The Harmonic Techniques In Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas

Sergei Sergeievitch Prokofiev (1891-1953) is the famous composer, impresario and pianist of Soviet Russia in the20th century, his music has the melody line of late romanticism, the color of impressionist, and the technology of expressionism, but he is also try his best to defend the tonality and functionality of classicism. On one hand, we can see some in common between his harmony and the twentieth century harmony, on the other hand, he used to combine traditional cadence with colorful harmony, all of these speak in an unmistakably personal voice. Especially the well-known nine piano sonatas, which had throughout the whole stages of his writing career, are the best clue to seek the transition of his harmonic manner.This paper designed to investigate Prokofiev’s piano sonata, and according to the creation period will be divided into three stages. This paper consists of three chapters, it introductions the main creation environment of Prokofiev in the first chapter. In the second chapter, it examines the three stages in detail and compares with the last stage while summarizing this stage. Every stage based on studying harmony, taking transverse semitone and longitudinal complex harmonies as the center, the paper has a full analysis and collation on the chord structure, harmonic proceed, tonality composition as well as modulation methods etc. There is a good summary on the nine piano sonatas in the third chapter, the investigation is trying to summarize the harmonic characteristic and evolution of techniques of the Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas.