Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony

The main research object of this paper is the sixth symphony of nine symphonies by Ralph Vaughn Williams,a late romantic British composer.In this paper,first of all,the life and creation of Vaughn Williams are combed,and the creation of Williams is divided into four periods,summed up the characteristics of each period.This paper introduces the creation background of Symphony No.6,including Williams' collection background of folk songs,the influence of his long learning experience on his creation,and the creation of symphony.Based on the detailed analysis of music scores,this paper summarizes the main creative features of Vaughn Williams as follows:1.Williams put the principle of variation throughout the sixth symphony,which not only combined with the principle of three parts,but also combined with various musical structures,such as the three section form and the two section form,so that the theme of each movement has been consolidated and emphasized for many times.2.In terms of the structure and layout of Sonata,Williams creatively adopts the form of two themes in the main body of presentation,which is a rare phenomenon in both classical and romantic periods.At the same time,Williams also replaced the connecting part and ending part in the traditional sonata form with the short connecting and ending part,which is also the composer's unique way of dealing with the structure layout of the form.3.In the sixth symphony,Williams also applies the technique of reducing reproduction to all movements,refining the core theme for reproduction.In the third movement,the theme of the presentation part is inverted according to the principle of inversion.4.At the same time,Williams made a multi-level organic combination of the theme,skillfully infiltrated different theme materials in the horizontal direction and combined them in the vertical direction.The principle of inversion is applied to melody and interval,which is also an important feature of Williams' theme development.5.In addition to the contrast relationship in the orchestration when the theme changes and repeats,Williams cleverly divides the two interval relationships of the theme into different development in the orchestration between the two parts.6.The tonal layout of the first movement is very characteristic.The two themes of the main part of the presentation part are not in the major E minor,but the main tone is continuously confirmed through the interval between the main tone and the main chord of the bass part;and the theme of the sub part of the presentation part has the feature of alternating with the major minor.During reproduction,the sub part does not directly obey the major E minor,but turns to the major E major in the minor e,and the tonality arrangement in this reproduction also has the same major E major The alternation of major and minor.