ABSTRACT
Franz Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703 contains three highly anomalous features with respect to Classical sonata-form conventions. First, it has a three-key exposition, i–VI–V, with each key articulated by a distinct theme. Second, the recapitulation begins in a non-tonic key, B-flat major, and with the second theme instead of the first; furthermore, this remote key arrives without warning, following a dominant pedal on D that creates the expectation of G major. The third anomaly involves the reappearance of the opening theme in C minor at the very end of the movement, after a C major restatement of the third theme and a codetta that would have been heard as conclusive. This chapter explores the relationship between Franz Schubert's literary grounding and his instrumental practice, and proposes that the Quartettsatz's unusual sonata-form design may be understood with reference to Friedrich Schiller's conception of the elegy.
