The Performance And Teaching Research Into Schumann’s "Piano Fantasia In C Majnor"

Robert Schuman (1810-1856), an outstanding German composer, pianist and music critic,is among the representatives of the flourishing19thCentury Romantic era of music. He isreputed as the “poemusician” by his romantic and poetic styles of art.Schuman has demonstrated distinguishing gift for music and innovative ideas in hismusic creation and critical articles. Among the many various music pieces with differentthemes he has composed throughout his lifetime, the piano works are incomparable. He ismost productive in piano works from the year1830to1840, which is regarded as “Years ofPiano works” when a multitudinous amount of remarkable and splendid piano works duringthat period. The piano works by Shuman are noted for their novel forms and distinctive styles,better capturing the essence of the Romantic spirit than the works by his counterparts andmore focused on the expression of individual emotions. This thesis attempts to study theperforming and teaching of Schuman’s classical masterpiece Piano Fantasia in C Major, inorder to showcase his novelty, uniqueness and diversity in music creation as well as his musicstyle featuring both fantasy and passion, elegance and boldness. The thesis includes thefollowing four parts.The first chapter briefly recounts Schuman himself and his piano works. His life andcreating experience is succinctly discussed at first. Then, the author discusses Schuman’spiano works from such three aspects as the important status, musical forms and types andexceptionally creativity.The second chapter is the analysis of this masterpiece. This chapter introduces thebackground of the creation of the work. Then, the author categorizes the work by theirmusical structures. Lastly, it gives a generalization of the composing feature in Schuman’sPiano Fantasie in C Major from the following four respects, namely, the fusing of poetry andmusic, poetic melody, diverse rhythms and flexible textures, which lays a foundation for thedetailed analysis of performance in the following part.The third chapter focuses on the performance analysis of the Piano Fantasie in C Major.From the view of musical text and piano performance, the author has made a thoroughexplanation and analysis of its performing technique (the rhythm, strength, touch key, tone and pedal) as well as its artistic essence (music expression, emotion and sensibility andmusical images). Combined with the author’s own performing experience and personalopinions, the author endeavors to understand Schuman’s intention of composition and musicalstyle more accurately and completely. In this way, the abundant artistic value of Schuman’sPiano Fantasie in C Major could be better explored.The forth chapter is the research into teaching for Schuman’s Piano Fantasie in C Major.This part is the essence of the thesis’ theoretical points. Drawing from the author’s ownteaching experience, the author firstly discusses the teaching principles from four aspects, thecombination of theoretical study and teaching practice, the mingling of technical skills andartistic performance, the mixture of general control and individual breakthrough, and theblending of abstract thinking and audio-visual images. Secondly, the author attempts tosummarize his thoughts after teaching with the three aims: nourishing students’ keen interestin music, cultivating students’ music hearing and diversification of teaching content and form.And this is to further promote the teaching research of Schuman’s Piano Fantasie in C Major,in an effort to better discover the value of this piano work in application.