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

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the end of the summer. A surviving letter from September reveals a person in isolation, suffering from homesickness and keen to meet his friends again: At Zseliz I am obliged to rely wholly on myself. I have to be composer, author, audience, and goodness knows what else. […] So I am alone with my beloved and have to hide her in my room, in my pianoforte and in my bosom. Although this often makes me sad, on the other hand it elevates me the more. 18 1818 The opening Allegro contains fascinating music. From its very outset, we feel the extraordinary determination of a young and ambitious composer. The movement begins in unison with a descending leap of a twelfth: a very unusual gesture that seems to bear a resemblance to the opening of Beethoven’s Appassionata. As we move forward, the music is beset with virtuosic figurations in both hands and audacious harmonic progressions (even reaching E major, enharmonically the flat tonic, F-flat major; bars 54 ff.). Schubert’s new sound conception also deserves to be mentioned: for example, the obvious need for the pedal at the end of the exposition (bars 68-75; Ex. 3.) implies a very interesting use of the piano’s overtones, unseen in Schubert’s work hitherto; as well as the exploration of the limits of the instrument’s registers (bars 112-117; Ex. 4.), another feature probably influenced by Beethoven. Interestingly enough, this movement also contains passages which foreshadow the piano textures of Brahms’ rhapsodies at the end of the 1870s (bars 94 ff.). ? b b b b Ex. 3. Schubert: Piano Sonata in F minor (D625). I. Allegro, bars 68-75. & b b b b œ Œ ‰. œ œ ≈ R œ ? b b b b [ p ] œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w & b b b b (√) 72 œ J ≈ R œ ˙ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w ˙ ‰ . œ œ œ ≈ œ R œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w ‰ . r œ . ˙ œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w œ ˙ √ ‰ . œ œ ≈ R œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w ‰ . R œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w ˙ ‰ . œ œ œ ≈ œ R œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w √ ‰ . œ R . . ˙> J œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ j œ ˙ . œ J n ( ( ) ) 59
III New Paths & b ? b b b b b b b n ˙ Í 115 & b b b b ? b b b b Ex. 4. Schubert: Piano Sonata in F minor (D625). ˙ I. Allegro, bars 112 ff. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Ó Œ ‰ J œ n ( œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Ó Œ ‰ n œ J ( œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ n ˙ ) ˙ ŸÈ ( ) œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ Œ ‰ J œ ˙ ˙ ( ) n ˙) ˙ŸÈ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ The Adagio (D505) is in a very compact A-B-A form. Although not as remarkable as the other movements, it also contains some interesting features which look ahead to the sonatas of 1828 – especially to the second movement of the B-flat major Sonata (D960). 19 These features mainly concern harmonic procedures and the tonal relationships between the first and second parts. For the middle section, the music moves from the initial D-flat major to a distant A major – a key of especial significance for Schubert 20 – presenting a hymn-like theme derived from the first section’s opening material and which, overall, foreshadows similar passages by Brahms. Pianistically, the ‘horn melody’ in sixths over a carpet of pedal octaves in triplets awakens us to the fact that something is changing in the way Schubert writes for the piano. The structure of the movement is still well-anchored in the classical style, but the tonal expansion, the piano texture and the motivic relationships already give a hint of the direction in which he is moving. The Scherzo, which some editions place as the second movement, enhances the impression of a young and ambitious composer. Written in E major (the key of the leading tone!), this scherzo reveals an adventurous and courageous Schubert – one who is leaving Mozart and Haydn behind, and is instead taking Beethoven as a reference point from which to continue the search for his own voice as a piano composer. Rather chromatic and dissonant, this scherzo is probably one of Schubert’s most interesting piano pieces prior to 1820. Its texture moves between orchestral and virtuoso piano writing. Dense, closely voiced chords, large hand extensions, rapid scales, broken octaves and scherzo-like accompaniments in ‘Chopinesque’ style are all absorbed into a tonally adventurous discourse – at times providing this movement with a visionary quality that gazes far into the future (Ex. 5.). 60
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Javier Arrebola The Unfi nished Pia
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ISBN 978-952-5959-34-5 (Paperback)
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Contents Acknowledgements vii Prelu
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viii Caminante, no hay camino, se h
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me a greater awareness of what musi
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xii An immense amount of Schubert
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I The Beginnings own first symphoni
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I The Beginnings The Piano Sonata i
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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
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
Page 74 and 75: # & # # # ? # # # # # & # # # 33 Ex
Page 76 and 77: IV Of Changes and Operatic Hopes 18
Page 78 and 79: 1819-1823 of Schubert’s music in
Page 80 and 81: 1819-1823 spiritual pantheism of Fr
Page 82 and 83: # & # # # ? # # # # # & # # # 58 #
Page 84 and 85: 1819-1823 Catholic Church concernin
Page 86 and 87: 1819-1823 All of these exceptional
Page 88 and 89: 1819-1823 The year 1823 would conti
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Page 92: 1819-1823 companion throughout. The
Page 95 and 96: V Auf dem Weg zur großen Sinfonie
Page 108 and 109: Postlude As we have seen, to a grea
Page 110: Chronological Tables of Schubert’
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Page 120 and 121: 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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