(V) Piano music.

Although Schubert may have learnt the violin first, the piano anchored his creative life. His first surviving work is a fantasy for piano duet (d1); among his last works (September 1828) are three incomparable piano sonatas (d958, 959, 960). He composed more than 700 vocal and instrumental works to include the piano, many of considerable complexity. Schubert's surviving sketches suggest that he composed as if at the keyboard. Although he made little use of the extra low notes available on larger Viennese pianos from 1816 (his borrowed instruments evidently did not include these notes), Schubert's exploitation of the piano's tone colour at least equals Beethoven's. His piano music is often described as of moderate technical difficulty, but many of the large-scale works (especially, but not only, the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy) include passages that require considerable virtuosity; as to its interpretative demands, Schubert's keyboard music is as challenging as any composed in the 19th century.

Although Schubert returned periodically to the fantasy, his lengthiest involvement was with the solo piano sonata. His first effort, the Sonata in E major (d157), from which three of a projected four movements survive, dates from early 1815. That autumn two movements of the Sonata in C (d279) display a confidence and virtuosity scarcely to be expected in an 18-year-old. The opening sonata-form movement is the first to employ Schubert's characteristic device of a recapitulation beginning in the subdominant – a procedure found in earlier works such as Mozart's Sonata in C, k545, and Beethoven Coriolan overture. The Allegretto in C (d346) may have been intended as a finale. Five pieces comprising d459 and 459a have been posited as a single sonata in E from 1816. The autograph of the first (and the beginning of the second) movement is headed ‘Sonate’, but it is not clear how the other three movements might have related. In the otherwise lean year of 1817 Schubert nonetheless commenced at least five sonatas, of which the Sonata in A minor (d537) constitutes his first completed effort. Its magnificent first movement, alternately fierce and poetic, is followed by two movements of lesser significance. Schubert re-used the theme of the slow movement as the main theme in the finale of the late A major Sonata d959. Retrogressive in style are the three movements of the Sonata in A (d557), which may constitute a complete work. Equally fragmentary is the three-movement Sonata in E minor (d566), for which Schubert may also have intended the Rondo in E, d506. The key of the Sonata in D major (d567) is probably unprecedented; in the mid-1820s Schubert took it up once again, revising and augmenting it substantially while transposing it to the more orthodox key of E major. Three movements (an Andante in A, d604, and the Scherzo in D and the Allegro in F minor that comprise d570) may belong with a fragmentary Allegro moderato in F minor (d571) to form a four-movement work. The piano-rich year of 1817 was crowned by the four-movement Sonata in B major (d575). The exposition of the first movement traverses no fewer than four separate keys in leisurely fashion, with all the material linked persuasively by a dotted rhythm upbeat. Only the short-breathed finale falls below the level set by this first movement.

During the years 1818 to 1822 Schubert left three other unfinished piano sonatas (d613, 625, 655). The most interesting and extensive is the second, in F minor. If a D major Adagio (d505) was intended as the slow movement, then only the first movement requires conjectural completion. The compact finale (whose recapitulation exists as a single line in Schubert's draft) combines Chopinesque virtuosity and Beethovenian propulsion to impressive effect. Schubert's first sonata to maintain a consistently high level throughout is the ‘little’ Sonata in A major, d664 (so dubbed to distinguish it from the later A major sonata), all three of whose movements are in sonata form. In the first movement the serene, expansive lyricism of the opening theme and more assertive second group challenge gender stereotyping, in which the first theme is traditionally more ‘masculine’ and the second more submissively ‘feminine’. The Andante, built on a gently sighing theme is, unusually, monothematic, whereas the finale contrasts the fleet opening theme with a halting second group which then turns into a rollicking ländler. Throughout the finale the pianistic figuration is both idiomatic and original.

Whereas Schubert completed only four of the dozen sonatas he began before 1822, he finished all but one of the eight he began after 1822. Before he began any of them he composed the unique ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy (d760), a product of the stylistic exploration and experimentation years around 1820. Exploiting every sonority Schubert could conjure up, the four movements are linked by similar dactyllic rhythms and constitute a novel and intriguing cyclic structure; the finale combines a recapitulation of elements of the first movement with strenuous fugato writing. The slow movement, with its elaborate pianistic figuration, is based on an episode from the song Der Wanderer (d489) – hence the work's nickname. The two A minor sonatas (d784 and d845) of 1823 and 1825 are studies in contrast. The earlier sonata was Schubert's most original keyboard sonata to date, bleak, compact yet teeming with ideas. A single dotted rhythm in the opening unleashes a torrent of dotted octaves in the development which are fused with a contrasting accompanying rhythm. After a modest start, the B section of the ternary slow movement soars to unexpected heights over a bed of triplets. The agitated finale alternates eerie whisperings with ferocious eruptions. The four-movement A minor Sonata d845 shares the thematic richness and variety of the shorter work but is conceived on a more symphonic, even Beethovenian, scale. The dramatic range suggests that Schubert had, at least psychologically, moved the piano sonata from the drawing room into the concert hall. Begun and abandoned shortly before Schubert's lengthy summer sojourn of 1825, the thematically more restrained C major Sonata (d840, known as the ‘Reliquie’) sports an expansive first movement whose deceptively gentle gait is belied by a harmonic audacity (especially in the astonishing transition to the second subject) found in no previous Schubert sonata. With its exuberant energy and rich, wide-spaced textures, no other work of Schubert's reflects his natural surroundings more vividly than the D major Sonata d850, composed during his stay in and around Bad Gastein in the summer of 1825. Fashioned for a professional pianist, Karl Maria von Bocklet, Schubert felt free to give the torrential yet dancelike triplets of the first movement full rein. The emotional range of the slow movement is unprecedented in Schubert's piano music; the seemingly innocuous syncopation that launches the subdominant second group rises to a thunderous fff climax. The driving five-note dotted upbeat of the hemiola-laden Scherzo is a perfect foil both to the trio, with its wide harmonic vistas, and the relaxed, playful rondo finale. The opening Molto moderato of the G major Sonata d894, in 12/8 time, shares its tempo marking and spirit of almost timeless contemplation by the first movement of the B Sonata (d960). Perhaps taking a cue from the corresponding movement of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Schubert ‘orchestrates’ every triad to maximize its sonority, drawing upon techniques from low-slung fifths to doubled and tripled thirds. The finale of the G major Sonata suggests another homage to Beethoven, here his Piano Sonata in G, op.31 no.1, of 1802.

Only their position at the end of Schubert's short life prompts us to label the final trilogy of piano sonatas (d958–60) as late. Now in his prime, Schubert laid out three independent solutions to the challenge of the keyboard sonata, the first opening with a blatant tribute to the theme of Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor. The coincidences end there, however; the ambiguities in the sonata peak in the much maligned finale, a frantic tarantella whose apparently rambling structure belies a strikingly original treatment of sonata form. In the A major Sonata Schubert replaces ambiguity with extroverted clarity. As in Beethoven's op.106, the magisterial opening proclaims the textural and formal spaciousness of the work. Yet it is not without discontinuities; beginning as a static barcarolle, the F minor Andantino contains a central episode which comes as close to a nervous breakdown as anything in Schubert's output, while during the rapid play of registers in the Scherzo he torpedoes a placid passage in C major with a plummeting scale in C minor. Although the last movement borrows its theme from the early A minor Sonata d537 and its schematic sonata-rondo layout and some of its textures from Beethoven's op.31 no.1, it transcends both these models and constitutes one of his most subtle and alluring finales. If Schubert invests the ostensibly confident A major Sonata with a tinge of sadness, the final Sonata, in B major, is suffused by the composer's characteristic melancholy, mingled with a feeling of contemplative ecstasy. The stepwise elegiac opening alternates with disembodied trills in the bass, leading to remote keys, notably F minor, before the exposition is over. The emphasis on F minor (and the enharmonically related G major) in this movement prepares listeners for the remote key of C minor in the slow movement. The suspension of time in the A section gives way to a serene A major melody that mirrors in range and contour the theme with which the sonata opened, while conjuring up the sonorities of the preceding A major Sonata. Characteristically, Schubert's tune explodes in a catharsis out of which the opening stillness re-emerges. The opening of the finale again takes a cue from Beethoven, here the second finale of the String Quartet in B , op.130, published in May of the preceding year. Like Beethoven, Schubert feints mischievously at C minor before affirming the tonic key, B . But the movement's textures and emotional ambiguity are uniquely Schubertian.

During his career Schubert composed more than 400 waltzes, ländler and other dances for piano, publishing (and probably composing) them in sets. Most were improvised at social occasions or dance parties, then refined and written down later. Technically accessible, these predominantly 16-bar binary forms are rarely routine, and a surprising number withstand comparison with Schubert's finest work. The five Ländler (all in A major or minor) that open d366 encompass the playful leaps of nos.1 and 2, the sombre hymn of no.3, the poignant, appoggiatura-laden inner-voice melody of no.4 and the driving bass of no.5. Pianists such as Sviatoslav Richter have created mini-sets from these groupings, repeating one or more of the dances, perhaps much as Schubert did. The much smaller collection of Moments musicaux, impromptus and Klavierstücke that Schubert composed between 1823 and 1828 are examples of the favourite Romantic genre of the short, self-contained piano piece that became popular during the 1820s (precedents go back at least to Beethoven's op.33 bagatelles of 1802). The compositional freedom afforded by this new genre stimulated some of Schubert's most original creations. The six Moments musicaux, composed between 1823 and 1828, use familiar formal patterns such as the minuet and trio (nos.1 and 6) as a vehicle for enigmatic and sorrowful expression that is quintessentially Schubertian. The enduring popularity of no.3 in F minor, originally published as Air russe, derives at least partly from its anticipation of a pas seul by Tchaikovsky.

Perhaps in response to the 1821 publication of pieces of the same title by the Bohemian composer Jan Vořišek, Schubert's publisher Haslinger gave the title Four Impromptus to d899. In their ternary design the impromptus may have been influenced by Tomášek's 1807 ‘Eclogues’, written in protest to the vapid variation compositions of the time. Only the first of Schubert's impromptus, a mixture of sonata, variation and through-composed elements, is not cast in ternary form. The bold opening dominant octaves act as the foil to a muted funeral march, which Schubert contrasts with an imitative, sensuously italianate closing theme. While less experimental formally, the remaining three impromptus are highly individual. The A section of no.2 is a fleet moto perpetuo, while no.3 (first published in the key of G for fear that amateurs could not navigate G ) is the quintessence of the slow-moving Schubert melody over a flowing arpeggiated accompaniment. The last member of the group sports a key signature of A major but moves for more than 30 bars through A minor, C major and B minor before finally arriving in the home key. The contrasting B sections of all three are highly dramatic. The final set of four impromptus (d935) was apparently meant as a continuation of the first set. They suggest a four-movement piano sonata in F minor, with the first movement a full-blown sonata, the second a tender minuet, the third a set of variations on the theme from Rosamunde also used in the Andante of the A minor Quartet, and the fourth a highly original finale containing some of Schubert's wittiest and most audacious piano writing. Although the posthumously published Drei Klavierstücke exist only in draft, they hold their own with the impromptus, of which they were perhaps a continuation. In all three sections of great urgency contrast with those in which time seems to stand still. Throughout the late piano pieces, Schubert explores a wide range of relationships between the tonic and the submediant in all its forms (major and minor, lowered and raised), an alternative to the Classical polarization of tonic and dominant, and one that was extensively cultivated by later Romantic composers.

Schubert's most original contribution to the keyboard repertory is arguably his music for piano duet. Although familiar from the 18th century, keyboard music for four hands was largely restricted to ephemeral pieces or utilitarian arrangements of orchestral works. Mozart invested the genre with more ambition but, as with the lied, it was Schubert who took a marginal genre and made it central. His earliest works for piano duet were three fantasies (d1, 9, 48), while a modest rondo (d608) from January 1818 and four polonaises (d599) and a sonata (d617) of Mozartian proportions composed in Zseliz during the summer of that year mark the beginning of Schubert's sustained interest in the genre. His first enduring success was a set of three Marches militaires (d733), possibly written during the summer or autumn of 1818, which was followed by a further 11 marches over the next decade. Schubert's unusual interest in the march scarcely stemmed from any enthusiasm for war but rather from the great range of stylistic possibilities it afforded, from funeral march to evocations of toy soldiers. The best of these marches (which include the six Grandes marches of 1824) exploit the full range of four hands while preserving a sense of intimate conversation.

The Grand Duo (D812) of June 1824 marked a watershed in Schubert's development, instantly raising the piano duet to a medium worthy of comparison with the string quartet or the symphony. Both the first and second movements feature leisurely three-key expositions, with Schubert's favourite submediant as the intermediate key. The massively scored Scherzo, with its minor-keyed trio, is a foil for the sly opening of the finale (initially in A minor rather than the expected C major), which grows again to heroic proportions. At this same period Schubert invested variation form with similar substance and prestige in the Variations in A on an original theme (d813). The seventh variation is extraordinarily bold in its chromatic colouring, while the heavily dotted eighth and final variation leads to a poetic and ultimately triumphant coda. No work of Schubert's, incidentally, proclaims more clearly his love of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Shortly after returning from Zseliz for the last time, Schubert essayed the Divertissement à l’hongroise in G minor (d818), which has given rise to intriguing speculation as to the exact nature and degree of its Hungarian influence. This three-movement work is much more substantial than its title suggests, as is its companion probably composed the next year, the Divertissement sur des motifs originaux français (d823).

Between January and June of his last year Schubert created no fewer than three enduring works for piano duet. The Fantasy in F minor (d940) shares with the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy a continuous four-section scheme. The haunting opening theme returns in the finale, setting the seal on a cyclic structure; in between comes a Largo which contrasts quasi-Baroque double-dotted rhythms with yearning lyricism, and a fleet Scherzo, both in the unlikely key of F minor. The F minor finale is itself framed by the opening theme, between which Schubert unleashes a fugue based on a new theme. It matters little that the fugal texture gradually dissolves, for the momentum carries through until the final poignant recall of the opening. The masterly compression of the F minor Fantasy is in stark contrast to the passionate expansiveness of the Allegro in A minor d947, subtitled Lebensstürme when Diabelli published it in 1840. Few sonata movements by Schubert integrate so many diverse ideas so successfully. Because of its key, some commentators have suggested that the sublime Rondo in A major (d951) may have formed the finale of a larger work headed by d947. Belonging to the same family as the finale to Beethoven's E minor Sonata op.90, Schubert's movement is likewise a sonata-rondo, with a central episode that functions as a development and a long coda in which one of the themes is heard in the tenor part.

Schubert, Franz, §2: Works