the musical style and artistic values of Ravel.When Ravel created this work,he designed more difficult skills and music connotation,which promoted the development of piano music in the 20th century considerably.I read some literatures at home and abroad,study predecessors' research on this work,and combine theory with practice and dig into some scores to explore the texture and harmony of each piece of Ravel's,Gaspard de la Nuit"in order to grasp the unique composing style and appreciate its artistic value.Only in this way,can we understand the works of Ravel precisely,comprehensively and deeply.