ABSTRACT
Earlier, Schubert had often done without a piano introduction altogether—an economy that he lived to avoid studiously, and to regret; after 1821, on the few occasions when he published an old song lacking a piano introduction, Schubert would compose one anew. In mood, Schubert had refined the rather obvious misterioso of the midnight bell to an unforgettable, enigmatic solemnity, which seems to plumb infinite marine and spiritual depths. Since in 1828 Schubert considered some kind of piano introduction obligatory, he added three measures according to his latest pattern. An introduction all on the dominant is a great rarity in Schubert. Many writers on Schubert have pointed out illuminating vocal derivatives in the instrumental music. Schubert interpreted the cell in several different ways; alternation of major and minor triads is only the most obvious way. No other work hints excitingly at what Schubert would have made of thematic transformation, had he lived into the age of Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner.
