As one of the greatest composers in the twentieth century, Stravinsky, who utilized daring forward approaches challenging traditional music styles, was on the cutting edge. The subject of this paper, 《Four Etudes, Op.7》, was composed in his early Russian period, and also served as the only set of piano etudes in his career. Through this work, the author has discovered some of Stravinsky’s distinct techniques featured specifically in this period, such as imitation on Scriabin’s compositional style, the use of repetition on the same figures, and the displacement between bar lines and rhythmic patterns. These features are discussed individually here in this thesis, and through making comparisons with other same period works of Stravinsky’s, in rhythmic structure, musical conception, and other compositional elements, the author seeks for a better understanding on the contextual background to this work.

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