Richibi’s Weblog

    “A Melody of Schubert“ (c.1896) 

 

           Francesc Masriera

 

                  ________

 

 

though there are other, and quite significant, 

composers who fit into this category, 

Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin pretty

much define, all by themselves, the 

Romantic Period

 

Chopin composed only two sonatas of note,

plus one more that is overlooked for being 

an early, student effort, not up to the

standard of his later ones, Chopin, rather, 

wrote mostly shorter pieces, nocturnes, 

études, preludes, polonaises, and more, 

that later became the very stuff of his 

reputation

 

Schubert wrote enough sonatas that he 

could be compared to Beethoven, indeed

it can be difficult to tell one from the other,

much as it can be difficult to tell Haydn 

from Mozart, products in either case of 

being both of their respective eras

 

when I was much younger, a guest among

a group of academics, where I’d been invited 

by the host’s wife, a co-worker, what I knew  

of Classical music, in the large sense, which 

is to say comprising all of the musical periods, 

Classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, 

and beyond, was all self-taught

 

is that Beethoven, I asked the host, about 

a piece of music he’d put on

 

that’s Schubert, he replied, aghast, as 

though I’d just farted

 

I blushed, deep red, confounded

 

Schubert, having great admiration for 

Beethoven, took on many of the older

composer’s lessons, four movements

instead of the Classical three, for 

instance, and many of the technical 

tricks of his forebear

 

but there’s an essential component of

their styles that marks one from the

other, an easy way to tell them apart, 

Beethoven always composes against 

the beat, Schubert following it

 

listen to the first few notes of Beethoven’s 

“Pathétique”, for instance, the beats are  

erratic, confrontational, the mark of a 

revolutionary, Beethoven was brashly 

proclaiming his worth, he had something 

to prove

 

Schubert, who was essentially playing

for friends, just wanted to entertain

them, which he did in spades, without

bombast or bluster

 

listen to his Piano Sonata in A major,

D959, for example, no swagger, no 

ostentation, delivering nevertheless 

something quite, and utterly, 

enchanting, everything following, 

unobtrusively, the beat

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard