Franz Schubert and His World

by Gibbs, Christopher H. , Solvik, Morten

  As with most of Beethoven’s mature piano trios, which Schuppanzigh frequently performed and in some instances premiered, both of Schubert’s are in four movements: fast, slow, scherzo, and lengthy finale.73 The E-flat Trio is particularly formidable in the orchestral nature of the lengthy opening movement, the canonic intricacies of its third movement scherzando, and the cyclic structure and contrapuntal ingenuity of the finale. On first hearing the second movement, Andante con moto, may appear the most characteristically Schubertian, and it will be my focus here, along with the finale, which, as mentioned, is itself haunted by the cyclic return of the Andante’s opening cello theme.

  There is an important piece of background information about this theme that has fundamentally influenced discussion of the trio ever since the mid-nineteenth century. Schubert’s first significant biographer, Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn, stated in his influential 1864 biography of Schubert that the theme of the Andante “is a Swedish folksong.”74 He learned this, he said, from Leopold von Sonnleithner, an early supporter of Schubert.75 Sonnleithner related that Schubert was enamored of Swedish melodies he heard sung by Swedish tenor Isaak Albert Berg, who visited Vienna from Copenhagen in 1827. Berg apparently met Schubert through the Fröhlich sisters—Anna (1793–1880), Barbara (1797–1879), Katharina (1800–1879), and Josefine (1803–1878)—who were active in the musical life of Vienna and play a continuing role in our story. Josefine (“Pepi”) had been a fellow student with Berg in Copenhagen, studying with the Italian tenor Josef Siboni. Berg was in Vienna by at least 18 September 1827, when he performed at the Kärntnertor Theater.76

  Grillparzer had intimate connections with this group: he was related to the Sonnleithner family through his mother’s side and was very close to the Fröhlich sisters (Kathi was his “eternal bride,” and although they never wed, he lived for most of his adult life in the same building as she and her two unmarried sisters). Berg met Grillparzer at the Fröhlichs’ on 10 November and was in contact with Schubert around this time as well, exactly when the composer was becoming more involved with the poet.77 Schubert set only a few of Grillparzer’s poems, most importantly two multi-voice compositions: Ständchen (D920) and Mirjams Siegesgesang (D942).78 The former, written in July 1827, was performed at Schubert’s concert and it seems the latter, dating from March 1828, was intended for that event as well. Schubert’s increased engagement with Grillparzer’s poetry suggests greater contact during the months separating the deaths of Beethoven and Schubert.79 There is good reason to believe that Grillparzer and Schubert had contact in early November, when Schubert began composing the trio and got to know one of Berg’s songs, which he used in it. This was when Beethoven’s tomb was dedicated in Währing Cemetery, an occasion for which Grillparzer wrote another speech that the actor Anschütz delivered, as he had eight months earlier at the funeral.80 Although there is no documentation of Schubert attending, he did have a familial connection in that his brother Ferdinand supposedly designed Beethoven’s monument.81 It seems likely that Schubert, Grillparzer, and Berg were together exactly at the time when Beethoven’s tomb was dedicated and when Schubert began his memorial piece to the master. The confluence of events may in fact have been what inspired Schubert to write the trio as a tribute to Beethoven.

  Let us return to Berg and his role in the genesis of the trio. According to Sonnleithner:

  The famous singer, Josef Siboni, at that time director of the Conservatory in Copenhagen, had a pupil, Herr Berg, a young tenor of remarkable talent…. This Berg (who later on was Jenny Lind’s first teacher) came to Vienna in the winter of 1827–28 and had an introduction to the Misses Fröhlich (former pupils of Siboni’s) at whose house he often sang to a small circle. He sang Swedish folksongs extremely well, and Schubert, who heard him on one of these occasions, was quite enchanted with these Swedish songs. He asked for a copy of them and used the best of them as themes for the E-flat Trio. Schubert made no secret of it and, besides, he was rich enough in ideas not to be obliged to have recourse to plagiarism. And no one who knows the trio will regret that he was stimulated to write this composition by external influences. (SMF, 115)

  Some further details about Berg’s connection to Schubert come from information that Anna Fröhlich later related to Gerhard von Breuning, son of Beethoven’s good friend Stephan von Breuning: “Berg had composed excellent Swedish songs. Schubert was so captivated by his music that, whenever we invited him to spend the evening with us, he always asked ‘Is Berg coming? If so, you can absolutely count on my coming too.’” Fröhlich reported that “Schubert was so especially fond of one of his songs that he used the theme for one of his quartets.”82 To this, Breuning added a clarification of his own: “On the other hand, C. F. Pohl, the archivist of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and biographer of Josef Haydn, informed me that there was a reminiscence of a Swedish song by Berg in the Piano Trio, Op. 100” (SMF, 251). Scholar Gustav Nottebohm possessed further details: the song’s key was D minor and its title Se solen sjunker.83 Indeed, it seems that both Pohl and Nottebohm knew the song through a copy from the music collector Aloys Fuchs dated 1844 that is in the archive of the Gesellschaft but was overlooked or lost for a long time (see Figure 4).84 The eminent Schubert scholars Otto Erich Deutsch and Maurice J. E. Brown did not know it, nor did Arnold Feil, who edited the trios for the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe in 1975.85 In 1978 Manfred Willfort resolved the matter in an article titled “Das Urbild des Andante aus Schuberts Klaviertrio Es-Dur, D 929,” which finally presented the music and text of Se solen sjunker.86 Although it remained uncertain whether Berg himself composed the melody and/or the piano accompaniment, a score of the song was at last available, making it possible for the first time to determine its exact relation to Schubert’s trio. After Kreissle’s biography appeared in 1864, writers mentioned the alleged Swedish source without having access to the notated music, and thus it was widely assumed that the lyrical cello melody that opens the second movement was the Swedish tune. In fact, the first melodic borrowing only comes later, in measure 11. The inspiration for the lamenting opening theme, I believe, came from Beethoven.

  Figure 4. Isaak Albert Berg, Se solen sjunker.

  “To celebrate the memory of a great man”: The Keys to the Crypt

  The opening two piano measures of the Andante con moto are processional, similar to the accompaniments of various Schubert’s songs, notably Gute Nacht beginning Winterreise, composed early in 1827.87 The cello, the singing instrument, enters to spin out an extended 18-measure melody (see Example 1). The strings and keyboard then reverse roles for the next twenty measures to produce a first theme group of a symmetrical forty measures that is often characterized as a funeral march. Some commentators have pointed more specifically to similarities with the second movement, the marcia funebre, of the Eroica Symphony, which Beethoven marked “composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo” (composed to celebrate the memory of a great man); see Example 2.

  Some of the initial similarities between the E-flat Trio and Eroica Symphony are generic ones associated with funeral marches, including others that both composers wrote. In addition to sharing the key of C minor and the hushed duple meter opening, the slow movements of the E-flat Trio and Eroica have a processional accompaniment that uses the same distinctive dotted sixteenth, thirty-second note rhythm. The plagal relationship that Schubert sets up in the first two measures echoes Beethoven’s plagal cadence in measure 8. In both trio and symphony, a melody is presented twice to form balanced opening sections. In the trio, eighteen measures of the cello melody lead to eighteen featuring the piano; in the Eroica, eight measures of violins playing in a low register are followed by eight featuring solo oboe. In both pieces there is not only an immediate re-presentation of the same melodic material, but also a general brightening of the sound. In addition to the use of ornamental notes in the melodies, the contour is initially similar: beginning on the repeated pitch G, they move to C, ornamented by grace note(s), then up to E-flat befor
e returning to C. It takes Schubert four measures to outline this tonic triad, whereas Beethoven does so in two.

  Both movements relate to a long musical tradition, one particularly associated with French composers around the turn of the century.88 Dotted rhythms appear in other funeral marches that Beethoven and Schubert composed, including the latter’s “Marcia Funebre sulla morte d’un Eroe” (Funeral March on the Death of a Hero) from the Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 26, which he later orchestrated to use in the incidental music for Leonore Prohaska (WoO 96). The fifth variation of Beethoven’s Piano Variations, Op. 34, written shortly before the Eroica and a work signaling his “new path,” is also a funeral march, once again with dotted rhythms and in C minor. Schubert composed many more pieces connected with death, beginning with some of his earliest songs, and also wrote several explicit funeral marches. Both versions of the opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (D84) have a Trauermarsch in C minor. The fifth of his Six Grandes Marches, Op. 40 (D819), is a funeral march,89 as is another piano duet, the Grande Marche Funèbre, Op. 55 (D859), which shares with the Eroica the C-minor tonality, dotted rhythm, and opus number. The musical associations with a funeral march in Schubert’s trio thus encompass multiple parameters—tonality, meter, rhythm, cadence, melodic contour, affect, and tradition—all of which echo the Eroica.

  Schubert ingeniously combined these funereal features with other elements he mined from Se solen sjunker, most obviously three melodic fragments. Schubert, of course, is famous for his transformative use of song materials in many instrumental compositions, usually drawn from his own Lieder, but occasionally from those by others or from a folk tradition. He deployed these songs in different ways, sometimes obvious, at other times hidden. Though few generalizations can be made about why he did this so often and in such varied manners, Sonnleithner understated the matter in observing that Schubert was “rich enough in ideas not to be obliged to have recourse to plagiarism.” The issue points to larger ones concerning Schubert’s working methods, career trajectory, social interactions, and outlets for personal expression. In some cases, such as the “Trout” Quintet, he capitalized on the popular success of one of his songs to enhance the appeal of a new instrumental work, similar to the countless variation sets on favorite opera tunes so many composers produced. In other instances his use of preexisting Lied material was brief and allusive—it seems to have carried some purely personal meaning for him or been meant to be appreciated only by a small group of friends. Scholars have long recognized the possible hermeneutic significance of unsung songs within instrumental works by Schubert and later Romantics.90 We need to remember that many in Schubert’s social sphere were highly musical individuals even if they were not professional musicians.91 Amid such an intimate and musically sophisticated orbit, Schubert could count on people recognizing things that now go unnoticed.

  Example 1. Schubert, Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Andante con moto, mm. 1–20.

  Example 2. Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major (Eroica), Adagio assai, mm. 1–8.

  Such was probably the case with Se solen sjunker, which he called upon for both its music and words. The song provided Schubert with various musical ideas, some quite subtle, that also affected parts of the trio besides the second movement.92 The three melodic connections between Se solen sjunker and the cello melody of the Andante are given in Example 3, with the song transposed from D minor to C minor to facilitate comparison. The first fragment to appear in the cello part of the trio, the pitches E♭, D, G, with an expressive grace note before the falling fifth, comes from the “la, la, la” refrain near the end of the song. The second fragment is the most striking one: an unaccompanied octave leap, G to G, beginning in measure 14 that the piano echoes and is then repeated. These measures interrupt the steady accompanimental flow in both the trio and song, thus even more emphasizing the words “Farewell, farewell.” The last quotation is a more extended melody from the middle of the song with a dramatic upward leap of a tenth on the word “bride.”

  When Schubert employed fleeting references such as he does here it is often revealing to consider the words attached to the melody he quotes, which may carry some personal meaning or have been intended to convey some kind of message. The text reads:93

  Se solen sjunker ner back hö ga bergens topp,

  See the sun is setting behind the high mountain peaks,

  För nattens dystra skuggor du flÿr o sköna hopp,

  You take flight before the gloomy shadows of the night, oh fair hope.

  Farväl Farväl ack vännen glömde bort

  Farewell, farewell, alas the friend forgets

  Sin trogna väna brud sin trogna väna brud sin trogna väna brud lala, la …

  His true sweet bride, his true sweet bride, his true sweet bride, la, la …

  The brief poem can easily be interpreted with regard to Beethoven, whose death—the setting sun, a common literary metaphor, as in Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, scene 5—marks the end of an era, a sentiment that resonates richly with Grillparzer’s funeral oration. Most noteworthy are the words “Farewell, farewell” set to the falling octave leaps that Schubert uses as the principal motive for the movement. This “farewell” motive later generates the second theme, is developed in the heart of the Andante, and ultimately ends the entire movement. The prominent “farewell” motive thus reveals a further part of Schubert’s encrypted message to “celebrate the memory of a great man.”

  Example 3. Comparison of Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Andante con moto, and Se Solen sjunker

  Se solen sjunker needs to be placed within the larger context of the second movement in which traces of the Eroica continue to appear. The structure of the movement elegantly combines aspects of variation, sonata, and rondo forms. Schubert’s second theme, beginning in measure 41, unfolds over flowing triplets, adapts the rhythm of the “farewell” motive, and lyrically transforms the falling octaves into falling thirds, in this way suggesting a variation design. The movement is most often viewed as a rondo form (ABA’B’A”), similar to many other Schubert slow movements, including the “Great” C-Major Symphony, G-Major String Quartet, and several piano sonatas.94 Although this form is different from the unusual one Beethoven employed for the Eroica’s funeral march, Schubert nonetheless forges striking connections to some of the most important tonal areas in the symphony while also creating a variety of textural, harmonic, dynamic, and affective commonalities.

  After the double statement of the first theme, both movements move with little preparation to E-flat, the relative major (Schubert’s sketch reveals that he originally had a sixteen-measure episode in C major that he cut and annotated “in Es”; that is, into E-flat). After the reprise of the opening theme in the tonic (measure 84), a deceptive cadence lands on an A tremolo in the piano (measure 104). This jarring event has a similar effect as Beethoven’s striking interpolation of A at measure 158 of the Eroica, after the false reprise of the movement’s opening theme in G minor. In the trio this initiates a semi-developmental section of considerable anguish, moving to C-sharp minor, to F-sharp minor, and reaching a climax at measure 122, marked fortississimo (a rare dynamic for Schubert). The violence and anger evoked here is a characteristic instance of what Hugh Macdonald has called the composer’s “volcanic temper.”95 Repeatedly in his late instrumental music, including the “Great” C-Major Symphony, C-Major String Quintet, and A-Major Piano Sonata, Schubert interjects a violent passage that disrupts lovely lyricism. (I mentioned earlier Schumann’s characterization of the Andante as “a sigh intensified to the point of an anguished cry of the heart.”) Immediately following this terrifying passage ending in F-sharp minor the music abruptly shifts to the tonic major a tritone away for the return of the second theme, and all seems calm and well again (mm. 129ff). This second “B” section offers yet another formal similarity to the Eroica, which also has a luminous section in C major (mm. 69ff), where the oboe is accompanied by the same first-inversion arpeggiated triplets in the violins
as Schubert has in the piano part (see Example 4).

  By the midpoint of the movement, therefore, we have heard affective states common to many funeral marches: a slow procession in the minor mode with a dotted rhythm to begin, a contrasting lyrical section in a major key offering hope and consolation, and a passage of violent anger. Schubert’s surviving sketches for the trio show that all three moods were part of his original conception, although initially their unfolding somewhat differed in a movement that was longer and more harmonically varied. These sketches are immensely revealing. Long before they were published as an appendix to the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe, Maurice Brown called those for the second movement “the most fascinating and important of all Schubert’s manifold sketches” and expressed the hope that they would be made available so that people could appreciate “the marvelous—no less marvelous if partly unconscious—power of Schubert’s genius.”96 Although Brown falls into the trap of thinking Schubert may not have been aware of what he was doing, the sketches show that he initially intended, but ultimately withheld, an overt Beethoven quotation: the famous opening of the Fifth Symphony (mm. 79ff in the sketch).97 Here the reference seems all too obvious, which is probably the reason Schubert cut the passage (see Example 5).