The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert Javier ... - Ethesis

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1815 However, these forms pose musical difficulties of another nature. For composers (and by extension for performers as well), one of the key challenges of long- scale works – sonatas included – is how to achieve an entirety with musical coherence. This was one of the crucial factors that Schubert had been obliged to struggle with in the extended piano fantasies, in the sonata-form string quartets, and in the large-scale dramatic scenas and ballads: how to provide musical continuity and maintain momentum, how to sustain, vary and develop the musical interest over long spans, connecting the many discrete units into a convincing whole. To a certain extent, the form of a song is often determined by its text. Instrumental music lacks the explicit structure that words provide, and this would precisely become one of Schubert’s main challenges in his early piano sonatas. Schubert’s early instrumental works tend to be based on the Classical models of Haydn and Mozart. That is clear in his first Fantasy in C minor (D2a, probably written in 1811), in which the inspiration seems to be Mozart’s own C minor Fantasy (KV475). 5 Beethoven’s creative presence is also palpable in the early works, though it will not be until 1817 that the older composer’s innovations and influence will more clearly find a fertile ground in Schubert’s own experiments. In addition to these three great composers, we should also mention other strong influences on the young Schubert: for example, Gluck, as well as more contemporary figures like Hummel, Rossini and Weber. One can find echoes of these composers in Schubert’s output throughout the years. As mentioned before, it was not until he had experimented with other genres and written many bars of music for the piano that Schubert turned his attention to the piano sonata. During the creatively packed year of 1815, Schubert would write his first two sonatas for the pianoforte. The surviving documents from this time show a young man for whom his work is the air he breathes, someone outwardly static, but inwardly charged by an overriding passion. At this time, it seems that Schubert needed nothing else than music. His attitude towards life can well be summed up by Goethe’s ballad Der Sänger (The Singer) from his Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship). At the point when the king, pleased by the minstrel’s song, sends for a golden chair to honour him, he receives the following reply from the minstrel: Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt, Der in den Zweigen wohnet; Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt, Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet. I sing as does the bird that lives in the branches; this song that bursts from my throat is a reward – that is rich enough. Schubert set this poem to music in February (D149), precisely at the time he was writing his first piano sonata. Significantly for this study, Schubert’s Der Sänger also exhibits a very compressed sonata structure at the moment when the minstrel’s song sounds on the piano (bars 54-84). 6 3
I The Beginnings The Piano Sonata in E major (D157) contains three movements. We can be reasonably sure that Schubert did not write a finale since there are nearly three blank pages following the Trio in the autograph. According to the autograph manuscript, Schubert finished the first movement in three days, from the 18th to the 21st of February 1815. There is a pre-existing version dated 11th of February. 7 Although the earlier version of the movement breaks off at the end of the development, there is enough musical material to grasp the composer’s varying approach: the two differ significantly in both the exposition and the development. While the first version (D154) is more orchestral in conception and pianistically more demanding, the final one displays less adventurous writing (Ex. 1. and 2.). Schubert will re-adopt the virtuoso approach more clearly in his next sonata from September; but it seems that, for his first attempt in the genre, he felt more secure using the textures and musical language with which he had more experience and familiarity. 4 Ex. 1. Schubert: Piano Sonata in E major (D154). Allegro, bars 1-14. # # & # # c ˙ ? # # # # c f ˙ 4 # # ˙ . & # # Ÿ # œ # # & # # ˙ . Ÿ # œ œ Œ ? œ Œ ? ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & ∑ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ n œ œ ∑ œ ‰ œ . œ . œ . Œ ‰ œ . œ . œ. & œ . œ œ œ . . . œ Œ ‰ œ. œ. œ. ‰ œ. œ . œ. & œ . œ œ œ . . . 8 # # & # # ˙ . # # & # # Ÿ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ÿ œ œ Œ ˙ ˙ œ p w w . œ. œ Ó ˙ ˙ œ w w . œ. œ Ó ˙ . ‹ # œ œ w w . œ . Ó w
Page 1 and 2: Javier Arrebola The Unfi nished Pia
Page 3 and 4: ISBN 978-952-5959-34-5 (Paperback)
Page 6: Contents Acknowledgements vii Prelu
Page 9 and 10: viii Caminante, no hay camino, se h
Page 11 and 12: me a greater awareness of what musi
Page 13 and 14: xii An immense amount of Schubert
Page 15: I The Beginnings own first symphoni
Page 19 and 20: I The Beginnings 6 The second movem
Page 21 and 22: I The Beginnings another mass (D167
Page 23 and 24: I The Beginnings 10 Schubert’s fa
Page 25 and 26: I The Beginnings 12 As in the first
Page 27 and 28: I The Beginnings The large number o
Page 29 and 30: I The Beginnings piano. The fact th
Page 31 and 32: I The Beginnings derived from the m
Page 33 and 34: I The Beginnings Ex. 14. Schubert:
Page 35 and 36: I The Beginnings Another interestin
Page 37 and 38: I The Beginnings register (left han
Page 39 and 40: I The Beginnings time. In 1816, his
Page 41 and 42: II The Sonata Year sonatas for the
Page 43 and 44: II The Sonata Year symbolic meaning
Page 45 and 46: II The Sonata Year But now let us r
Page 47 and 48: II The Sonata Year It is surprising
Page 49 and 50: II The Sonata Year 36 Ex. 3. Mozart
Page 51 and 52: II The Sonata Year I think there ar
Page 53 and 54: II The Sonata Year popularity calle
Page 55 and 56: II The Sonata Year The opening Alle
Page 57 and 58: II The Sonata Year Compared with th
Page 59 and 60: II The Sonata Year Ex. 14. Schubert
Page 61 and 62: II The Sonata Year Ex. 16. Schubert
Page 64 and 65: III New Paths 1818 The only way out
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1818 presents us with a composer of
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1818 The Finale is an Allegretto th
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physical and intellectual, of resid
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the end of the summer. A surviving
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# & # # # ? # # # # # & # # # 33 Ex
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IV Of Changes and Operatic Hopes 18
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1819-1823 of Schubert’s music in
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1819-1823 spiritual pantheism of Fr
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# & # # # ? # # # # # & # # # 58 #
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1819-1823 Catholic Church concernin
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1819-1823 All of these exceptional
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1819-1823 The year 1823 would conti
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10 # ˙ . & ˙ . ? # # & ˙ f ? #
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1819-1823 companion throughout. The
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V Auf dem Weg zur großen Sinfonie
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Postlude As we have seen, to a grea
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Chronological Tables of Schubert’
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101
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105
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Notes: I The Beginnings: 1815-1816
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26 Newbould, Schubert: The Music an
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V Auf dem Weg zur großen Sinfonie:
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The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert Javier ... - Ethesis

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