The Art Of Conducting Beethoven's Choral Fantasia In C Minor

As one of Beethoven's music works in the mature period of his creation,the Choral Fantasia in C Minor consists of a piano prelude and a finale played by the orchestra.It is a masterpiece integrating the elements of the human voice,piano and orchestra.Beethoven first tried to add a chorus to the fantasia in the second half of the finale,which has resulted in not only a profound impact on the development of the fantasia as a genre,but also laid the foundation for the creation of Beethoven's Symphony No.9 over 10 years later.This thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly explains the reasons for choosing this subject,and lays out the research contents,methods and current state of research on this topic.The second chapter introduces the background of this composition and genre and analyses its musical structure and musical characteristics.The third chapter examines the conducting techniques required by Choral Fantasia in C Minor.Laying out the orchestral score,the author comes up with the sonic design and conducting gestures from her understanding of the work,from the dynamics,changes in rhythm and tempo,and from the “active” and “passive” aspects,and expounds how to balance the vocal part and instrumental part.The fourth chapter compares Choral Fantasia in C Minor as conducted by three excellent conductors Ozawa Seiji,Daniel Barenboim and Leonard Bernstein.The differences in their conducting techniques are examined by comparing and analyzing videos of them each conducting this composition.As a genre,Choral Fantasia in C Minor is unique among Beethoven's works and is one of his few choral works.In the current research,more attention has been paid to the musical characteristics of this work than to the conducting techniques that it requires.The author hopes this thesis can provide a theoretical reference for the research of Beethoven's choral works from the perspective of conducting.