The Piano Sonata in E major, 157 is a piano sonata with three movements composed by Franz Schubert in February 1815.[1] The Allegro 154 is an early version of its first movement.[2]
The piano sonata 157 has three known movements. Some commentators describe the first movement of the sonata as by far the most interesting, as it shows Schubert breaking away from the restrictions on harmonic progressions his teacher Antonio Salieri had imposed for vocal music,[3] and as one of his happiest inspirations, prefiguring his later trade marks, while the remaining two movements are described as somewhat run of the mill.[4] Others see in the first movement rather unconvincing unorthodoxies lacking invention, while the other two movements are more musically satisfying, with reminiscences of Beethoven and some of Schubert's later compositions.[5]
Although all three movements of sonata are complete in Schubert's autograph, the sonata as a whole is believed to be incomplete due to a missing final fourth movement.[7] There is no indication Schubert ever attempted to start composing a fourth movement.[8] There are however indications that the work is to be regarded as incomplete without such additional movement:
Others point to the finale-like character of the third movement, so that it can be seen as an effective conclusion of the sonata despite a failure to return to the tonic. It is not known whether Schubert never got around to composing a fourth movement or deliberately abandoned any attempt to write it. It is nevertheless unlikely that Schubert wrote a fourth movement that has since been lost, because several blank pages follow the third movement in the autograph.
, an unfinished Allegro in E major, composed 11 February 1815, and like titled "Sonate" in the autograph, is usually seen as an early version of the first movement of .[10] breaks off at the end of the development.[11] Its second theme, several figures and the start of the development section are nearly identical to 's first movement.
Others see and the first movement of as individual drafts of separate compositions merely sharing some of the material. D 154 is more demanding from a performer than the first movement of D 157, and is also written more orchestrally and adventurously.
There were no publications of this work before the Breitkopf & Härtel complete edition of the end of the 19th century, known as the Alte Gesammtausgabe (AGA).[6]
The autograph of is titled Sonate and has 11 February 1815 as date at the end of the single and incomplete Allegro movement.
The autograph of has the dates 18 and 21 February 1815 respectively at the beginning and the end of the first movement.
Both manuscripts are in the city library of Vienna, and can be consulted online via the Schubert-Autographs website.[12]
was first published in 1888 as No. 1 of the Piano Sonatas volume (Series X) of the Kritisch durchgesehene Gesammtausgabe published by Breitkopf & Härtel. The second volume of the Supplement (Series XXI) contained the fragment.
Two Urtext editions were published in 1997: both Paul Badura-Skoda (Henle) and Martino Tirimo (Wiener Urtext) published the Allegro in an Appendix of the volume that contained the three extant movements of Schuberts Sonata .[13] [14]
Also in the New Schubert Edition VII/2/1 is given in an Appendix to the volume that contains Schubert's first sonata .
Julius Epstein (ed.) Serie 10: Sonaten für Pianoforte — No. 1 (1888).
Eusebius Mandyczewski (ed.) Serie 21: Supplement — Instrumentalmusik, Band 2 — No. 8 (1897).
. Brian Newbould. 1999 . Schubert: The Music and the Man . University of California Press . 9780520219571 . 95–6.