Schubert's last sonatas
Three piano sonatas in C minor, A major, and B-flat major, composed by Franz Schubert in 1828 and catalogued as D. 958, D. 959, and D. 960.
Piano sonata: A multi-movement composition for piano, typically organized around contrasting musical themes and keys. The three works extend the sonata tradition while reshaping its scale and expressive range.
Schubertian modulation: Schubert's practice of moving among distant keys through sudden shifts or extended harmonic transitions. Unexpected tonal departures make the sonatas' lyrical passages feel capable of opening into new worlds.
Franz Schubert: An Austrian composer whose songs, chamber music, symphonies, and piano works helped shape nineteenth-century music. He composed all three sonatas in 1828, the final year of his life.
Schubert's last sonata in C minor, first movement: The first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in C minor, D. 958, in sonata form. Its forceful opening and lyrical second theme reveal the work's tension between Beethovenian drama and song.
Anton Diabelli: An Austrian music publisher and composer who issued works by Schubert and other nineteenth-century composers. Diabelli published the sonatas in 1838, ten years after Schubert's death.
Sonata form: A musical structure that develops and recapitulates contrasting themes, usually after an exposition. The opening movements use sonata-form processes on unusually expansive timescales.
Schubertian repetition: Schubert's use of repeated phrases and sections, often with changes in harmony, register, or dynamics. Repetition gives the sonatas room to deepen a thought while making return feel altered.
Ludwig van Beethoven: A German composer whose symphonies, piano sonatas, and chamber works transformed Classical-era musical forms. Schubert dedicated the sonatas to Beethoven's memory, and D. 958 especially recalls his C-minor idiom.
Schubert's last sonata in A major, Andantino: The second movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959, marked Andantino. Its quiet opening is shattered by a turbulent central episode before the music returns transformed.
Schubert's piano sonatas: A body of solo piano sonatas by Franz Schubert, composed between his youth and final year. The last three are often heard as the culmination of his lifelong engagement with the genre.