◎ Xie Xinyue
Schubert was a master of melody, and the singing nature of melody reached the height of almost unprecedented and unprecedented in his pen, whether in vocals or instrumental works. As grand as the theme of "Unfinished" Symphony, which seems to grow from the depths of the earth; as fresh as the melody of "Improvisation in B flat major", sung by the cute children of Springfield Flower Kindergarten in the movie "McDoudang", as if this was originally a children's song written for children...
There are two kinds of numbers for Schubert's works, the number of the work with the D prefix is the number edited by the Austrian musicologist Deutsch according to the chronological order of Schubert's work, and the op. work number is the number at the time of publication (also including the number published after his death), compared to the numbered work of the D head. Schubert's piano trio has four D-numbered pieces. Opus D.28 (B.B major), a single-movement piano trio composed in 1812, was called a "sonata" by the young Schubert at the time; after 15 years, he composed works D.898 (Op.99: B major), D.929 (Op.100: E major) and single movement D.897 (Op.148, posthumous, E major).
In terms of actual publication time, work D.929 (Op.100) was published before work D.898 (Op.99). Some readers may wonder why the work is published first. In fact, there was some controversy about the year in which the latter three works were created, and it was not possible to determine the exact time of creation of the work because no manuscript of work D.898 could be found. But the discarded anonymous slow movement, Op. D.897, still has a manuscript, and although it is not dated, its paper is the same paper as the manuscript of Artwork D.929. The date of creation of D.929 is November 1827. It is recorded that Schubert bought the paper before 24 September 1827 and used it until April 1828, so at least three movements of D.898 were completed before and during the writing of the Piano Trio in E major (D.929). But considering that the new slow movement was written in a trilogy, a form frequently used by Schubert in his later large-scale instrumental works, this slow movement may have been written in the summer and autumn of 1828. This explains why Op.99's work number was published after Op.100.
A piano trio in historical development
Rosen said the 18th-century piano trio was made for the "best" amateurs, although the gap between amateur and professional seemed small at the time, as did Schubert's piano trio. It has to be admitted that Schubert's chamber music, like his art songs, although not as large as large-scale works, is enough to highlight his skillful creative techniques and personal style.
Haydn's early piano trios (such as Hob.XV:1) inherited the Legacy of the Baroque, and later Mozart also wrote piano trios, such as work K.254, with strings basically only as an accompaniment to keyboard instruments. However, in the later work K.542, the independent string part can be glimpsed. After Mozart's death, Haydn's piano trio remained centered on the piano, with cello reinforcing bass support and violin parts performing singing melodies. Rosen explained Haydn's "stubborn" approach that the piano bass at the time was thin and weak, and the sustained strength was poor, so the cello had to be used to fill the bass area. On the other hand, due to the characteristics of chamber music itself, it is inseparable from the elements of the performer's showmanship, so that the piano trio can not only achieve the dazzling effect of piano solo, but also enrich the timbre of the instrumental music and the thickness of the texture. This also provided a stylistic reference for later Beethoven, Schubert and others.
In beethoven's hands, the piano trio gradually moved towards a more exemplary form. First, he expanded the number of piano trio movements to four, adding a harmonic movement between the slow movement and the final movement, and standardizing the composition of this genre with a sonata suite. In his most important piano trio, the Grand Duke Trio, he switched the position of the slow movement with the harmonic movement, and this change between movements was subsequently used in the famous Ninth Symphony ("Chorus"). Moreover, since the "hardware" problem of the piano at that time had been solved, it further provided the possibility for the liberation of the cello part: the three instruments were more balanced in the vocal part and had more "communication".
For Schubert, he had always had a feeling of awe and longing for Beethoven to be close. So Schubert's two complete piano trios also followed four movements. Although these two piano trios borrowed formally from the four-movement model used by Beethoven, they were very much Schubert's own personal style in the writing within the music. In later chapters, I will describe in detail the "Schubert language". The piano trio has basically reached the highest point of this genre here. We can't tell whether Beethoven is a higher player or Schubert is a master, we can only say that the two composers both agreed on this genre (the layout of the movement) and brought their own styles into the works separately.
A piano trio as a social carrier
There is a saying in the history of music: Bach of the church, Haydn of the court, Beethoven of the society, Schubert of Schubert. Only Schubert was completely free.
In 1827, friendships with the pianist Bocklet, the violinist Schuppanzigh and the cellist Linke rekindled his interest in the genre. When composing works for these friends, Schubert paid more attention to the independence of each part than his predecessors, and the melody of each part was very much in line with the characteristics of the instrumental music, and could also intertwine many materials to form an interesting interaction between the voices. Chamber music is a very humanistic genre that coincides with Schubert's own musical compositions. As for chamber music, what matters is not what instrument is used, but the person who uses it, and music as a medium of communication between people is like a cordial conversation between friends: a common topic or a loud argument or a whisper, and friendship gradually heats up in this coming and going.
In work D.898, the main theme of the first movement is played by the two parts of the string together, and the passionate theme soon develops between the two voices, forming a dialogue relationship between you and me. Just like an intimate conversation between friends, one person first says a point of view, the other echoes or refutes, and finally the two applaud each other for knowing each other, and the accompaniment of the piano part provides the mood and motivation of the music; then, the piano part plays the theme melody, as if another friend also joins the conversation.
The sub-theme starting from the 59 bars is very singing relative to the main theme, and the theme melody is played first by the cello, because the melodic lines are very long, the span between the tones and tones is large, and it has the characteristics of string melodies (strong singing, long melodic lines, and large spans between tones). This is also a major feature of the theme of D.898, many of which are very much in line with the characteristics of string playing, giving the strings a true independence, rather than simply imitating the motifs of keyboard music that are better at.
Because Schubert's themes use grown lyrical melodies, it is difficult to have many development techniques like the motifs, so Schubert's theme development has always been criticized. But we can find in the first movement of the work D.898 that this problem is perfectly resolved by the back-and-forth between the parts, as well as the constant change of accompaniment pattern and constant transposition. Through the singing and lyrical nature of the theme, the string part of the piano trio completely got rid of the control position of the piano. None of the three voices aggressively controls the others, nor does any of them succumb to the others, like true friendship.
In the second movement, the voices communicate more frequently, and after the theme is played by the cello part, the violin part takes over the theme, but the cello part does not become an accompaniment, but a new melody is interwoven with the violin part from the 12 bars. Subsequently, the piano part also states the theme, at this time, the two string parts in the long melodic line, singing and muttering quietly and quickly, and slowly accumulating the dramatic tension of the theme. This vocal communication and melodic singing make the three instruments in Schubert's piano trio equally important.
The third movement is trilogy, and the theme of the presentation part begins with a downward pattern, but does not show a sad mood, but is very cheerful, thanks to the fact that the downward pattern is quickly pushed higher. The middle of the three voices is more like a duet with a piano accompaniment, and the two parts of the string sound like they are singing similar melodies, but the phrases of each part are unique in terms of independence. The piano accompaniment is simple but knocks out the power between the music, so that the whole movement has the characteristics of the dance steps of the round dance.
The fourth movement is played by the violin in the treble area to play the theme melody, and after the sound area is slightly lowered, the cello part is also joined, and the continuous interweaving and response as in the first movement begins, and the mood is more relaxed and cheerful. In two four-movement piano trios, Schubert liked to use tremolos at the end of the movement to enhance the dynamics of the music. It is also possible that it is imitating the accompaniment pattern of strings in a symphony. The final movement is accelerated, and some stunt elements are added to each instrument, so that the players can also get a sense of fun and achievement in the process of playing.
Unlike Beethoven, which contains infinite power and profound connotations, Schubert's piano trio is like an intimate dialogue between friends. Both the melody and the accompaniment pattern in his works are more in line with the characteristics of strings such as songs, which also creates the personal style of Schubert's piano trio.
As a piano trio in late style
For Schubert's style, the New Grove Dictionary is divided into three periods: early 1810–1816; mid-1818–1824; and late 1825–1828. Among them, Schubert's late style is the most important in the last year. This year Beethoven had just died, and Schubert's own time was running out, and the breath of death had begun to appear in his works. The most famous vocal suite, Winter Journey, is the best proof of this, and it was after the completion of this most famous work that work D.929 was born. If one does not know in advance that this is the work of a man who knows that his life will be over, the listener may feel that it is written by a young man who is full of hope and morale and has a bright future: the whole work is full of passion and vitality. By 1828, Schubert's syphilis virus had begun to afflict him endlessly, causing his skin to fester and unable to be as active as before in the salons of his friends. Illness and inner loneliness, fear, and despair of death prompted him to write a vocal suite called "Winter Journey", which the audience could feel as long as they had heard it. But the high morale in D.929 contrasts sharply with the darkness of "Winter Journey", probably because this piano trio is written for friends, and Schubert wants to express the vitality and happiness that friendship brings.
When listening to this work, it is easy to remember the melody of the second movement, the theme of which is a slow and majestic Hungarian march, which is similar to the slow movement (second movement) of the Ninth Symphony ("Great"). Even more wonderful is the fourth movement, where we can hear the theme melody of the second movement twice, but at this time the majestic march style in the second movement is replaced by the melancholy temperament of the melody - this is due to the change in the accompaniment tone of the melody, in the second movement, the march style is derived from the piano's similar footsteps, and in the fourth movement, this accompaniment sound pattern is replaced by a wave sound pattern, which adds a sense of undulation to the melody, and also makes the phrase more continuous, reflecting the singing nature of the melody.
When we hear the theme of the second movement in the fourth movement, it is as if we have glimpsed the careful thinking of a composer again. But in fact, in Schubert's work, there is a smaller clue running through the four voice parts, that is, the repetitive motif. In the first movement, it appears in the connection section of the 48th bar, where the tonality is transferred to B minor, which is very similar to the theme of the third movement of the Piano Sonata in G major (D.894), which relies on the five-tone motive to strengthen the dramatic tension of the music. This pattern is hidden in the thematic accompaniment of the second movement. In the third movement of the Harmonic Movement, the motive appears at the junction of the theme and the 30 bars. In the fourth movement, this motivation runs through the main theme and is constantly developed. Moreover, this repetitive motif is used at the end of both the first movement and the last movement. This is a clever idea of a composer who is difficult to detect just by listening, but when we carefully follow the score, we can gain insight into the musical foreshadowing of the composer.
In addition, both the harmonic movements of work D.929 and D.898 use very precise counterpoints. The harmonic movement in Op. D.929 begins with a 27-bar Canon model derived from the second movement of Beethoven's Op. 97.
It would be unfair to say that Schubert was Beethoven's emulator. Not only is Schubert very different from his predecessors in the writing of melodies, but the frequent switching of tonality and sound can be said to be unprecedented. Of course, this is partly due to the lack of effective development of the melody itself, so Schubert was very keen to use the transposition technique to develop the music, which was also used by many later Romantic composers. Another point is that he also likes to change the time signature between movements. In the final movements of both works, he makes the music travel back and forth between two different time signatures. Together, these features make up the unique charm of Schubert's music.
Without his friends, Schubert might not have been able to write such emotionally delicate works. When we hear in his works the beauty that is grossly disproportionate to the suffering he has experienced, we cherish these treasures even more, they are really like pearls, in which the ordeal is only borne and experienced by the mussel shell itself, and we can only appreciate the beauty of the pearl and imagine the pain it has endured.