A Study On Harmonic Technique Of Barber’s Art Songs

Samuel Barber(1910-1981)is one of the most representative European and American composers in the mid-20 th century,and his most famous work is "adagio for strings" OP.11.The music he composed in his lifetime was not many,but varied and excellent.His music is known for its subtle,romantic lyrical melodies;The harmonic technique sticks to tonality rather than traditional techniques,which makes his works sound neither outdated nor obscure.It is very audible and artistic at the same time.Among all kinds of music styles involved by Barber,the most lyricistic is his vocal music works,especially the art song is an important genre throughout his life.The 36 art songs published by the composer during his lifetime span his more than 40 years of composing career,reflecting the stylistic evolution of his harmonic techniques.Starting from these art songs,this paper explores the harmonic techniques in Barber’s songwriting,in order to fully understand the evolution of the composer’s harmonic style.The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the composer’s life experience and important works.According to the different creation period,the harmonic language of each vocal cycle is briefly sorted out.Finally,it classifies the choice of poetry and the content of expression,and gives an example for analysis.The second chapter,starting from harmonic materials,combs out the common chords in Barber’s art songs,such as "major seventh chord","fourth chord","mixed superimposed chord" and so on,as well as the unique use of these chords.The third chapter,aiming at harmonic progression,studies the traditional and non-traditional chord progressions in Barber’s art songs from the harmonic progression modes of "second relation","third relation" and "tritone relation",and discusses their personalized cadence.The fourth chapter focuses on tonality,exploring the synthesis and alternation of various tonality in Barber’s art songs,tonal confrontation,wandering tonal technique and some new tonal expression ways.The fifth chapter focuses on the texture form of harmony and summarizes and studies the common texture and tone form in Barber’s art songs.Finally,the paper summarizes the characteristics of the harmony technique and the evolution of the style of Barber’s art songs.