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Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin is a Russian composer in the late nineteenth century. His compositions can be divided into three periods. Influenced by the romantic music and Frederic Chopin, the early period is from 1888 to 1902 in which his works are tonal music. In the second period, 1903-1908, Scriabin started to use more dissonances and chromaticism resulting in lacking tonality. In the late period, 1909-1915, Scriabin was impacted by mysticism, and his music style became more atonal. Scriabin¡¦s Mazurkas composed between 1889 to 1903, are in three sets, op.3, op.25 and op.40. The music style of these three sets is quite different and varied. This thesis focuses on the analysis of Scriabin¡¦s Mazurkas. Excluding the introduction and conclusion, there are three main parts. The first part stresses on the origin and history of the music genre ¡§Mazurka.¡¨ According to the historical document, the styles of three types of Mazurka and Frederic Chopin¡¦s Mazurka will be presented in this part. In the second part, the compositional background of Scriabin¡¦s Mazurkas, musical background of late nineteenth century in Russia, and Scriabin¡¦s music style in the three periods are fully discussed. The third part will give a detailed analysis of Scriabin¡¦s three Mazurkas (op.3, op.25 and op,40 ) showing the specific changes in style and different characters between his early and middle period of works.

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Webern scholarship has not comprehensively examined op. 25, drei lieder. If the selection of text for op. 25 is viewed as one work in three movements they create a ternary form (A-B-A1). To show how this form is developed in the music the author creates a new analytical system based on Schoenberg's Grundgestalt which is defined by three basic ideas: symmetry, liquidation, and variation. The relationship between the voice and accompaniment and Webern's deliberate manipulation of the text is used to reveal the use of a program which is then tied to the numerical symbolism of 2 and 3.

Many of the song cycles written by Schumann have been studied over the years and it is well known that his most prolific time of song production was the year 1840. Myrthen, Op. 25, has been studied less than some of his other cycles because it calls into question the modern view of the song cycle and for this reason is difficult to classify. What is most difficult about the classification of Op. 25 is that there is no immediately apparent narrative. In addition, the musical relationships which exist are usually considered to be of little consequence. What scholars are left with is a group of songs that in Schumann's mind constituted a song cycle but to the modern eye seems to be anything but. The most prevalent view concerning the organization of Op. 25 is that it is a collection of songs. Given his view of Lieder and his compositional process, in addition to the fact that it was presented to Clara as a wedding gift, I believe that Schumann had a specific organization in mind for this work. In this thesis I argue that due to the way in which Schumann conceived of and composed song cycles, the musical relationships are not what bind Op. 25 together although these relationships do exist. Instead, the organization hinges mainly on the text which represents a narrative of the relationship between Robert and Clara, which differs from the modern view of what classifies a group of songs as a cycle.

It now seems necessary to follow the further development of Schoenberg and his first pupils, Berg and Webern. "Starting from their twin conceptions of the dethronement of tonality and the free use of the former 'discords', they produced a series of pieces of which the foremost characteristics were their extreme expressiveness and their extraordinary brevity."

In Romanian, the word lăutari refers to highly skilled professional Romani (Gypsy) musicians. By interacting with Romanian culture and tradition, the lăutari settled down in the country and developed a unique musical tradition. Their music is characterized by intricate, elaborate, and refined ornamentation; its execution requires a highly level of technique. George Enescu, regarded as Romania's most influential musician, was affected by lăutari music. He created a unique musical language that recreates Romanian character by using lăutari elements. This dissertation examines how to approach Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 and perform it by understanding the characteristics of lăutari music as well as the work's use of such lăutari violin techniques as diverse expressive slides, vibrato, double stops, various ornaments, artificial harmonics, imitation of folk instruments, and a variety of bow strokes. Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 is regarded as a challenging work in the violin literature requiring a high level of violin technique. Although the standard violin repertoire is enormous, many violinists are looking to rediscover new and challenging repertoire, distinguish themselves from others, and promote themselves as professional performers. Therefore, this study should help violinists to approach the idiomatic violin writing of Enescu's sonata, especially its lăutari techniques and style.

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