Schubert's Last Sonatas - Allusion To Other Works By Schubert

Allusion To Other Works By Schubert

Besides the internal references that they often make to earlier passages within them, Schubert's last sonatas contain distinct allusions and resemblances to some of his previous works, mostly earlier piano works, as well as many of his songs. Important similarities also exist between certain passages in the sonatas and works from other genres that were composed in parallel, during the same months in 1828.

The finale of the A major Sonata, uses as its main theme, a transformation of an earlier theme from the second movement of the Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 537. Schubert introduced some changes to the original melody, which make it conform better with the sonata's basic motifs, in accordance with the cyclical scheme of the sonata. Another allusion to an earlier piano work appears in the middle of the sonata's slow movement: after the climax in the middle section of the Andantino, appears a passage (bars 147–158) that closely recalls bars 35–39 from the Impromptu in G-flat major, D. 899.

An important, unique work for solo piano written by Schubert, stands apart from his sonatas, but is closely related to them in its concept and style: the Wanderer Fantasy of 1822. The harmonic scheme inherent in each of Schubert's last sonatas, according to Charles Fisk, of a tonal conflict gradually resolved through musical integration, finds its precedent in the Fantasy. Moreover, a tonal stratum which plays a unique role throughout the sonata trilogy – C-sharp minor/F-sharp minor, is also precedented in the Fantasy as well as the song on which it was based, Der Wanderer (of 1816) (Fisk calls C-sharp minor "the wanderer's key"). In these two earlier works, and likewise in the last sonatas, passages written in the C-sharp minor/F-sharp minor stratum portray a sense of alienation, of wandering and homelessness, according to Fisk. The allusion to the song Der Wanderer becomes fully explicit when, in the development section of the B-flat Sonata's opening movement, the new theme first presented in this section, undergoes a transformation (in bars 159–160) to become an almost literal quotation of the song's piano introduction.

Another composition from the song genre, also mentioned by Fisk and others, as intimately related to the last sonatas, and also depicting a feeling of wandering and homelessness, is the Winterreise (A Winter's Journey) song cycle. Numerous connections between different songs from the cycle and the sonatas, especially the C minor Sonata, have been mentioned. For example: in the C minor Sonata, the first movement's development section recalls the songs Erstarrung and Der Lindenbaum; the second movement and the finale recall the songs Das Wirtshaus, Gefrorne Tranen, Gute Nacht, Auf dem Flusse, Der Wegweiser, and Einsamkeit. These allusions to Winterreise retain the alienated, lonely atmosphere of its songs.

Several of Schubert's last songs (the Schwanengesang collection), composed during the period of the sketching of the last sonatas, also portray a deep sense of alienation, and bear important similarities with specific moments in the sonatas. These include the songs Der Atlas (recalls the opening of the C minor Sonata), Ihr Bild (the B-flat major/G-flat major conflict at the opening of the B-flat Sonata), Am Meer, and Der Doppelgänger.

Additional songs which have been mentioned in analogy to specific passages in the last sonatas include Im Frühling (the opening of the A major Sonata's finale), and Pilgerweise (the main section of the Andantino in the A major Sonata).

Schubert's famous String Quintet was written in September 1828, together with the final versions of the sonatas. The slow movements of the quintet and the B-flat Sonata bear striking similarities in their main sections: both employ the same unique textural layout, in which two-three voices sing long notes in the middle register, accompanied by the contrasted, short pizzicato notes of the other voices, in the lower and upper registers; in both movements, the long notes over the relentless ostinato rhythm, convey an atmosphere of complete stillness, of arrest of all motion and time. String quintet textures also appear elsewhere, throughout the sonata trilogy.