The unfinished piano sonatas of Franz Schubert

Abstract

The present study, intended for music-lovers and professional musicians alike, deals with a seldom explored side of Franz Schubert's oeuvre: his unfinished sonatas for solo piano, as seen from the point of view of a performer. Covering most of his creative career, these works represent nothing less than half of all of Schubert's output in the genre and show the evolution of his music for piano in an enlightening manner. Schubert's incomplete piano sonatas are presented here sequentially, as they were written, at the same time considering the context that Schubert's life and his work in other genres could provide. The present text does not especially focus on the unfinished nature of these works, but rather on the music which they contain. The sonatas are analyzed individually and in chronological order, mainly from a stylistic and formal point of view, but also with an attempt to show, through these incomplete pieces, the development of Schubert's music as a whole. This document further includes chronological tables of Schubert's output which clearly show how his piano sonatas are placed within his own career but also in a broader compositional context.