Exploring The Musical Characteristics And Performance Techniques Of Barber's Piano Sonata Op.2

American piano music in the 20 th century initially continued the traditional mode and style of European music in the way of creation.After the Second World War,a large number of European composers immigrated to the United States.These European composers had a distinct modernist style in their music creation,which promoted the development of American piano music.Barber’s Piano Sonata Op.26 is one of the most representative works of American piano music in this period.On the basis of following the traditional musical structure,Barber incorporated modern creative techniques such as 12-tone technique,counterpoint and jazz into this work,while combining the elements of native American music,making this work a diversified style.This paper will take Barber,Piano Sonata Op.26 as the research object,and carry out a detailed analysis and research on the musical characteristics and playing skills of this work.This paper is composed of three parts: the first part introduces Barber’s life and his piano works to introduce the creation background of this work,and makes an in-depth analysis of the music style of this work.The second part is a specific analysis of the musical characteristics of this work.This chapter will analyze the uniqueness of harmony,the characteristics of polyphony music and the diversified characteristics of rhythm from the perspective of the performer in order to better understand the musical characteristics of this work.The third part is the analysis of the performance skills of this work,from the perspective of the performer to analyze the use of different pedals in the work,the training of logical thinking in polyphony and the control of special rhythm,with different key touch to play Barber polyphony music three aspects to in-depth analysis of the performance skills of this work.The author hopes that through this in-depth study,he can have a deeper understanding of American piano music in the 20 th century,which is also of great help to the performance of this work.At the same time,I hope that I can master more kinds of music styles in my professional field,so as to improve my understanding and performance of piano works in different periods.The author makes an in-depth analysis of the musical characteristics and playing skills of Barber’s Piano Sonata Op.26 from the perspective of the performer,and also hopes to provide a favorable reference for future players or lovers of this work.