Schubert's Last Sonatas - Compositional Process

Compositional Process

The compositional process of the last sonatas can be studied owing to the almost complete survival of their manuscripts. According to these, the sonatas were written in two stages – a preliminary sketch (the first draft) and a full, mature final version (the fair copy).

The sketches were written during the spring and summer of 1828, possibly even earlier. The inner movements were sketched up to the final bar, while the outer, sonata-form movements were only sketched up to the beginning of the recapitulation and in the coda. In the sketches, passages from different movements (or even different sonatas) sometimes appear on the same leaf; such evidence suggests that the last two sonatas were composed in parallel, at least in part. Furthermore, in the B-flat Sonata, Schubert sketched the finale before completing the first movement, unlike his usual practice, in which finales were conceived at a later stage.

The final versions of the sonatas convey the impression of a single unit, and were likely notated in close succession during September 1828. The sonatas were labeled Sonate I, II, III, respectively, and Schubert wrote at the bottom of the last folio of the third sonata the date September 26. As compared to the sketches, the final versions are written much more neatly and orderly, with full notation and greater care for small details.

A thorough study of the emendations that Schubert edited into the final versions, in comparison with his sketches, reveals many insights. "Examination of Schubert's sketches for the sonatas reveals him as highly self-critical; moreover, it shows that the 'heavenly lengths' of the sonatas were actually a later addition, not conceived from the start. In his subsequent corrections, Schubert elaborated on his themes and expanded them, giving them more 'musical space'", in Alfred Brendel's words. In the revision, Brendel continues, "proportions are rectified, details start to tell, fermatas suspend time. Rests clarify the structure, allowing breathing space, holding the breath or listening into silence".

The major emendations in the final versions can be summarized as follows:

1. The most frequent modification is expansion of the original material. The expansions frequently repeat preceding measures or consist of rests or left-hand figurations without the melody, providing a pause in the motion. This is especially noticeable in the Adagio, minuet and finale of the C minor Sonata, the middle section of the Andantino in the A major Sonata, and the first movement of the B-flat Sonata.
2. Changes in the tempo or meter indications, mainly in the opening movements: D.958/I was originally marked Allegro moderato; D.959/I was originally in alla breve time; D.959/II was originally marked Andante; and D.960/I was originally marked Moderato.
3. Some of the major cyclic elements in the sonatas were only added in the final version. This includes the final bars of the A major Sonata, which consist of a cancrizans of its opening; and the arpeggiation at the end of the slow movement of the same work, which anticipates the opening of the scherzo.
4. Classical-type sonata-form transitions, going from tonic to dominant, were also modified. In the opening movement of the A major Sonata, the transition was originally written a fourth higher; as it appears, only after figuring out the recapitulation, did Schubert decide to transpose the transition in the exposition in accordance with the recapitulation's harmonic scheme, thus creating the more Classical type transition that establishes V of V, found in no other opening movement in late Schubert. In the analogous place in the finale of the same sonata, Schubert started writing the transition but eventually discarded it and started again, once he realized he was still in the tonic, rather than establishing the dominant. These examples demonstrate the weakening of the tonic-dominant axis in Schubert's harmonic thinking, and his general "aversion to the dominant".
5. Two passages in the sonatas were radically modified: the development section in the finale of the A major Sonata, and the middle section in the slow movement of the B-flat Sonata.

In addition to the differences mentioned above, numerous other, local modifications of the structure, harmony or texture were applied to the original material. In these modifications, certain uniquely 'daring' original progressions were occasionally toned down, whereas in other places, the new version was even bolder than its predecessor.