An Analytical Study of the “Musical Ontology” of Six Musical Masterpieces

Book excerpt: In this book, six representative works by musicians from major periods of Western music history, including Classical and Romanticism, are selected for study and interpretation in the form of “musical ontology”, with the aim of refining and exploring their compositional concepts and techniques, In this way the aesthetic characteristics and artistic values of the works are recognised and understood, summarised and outlined. The six works are: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathétique”, Liszt’s Symphonic Poem No.3 Les Préludes, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor.