Degree Name
Master of Music
Graduate Program
Music
Advisor
Junghwa, Lee
Abstract
This paper contains a study of four piano works, which were performed on my graduate recital. Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composed Images I for piano in 1905, consisting of three movements: “Reflects dans l’eau, Hommage á Rameau,” and “Movement.” Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed his Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Opus 110 in 1822, during his late period. The three movements of this sonata are atypical of the Classical period, and show Romantic period musical ideas. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) wrote his Fantasiestücke in eight movements, which musically portray the two sides of his personality, which he nicknamed Florestan and Eusebius. The programmatic movements are titled: “Des Abends, Aufschwung, Warum, Grillen, In der Nacht, Fabel, Traumes Wirren,” and “Ende von Leid.” Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1872-1915) wrote his Etudes Opus 8 between 1894 and 1895, from which his Etude No. 12 is among the most famous.