A Study Of Harry Ore’s Guangdong Style Piano Suite

Harry Ore(1885-1972)was a twentieth-century Jewish composer and pianist who lived in China from the 1920 s until his death,leaving a legacy of performances,teaching and compositions.Harry Ore was particularly interested in Chinese Cantonese music and composed a number of piano works based on Cantonese folk music,and is known as "the first pianist to write in the Cantonese style".In this essay,we have taken a look at the history of the works of Harry Ore,and we have taken the two sets of "Two Southern Chinese Melodies" and "Five South Chinese Folk Songs" from the collection of Harry Ore’s piano works.On the one hand,it discusses the genre,subject matter,technique,and expressive characteristics of the pieces,and discusses the compositions that Harry Ore has preserved the musical characteristics of the original Cantonese music,but also the use of harmony,tune layout,melodic weaving,and compositional techniques;on the other hand,it elucidates the composer’s use of the piano as a polyphonic instrument,so that the piano composition has achieved the integration of Western compositional techniques and Chinese pentatonic tuning,as well as the inspiration model for later composers.The composer’s use of the piano as a polyphonic instrument,on the other hand,has led to the integration of Western compositional techniques with Chinese pentatonic modes,and has served as a model of inspiration for later composers.At the same time,it can be seen that the achievements and contributions of Harry Ore’s valuable and fruitful attempts to consciously explore in the culturally closed and monotonous1920 s have become a milestone in the nationalization of Chinese music composition.The structure of this paper is divided into three parts: the introduction,the body(chapters 1 to 4)and the conclusion: the introduction,which describes the background and significance of the study,the current situation of domestic research,and the methodology and content of the study;chapter 1,which outlines the integration of Cantonese music and piano music composition and the characteristics of Cantonese music style,and briefly describes the life and main piano compositions of Harry Ore;chapter 2,which analyzes the titles,spins,and modulations of the two works of Harry Ore in a macroscopic way,and clarifies Harry Ore’s achievements,Chapter 3,the microscopic analysis of Harry Ore’s "Two Southern Chinese Melodies" and "Five South Chinese Folk Songs",including the five tones,Chinese and Western fusion techniques,the imitation of timbre and sound effects of ethnic instruments,and the sampling of characteristic tones of Cantonese music,in order to chew and clarify the Chinese and Western fusion techniques from the melodic details.In the fourth chapter,the composition is analyzed in the context of interpretation and performance suggestions are made;finally,a concluding remark is made.