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

II The Sonata Year
The opening Allegro moderato contains pianistic figurations (for example, the
Alberti-like accompaniments) that will be very evident in later piano works like the
sonatas of 1828. There are also dramatic techniques derived from the theatre; or even
from the ‘Mannheim school’ where more lyrical passages are contrasted by
exhilaratingly kinetic ones (bars 23-30), where bass figurations speed up to build a
sense of drama (bar 35), and where the fast unison scales carry off-the-beat accents
(bars 37-39). Overall, the musical conception of all three movements is orchestral. This
is perhaps more obvious in the second and third movements which display a gentle
continuity and a delicious interplay of ‘instruments,’ aligning the nature of the music
much closer to symphonic textures than to genuine piano music. On the other hand, the
refined style, charm and flawless, quasi-improvisatory invention associate this work
with such Mozartian pieces as the A-flat major Piano Sonata or the Fifth Symphony
from the previous year. The finale is unfinished, but can be completed by drawing on
the E-flat version. As a matter of fact, Schubert seems to have held this work in high
esteem. Not only did he return to it and revise it many years later – probably for
publication alongside more mature works like the great piano sonatas of 1825. He also
wrote multiple versions of the second movement. 23
Now we move to the only truly unfinished piano sonata of 1817: the incomplete
sonata movement in F-sharp minor (D571), which is surely one of the more meaningful
works from the point of view of this study – perhaps even the most meaningful.
Mysteriously headed as ‘Sonate V,’ this piece has usually been combined with two other
works – supposedly from the same time – to form a four-movement sonata. The
Andante in A major (D604), and the Scherzo in D major and Allegro in F-sharp minor
(D570) would thus complete a four-movement piano sonata in F-sharp minor. In
their extant material, the outer movements break off just before the recapitulation. The
relationship of keys and stylistic affinities, as well as obvious resemblances to the work
that would appear to be its model and companion, leave little doubt that the Scherzo
and Allegro (D570) belong to the same piano sonata as D571. However, the case of the
Andante is far from conclusive. Since, as argued earlier, Schubert was mainly writing
traditional three-movement sonatas at this time, we should not altogether disregard the
possibility that Schubert was now adopting the style of a Beethoven three-movement
sonata where the central movement is in dance form – Allegretto in Beethoven’s case,
Scherzo in Schubert’s. As we shall soon see, Schubert may have been attracted to
Beethoven’s idea of a ‘Sonata quasi una Fantasia.’
The Sonata in F-sharp minor began a series of three sonatas in which Schubert
took Beethoven as his model. The later two, with their Schubertian ‘equivalents,’ so to
speak, will be discussed in the next chapter. For now, we shall focus on the F-sharp
minor Sonata, which was composed in July 1817. In the first place, the choice of key
may have significance. There is no other piano sonata or major work by Schubert in Fsharp
minor. The few examples of music which are written in this key seem to occupy a
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