A Comparative Study Of Three Playing Versions Of Ravel’s Pavan In Memory Of A Princess

Born on March 7,1875,in Sibun,Pyrenees,Maurice Ravel was an outstanding composer.The Pavane pour une infante defunte is a work composed by Ravel in 1899,while he was still studying composition with Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatory.The traditional structure of Ravel’s early works and the impressionistic musical and harmonic colours can be found in the "Pavane pour une infante defunte".Since there are few research results on the "Pavane pour une infante defunte" and there is still a gap in the comparative study between different versions of the work,the author believes that it is valuable to conduct a comparative study of different versions of the "Pavane pour une infante defunte",both theoretically and practically.This paper uses documentary research,comparative research,and inductive research to study Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante defunte.The introduction part of this paper covers the research purpose and significance,research status and research methods of this paper.The text of the article is divided into three parts: the first chapter mainly expounds on Ravel’s life and deeds and conducts a melodic and vocal exploration of " Pavane pour une infante defunte",and analyzes Ravel’s life experience,the lyric structure and chorus of " Pavane pour une infante defunte".The second chapter is based on the performance versions of Richter,Deng Taishan and Katiya,using Audacity audio analysis software,combining waveform and spectrograms,and conducting an in-depth analysis of the performance versions of the three pianists of "Pavane pour une infante defunte" from four aspects: dynamics and speed,overall to partial.Chapter 3 mainly explores the performance analysis of " Pavane pour une infante defunte" and the inspiration for musical performance through the study of performance version comparison.Any musical work is a product of the times,musicians are in different eras,and their musical concepts and zeitgeist are different,which is naturally reflected in the understanding and processing of the work.This paper aims to enrich the theoretical research results of Ravel’s works through the life and deeds of Ravel,the harmonies of the Pavane pour une infante defunte,the comparison of the versions of the three performers,and the performance analysis,so as to help improve the author’s music performance level,and also provide some suggestions for students who study music.