The praise of “water” gave composers infinite inspiration as early as the Baroque period. Handel wrote orchestral suites “Water Music”. Later in the Romantic period, Impressionism and Modern music there were many music pieces related to seas, rivers, and streams. The music sometimes describes the magnificence and surprise of the sea, sometimes the scenery of the river flowing, sometimes the fluctuation of the water, and even the scenery of the light shining on the water surface. Therefore, from ancient times to the present day, composers have described the various attitudes and appearances of water and used water-related myths to create music.

This research is about water-related piano music in Western music from Romantic period to the Twentieth century. There are four pieces of music have different forms as below. Frédéric Chopin(1810-1849)’s “Ballad No. 3 in A- flat Major, Op. 47” was inspired by the

narrative poem “Ondine” by Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz(1798-1855). Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)'s “Barcarolle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 26” describes the songs hummed by the

boatman at work and the scene where the water ripples caused by paddling, Debussy (1862-1918)The “Jardins sous la pluie” in “Estampes” depicts the garden scene with

colorful raindrops in France, and the “the Fountain of the Acqua Paola” in “Roman Sketch, Op. 7” by Charles Griffes(1884-1920)describes the scene of the fountain.

This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation, purpose, method and scope of this study; Chapter 2 introduces Chopin's “Ballade No. 3”; Chapter 3 introduces Fauré's “Barcarolle No. 1”; Chapter 4 introduces Debussy's “Jardins sous la pluie”, Chapter 5 introduces Griffes’s “the Fountain of the Acqua Paola”. I will illustrate those composers’ life and their creative background separately, as well as, present the musical analysis and interpretation. Finally, I briefly summarize and conclude the thesis in the end.