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Schubert, Franz : 2 Scherzi D 593

Work Overview

Music ID : 1564
Composition Year:1817 
Publication Year:1871
First Publisher:Gotthard
Instrumentation:Piano Solo 
Genre:scherzo
Total Playing Time:7 min 30 sec
Copyright:Public Domain

Commentary (2)

Author : Hori, Tomohei

Last Updated: March 12, 2018
[Open]
Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Schubert's Piano Dances

The early 19th century was a period when the aristocratic minuet, popular in the 18th century, gave way to more popular and dynamic German dances and Ländler, before eventually transitioning to the flamboyant waltz. Schubert's piano dances, numbering approximately 650 pieces for both two and four hands, are also primarily preserved in these triple-meter genres. Schubert also loved the rhythm of the waltz, which gained prominence after the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), but judging from the surviving scores, the composer used the name 'waltz' only once. From this fact, it can be inferred that the characteristics of each dance were not so clearly distinguished.

For Schubert, piano dances were primarily a genre that provided background music for intimate gatherings of friends, creating a convivial social atmosphere. As his skill became known to the public, he increasingly had opportunities to be invited to large public dance halls to play the piano. It seems he would later transcribe into scores the pieces he particularly liked from those he improvised to suit the atmosphere of the occasion. The dances thus accumulated formed the core of his early publishing activities, alongside his Lieder.

Schubert playing piano dances was one of the most frequently and vividly recalled scenes among the numerous testimonies of his friends. It is an interesting fact that these testimonies are concentrated from December to February. Even though it is in the south, Vienna's winters are harsh. They would gather together on cold evenings to warm their bodies and souls. There even remains a poem depicting Schubert's improvisation healing a close friend weary of life on one such night. Such scenes form the original landscape of Schubert's music, and the dances born there sometimes developed into tightly knit cycles (collected works) imbued with spiritual drama. Robert Schumann was well aware of this characteristic. Some of Schubert's dance cycles became such tightly knit collections that they eventually led to works like the Davidsbündlertänze (1837).

Traversing these three domains—friendship, socializing, and the spiritual journey—Schubert's piano dances warm the hearts and bodies of people.

Writer: Hori, Tomohei

Author : Hori, Tomohei

Last Updated: March 12, 2018
[Open]
Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Although the autograph manuscripts are lost, according to catalogs created by the composer's friends J. W. Witteczek and J. Spaun after his death, both were composed in November 1817 (published in 1871) and can be regarded as a continuous musical work, "No. 1" and "No. 2." It may seem surprising that only two "Scherzos" were written independently, but 1817 was a notable year in which various experiments were attempted in piano music. Autograph manuscripts often lacked unity, and there are instances where movements that should have belonged to a sonata were written consecutively in autograph manuscripts of other genres (such as Lieder or string quartets). Currently, the practice of considering multiple movements written in different fascicles of music as belonging to a single sonata has become established (e.g., D 570, D 571, D 604). Indeed, Schubert himself used the trio of the second of these "Two Scherzos" in a slightly different form for the trio of the third movement of a sonata (D 568) written in January of the same year. In short, the various movements written fragmentarily in this year are akin to pages from an "idea book," and although they lack the coherence of unified works, they are also a treasure trove of ambitious and experimental sounds from Schubert's middle period.

No. 1 (B-flat major / E-flat major)

It is in a three-part form consisting of a medium-sized main section and a trio, comparable to the third movement of a sonata. While its metrical and tonal structures are clear and rather conventional for the experiments of this period, there are also measures that point to the future. For example, from measure 45 onwards, where the bass voice is silent and a triplet figure without a root note revolves, aims to suspend the sense of tonality. In Schubert's later works, such sonorities leading to sudden shifts up a minor second became common. In the latter half of the trio, the bass voice, reaching down to the lowest note (F) of pianos of that time, asserts its presence.

No. 2 (D-flat major / A-flat major)

It has a similar structure to No. 1, but particularly in three aspects, a more varied expression is intended than in No. 1:

  • First, the much greater dynamic contrasts.
  • Second, the free movement across different registers of the keyboard.
  • Finally (a tendency frequently seen even in his earliest instrumental works), the deviation from four-measure phrase units, often employing five-measure units.

Furthermore, the unusual choice of D-flat major as the main key for its time can be explained by Schubert's pursuit of new sonorities in the piano sonatas of 1817, which frequently used keys with many accidentals. Similarly, the frequent excursions to the distant key of E major are also noteworthy.

Writer: Hori, Tomohei

Movements (2)

No.1

Key: B-Dur  Total Performance Time: 4 min 00 sec 

No.2

Key: Des-Dur  Total Performance Time: 3 min 30 sec 

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