Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert’s complete piano sonatas, and in particular his individual and original approach to the traditional formal and harmonic models of the classical sonata form, have been thoroughly explored in the form of overview studies and individual analytical studies; they have also long since moved beyond the problematic tendency, rooted in the history of reception, of measuring Schubert’s formal strategies one-sidedly against those of Beethoven.

In Schubert research, however, the piano sonata fragments have hitherto been considered primarily in the context of the complete piano sonatas or of Schubert’s engagement with sonata form, or else in connection with cross-genre fragments within Schubert’s complete works. Arabella Pare now fills a gap with her study devoted exclusively to Schubert’s fragmentary piano sonatas: In doing so, she consistently combines fragmentary-aesthetic, source-critical and analytical perspectives on Schubert’s piano sonata fragments and examines the piano sonata fragments composed between 1815 and 1825 (from D 154 to D 840) in detailed individual chapters. By interpreting the fragmentary nature of Schubert’s unfinished piano sonatas not primarily as an expression of compositional failure or an artistic crisis, but rather by highlighting the formal and instrument-specific personal stylistic developments and potentials evident in the fragments, her work makes a significant contribution to a more comprehensive and nuanced overall picture of Schubert’s piano sonata output.