ABSTRACT
The emergence of the short, lyric piano piece during the early years of the nineteenth century is an important phenomenon in the history of piano music. In their search for the origins of the lyric piano piece, contemporary historians have usually pointed to three primary sources: Beethoven's bagatelles, John Field's nocturnes, and Schubert's impromptus and Moments Musicaux. In the Czech literature on the subject, Kahl's views have, unsurprisingly, been embraced enthusiastically, often with the further addenda of a "Czech sound" being present in Schubert's pieces. It is Vorisek's impromptus, sharing a common title with Schubert's impromptus, that Kahl used as his strongest evidence to argue the case for a musical relationship between Vorisek and Schubert. One should look instead to the inner movements of Schubert's piano sonatas and to his own untitled short piano pieces to find the genesis of Schubert's lyric piano pieces.
