ABSTRACT
In the D major Sonata Franz Schubert's sense of self is arguably no less compelling by distancing itself from the heroic, a reflection of his growing confidence to compose in genres dominated by Beethoven. While the first movement of the D major Sonata has been described by earlier generations of scholars as "heroic," a more specific comparison with Beethoven has seldom been made. Interpretation of the first movement of the D major Sonata will not identify a specific model but rather suggest evocation of some aspects of the heroic style. Two features of the opening eight measures of Schubert's D major Sonata, however, are not common to Beethoven's heroic style. The first distinguishing feature is the repeat of motif an in D minor; the second, the elision between the end of the opening group with the beginning of the transition in F major, the flattened median.
