F. Schubert’s last Piano Sonatas in the aspect of his song-like thinking
Authors: Нrebeniuk Nataliіa 
Published: March 2021

Background. Close relationships to a song is one of the constants of F. Schubert’s individual thinking. As it embraces all the genre spheres in composer’s heritage, it acquires a universal status, resulting in interchange of author’s findings in chamber-vocal and instrumental works, particularly piano ones. The researchers reveal influence of songs in non-song works by F. Schubert on two main levels: intonationally-thematical and structural. This raised a question about premises, which had created conducive conditions for integration of compositional principles, characteristic for songs and instrumental works by F. Schubert. This question is regarded on the example of three last Piano Sonatas by F. Schubert. Having been written in proximity to composer’s death, they demonstrated unity of composer’s style, achieved by him by integrating his innovations in song and instrumental genres into a unity of the highest degree. Objectives and methodology. The goal of the given article is to study the structure of selected songs by F. Schubert, marked by throughout dramatic development, and to reveal their influence on composer’s last piano sonatas. In order to achieve these goals, compositionally-dramaturgical and comparative methods of analysis were used. Theoretical preconditions. As a reference point for studying of influence of F. Schubert’s songs on his instrumental works, we might consider an article by V. Donadze (1940). In this research author for the first time formulated a view on composer’s song lyricism not only as on central element of his heritage, but also as on a factor, penetrating and uniting all the genres, in which the composer had worked. Thus, concept “song-like symphonism” entered musicological lexicon. The fruitful idea about song-like thinking of F. Schubert found rich development in numerous works of researchers of next generations and keeps its relevance up to nowadays. Results. Even in the one of the very first masterpieces of a song – “Gretchen am Spinnrade” – the author creates unique composition, organized by a circular symbol, borrowed from J. W. Goethe’s text. Using couplet structure as a foundation, F. Schubert creates the structure in a way, creating illusion of constant returning to the same thought, state, temporal dimension. The first parts of every couplet repeat, the second ones – integrate into a discrete, although definitively heading to a culmination, line of development. Thus, double musical time emerges simultaneously cyclical and founded on an attempt to achieve a goal. In the sonata Allegri, regarded in this article, the same phenomenon is revealed in interaction of classical algorithm of composition and functional peculiarities of recapitulations, which are transformed into variants of exposition. As an example of combination of couplet-born repetitions with throughout development we may name song “Morgengruss” from “Die sch&#246;ne M&#252;llerin”. The same method of stages in the exposition and recapitulation can be found in sonata Allegro of Sonata in C Minor. Polythematic strophic structure with throughout development is regarded on example of “Kriegers Ahnung” (lyricist Ludwig Rellstab) from “Der Schwanengesang”, which is compared to Andante from the before mentioned Sonata. Special attention is drawn to the cases in which cyclical features, characteristic for F. Schubert’s songs, find their way into sonata expositions and recapitulations. In the first movement of Sonata in B-flat Major these chapters of musical structures consist of three quite protracted episodes, which might be identified as first subject, second subject and codetta, respectively. Each of these episodes has its own key, image and logic of compositionally-dramaturgic process, while being marked by exhaustion of saying, which approximates the whole to a song cycle. The logic governing the succession of the episodes is founded not on causation (like in classical sonata expositions and recapitulations), but on the principles of switching from one lyrical state to another. The same patterns of structure are conspicuous in exposition and recapitulation of the first movement of Sonata in C Minor, in which the first section is marked by throughout development, the second one is a theme with two different variations, and the third one, the one recreating the process of rumination, with long pauses and fermatas, interrupting graduality of the movement, is founded on the contrast between playful and lyrical states. The outer movements of Sonata in A Major consist of several episodes. The first subject in ternary form has contrasting middle section; quite uncommon for F. Schubert linking episode dilates so much its function of “transition” is almost lost; enormous second subject eclipses the codetta in every section; it is an unique world, a palette of moods, images, musical events. Conclusions. Innovativity, characteristic for F. Schubert in the field of Romantic song, reveals itself not only in the spheres of images and emotions, musical language, interaction between vocal melody and piano part, but also in the organization of a structure. This allowed to re-evaluate means of organization of compositionally-dramaturgic process in piano sonatas by the composer as in the genre of instrumental music. While in the songs and song cycles these principles of structure were closely connected to extra-musical content, conditioned by it, in instrumental works, specifically, in piano sonatas, they became a feature of the musical content, immanent for music. This particularly helps to explain, why is it possible to use these principles without song-like intonations, usual for them. By the same token, even in this “isolated” variant they remind of their song origin, so songs and song cycles by F. Schubert become a “program” of his piano sonatas and works in another instrumental genres, in a similar fashion to opera, which has become crucial source for development of classical symphony.