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

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1815 Schubert’s autograph contains three complete movements (an Allegro Moderato in C major, an Andante in F major and a Menuetto in A minor), although many editions include the unfinished Allegretto in C major (D346, probably written in 1816) as the fourth and final movement. The key and the similarities in style, as well as a match with the handwriting and the paper’s watermark, 11 seem to suggest its inclusion as part of this sonata, although it remains uncertain. As with the earlier February sonata, the question of whether this work should or should not have just three movements is, for very similar reasons, difficult to resolve. Probably the most remarkable feature of the second sonata’s first movement is how Schubert no longer takes Haydn and Mozart as his sole models. Instead he turns his attention to the pianistic brilliance of Beethoven and Clementi. It is very likely that Schubert knew a lot of Beethoven’s music from an early age, including the piano sonatas; perhaps concurrently as they were made public. Schubert’s second sonata movement begins with a long and energetic tutti which strongly resembles the opening of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 3 (written in 1796 and dedicated to Haydn): it is in the same key and has the same time signature, the same motivic contour (sixteenthnotes in Beethoven’s, a trill in Schubert’s) and the same progression from tonic to dominant (Ex. 5. and 6.). This opening also contains an orchestral technique very often found in Schubert’s first movements: the octave unison. If we merely consider his piano sonatas, nine of them (namely those in C major (D279), A flat major (D577), D flat major/E flat major (D567/8), B major (D575), C major (D613), F minor (D625), A minor (D784), C major (D840) and A minor (D845)) have opening statements in octave unison. Other remarkable instrumental works like the symphonies in B minor (D759), C major (D944) and possibly Schubert’s Tenth (D936A, unfinished) also demonstrate this feature. Ex. 5. Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 2 No. 3. I. Allegro con brio, bars 1-4. & c ˙ œ œ œ œ œ . œ . p ? c w œ . œ . œ. œ œ. œ Ó Ó ˙ # œ œ œ œ œ . œ . w w Ex. 6. Schubert: Piano Sonata in C major (D279). I. Allegro moderato, bars 1-4. & c ˙ f Ÿ ˙ ? c ˙ ˙ œ . œ . œ œ j œ œ œ . œ œ . œ . œ œ . œ . œ œ . Œ Œ Ÿ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ . œ . œ œ j œ œ œ . œ œ . n œ. œ . œ . œ. œ œ . œ œ . œ . œ œ . Ó Ó ‰ j œ ‰ j œ œ 9
I The Beginnings 10 Schubert’s favourite harmonic procedures can be found in this movement: the major/minor duality (bars 9 ff. and 64-66), harmonic relationships between a key and its flattened sixth (bars 41-45), as well as frequent modulations (bars 86-104), including an unusual whole-tone progression (bars 90-93). However, as said before, the most striking feature of this movement concerns its pianistic textures. The virtuoso style of Beethoven and other contemporaries finds a place in Schubert’s writing: fast scales in both hands, quick changes of register, broken octaves, strong dynamic contrasts, powerful octave passages in both hands, etc. (Ex. 7.) This movement is also one of the first examples of Schubert’s taste for entering the recapitulation in the subdominant. He had already done this in the first movement of his Second Symphony, written just a few months earlier, but never before in a piano sonata. This procedure is worth noting because it will become very common in his sonata-form movements. As a closure to the movement, Schubert inserts a short coda in which these virtuoso influences are again present (bars 205-211). In the fast right-hand octaves and the dense chords we can envisage this young composer exploring the possibilities of the new keyboard instruments in a manner similar to his contemporary pianist composers. The Andante is in the subdominant, F major, and is in traditional A-B-A form. The character and melodic gestures in the first part comply closely with Classical models, especially with those of Mozart. It is perhaps significant that Schubert never writes excessively tardy slow movements or extremely fast finales. Typically he gives us smoothly flowing second movements and gently moving finales, probably as a result of his admiration for Mozart. It is also interesting to see elements here that are present in much later works: note the resemblance between the transitional passage at bars 14-17 and the last variation of the second movement of the later Piano Sonata in A minor (D845) of 1825; incidentally both passages are in C major. It is in the central episode (bars 26-52) where we see Beethoven’s influence most clearly. Written in D minor, the sixth degree of the tonic (again involving a tonal relationship by thirds), there are musical associations with the opening of Beethoven’s Second Symphony, a work especially loved by Schubert. 12 As a matter of fact, the nature of the writing is orchestral, with strong opposition between the triplets in unison and their harmonized answer in another group of the orchestra; as well as in the dialogue between the sections over a continuous harmonic backdrop of triplets.
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 and 16: I The Beginnings own first symphoni
Page 17 and 18: I The Beginnings The Piano Sonata i
Page 19 and 20: I The Beginnings 6 The second movem
Page 21: I The Beginnings another mass (D167
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
Page 66 and 67: 1818 presents us with a composer of
Page 68 and 69: 1818 The Finale is an Allegretto th
Page 70 and 71: 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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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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