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

V Auf dem Weg zur großen Sinfonie
important works such as Adrast, Die Zauberharfe (Melodrama No. 6) and the
‘Unfinished’ Symphony (the second theme in both the first and second movements). 12
In fact, the texture of this second theme is less symphonic and much closer to chambermusic
writing, anticipating the last piano sonatas. In general, we can say that the
textures in Schubert’s piano music are very often not intrinsically pianistic but, instead,
closer to other ‘mediums’ which he intensely cultivated such as the voice, the orchestra
or the string quartet.
The development and especially the manner in which he arrives at the
recapitulation are truly breathtaking. With a magical pp, the development begins in A
major, a key related by a lower minor third to the home key – something not unheard of
in Schubert’s music. However, after a powerful development built on material from the
first theme but emphasizing B minor, the key of the second theme, Schubert insists on
the pitch of F-sharp (a tritone from ‘home’ and the furthest away you can get). This all
makes the listener wonder where Schubert is leading. The answer is not long in coming:
he presents a false recapitulation in B major, the key of the leading-tone modally
inflected. The real recapitulation finally arrives, but not in the expected key – rather in
the subdominant F major – although the main theme will finally be restated in the tonic
C major (Ex. 3.).
This is a clear example of the difference between Beethoven’s ‘fate-driven’
conception of the tonic in the recapitulation and Schubert’s priority for a poetic sense of
space in his instrumental music. Schubert likes to explore, to get lost in the woods, so to
speak. As Alfred Brendel has expressed it, ‘in his large forms, Schubert is a wanderer.
He likes to move at the edge of the precipice… To wander is the Romantic condition.’ 13
This movement (as well as its ‘companion’ Moderato from the A minor Sonata) is a very
good example of that ‘wanderer condition,’ and ultimately of Schubert’s expansion of
form and loosening of the classical sonata conventions. For Beethoven, the form and
the deterministic quality of the ‘goal’ come first; for Schubert, music is essentially
poetry and therefore many-sided, prone to multiple interpretations and likely to explore
different paths at different times. I believe that conception lies at the core of his
instrumental music. It dwells in his taste for modulation and in his employment of
enharmonic relationships as a means of exploring new uncharted routes and territories.
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