Abstract

　　Witold Lutoslawski（1913-1994） was one of the most representative Polish composers in the 20th century. The style of his compositions in each period are all different. Throughout his life time, his works were inspired by many musicians, such as: Béla Bartók（1881-1945）, Igor Stravinsky（1882-1971）, and John Cage（1912-1992）. However, he creates his own Twelve-tone technique and harmony system.

　　Dance Preludes, composed in 1954 has five movements. Witold Lutoslawski employed changeable tempo, technique, and dissonant sound effects in this work, which makes it more attractive. Also, this piece is one of the most popular repertoires to be played by musician.

　　My thesis contains six chapters. The first chapter is the general introduction, which include my research motivation and purposes. The second chapter introduces the life of Witold Lutoslawski, the style of his compositions and the background about his work Dance Preludes. The third chapter analyzes five movements of Dance Preludes, and the fourth chapter presents the performance interpretations. The fifth chapter compares two different versions about the accompaniment: for clarinet and paino（1954） and for clarinet, harp, piano, and strings（1955）. Lastly, the sixth chapter is the conclusion.