Sonata in A minor (D.784)

Schubert certainly had reason to be unhappy in 1823, not the least of his worries being the painful symptoms of a then incurable illness. So it is natural to attribute the severe textures and bleak harmonies of the Piano Sonata in A minor, which he wrote in February of that year, to the grim state of mind he must have been in at the time. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that he did not have equally compelling professional reasons to write this particularly work at this particular stage in the development of his relationship with the piano sonata.

    Much of Schubert’s work on the piano sonata was concentrated in two short periods in 1817 and in 1828. The latter period was the extraordinary month of September when he wrote the three extended masterpieces in C minor, A major, and B flat major. The foundations of that mastery were built eleven years earlier. He had just set himself free from schoolmastering and, with access to a piano where he was staying in Vienna, he had worked determinedly on no fewer than six sonata projects in seven months. While some of them led to dead ends, others initiated structural strategies he was to explore again later. A particularly promising one in A minor (D. 537) was the first in what was to become a series of three highly dramatic piano sonatas in the same key.

    The second of the A minor sonatas (D.784) is in some ways a rethinking of the first. Whatever its emotional inspiration, it is a model of the clarity, conciseness and structural strength he had sought to achieve six years before. The two first movements have much in common: the energetic opening theme of one is echoed in the violent descending scales in dotted rhythm in the other;    in both cases there is a similar    brooding atmosphere at the end of the exposition and a similar onset of percussive violence in the development section. The superiority of the present Allegro giusto is attributable partly to its main theme, which has the advantage of being both lyrical and capable of dramatic development. Its easily detachable last interval, a falling minor third, echoes more or less ominously throughout the movement - in a way vaguely foreshadowed in the earlier work.

    Another aspect of the superiority of D.784 is that, whereas the main theme of the slow movement of the earlier work could conveniently be adapted for use in the rondo of the late Sonata in A major, this Andante belongs exclusively between this Allegro giusto and this Allegro vivace. Its structure is illuminated, like that of the first movement, by a recurring motif,which in this case is an eerie little chromatic figure in dotted rhythm and marked sordini to ensure a special colouring for it.

    In spite of the securely F major ending of the slow movement, the sinister implications of the sordini figure are confirmed in the unhappy final rondo with its main theme of one line of triplets in restless contrapuntal pursuit of another. As in the other two movements, there are contrasting episodes in major keys but they carry little reassurance. Certainly, it was all too much for Anton Diabelli who, though he knew how to make money out of Schubert’s music, wanted nothing to do with a work as grim as this. The first of Schubert’s piano sonatas to appear in print was actually the third of those in A minor (D.845), which was published by Pennauer in 1826.