Introduction

This introduction gives an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book develops ideas not only of the outwardly visible major/minor effects in the music, but beyond the surface of Schubert's key structures and their tonal and modal colouring. It centres on the long-range implications of Schubert's transitional procedures for his movements as a whole. The discussion here rests on the perception that some of the fingerprints found in Schubert's music are essentially those of Mozart. The springboard for the discussion in of the present book is the recurrent explosion of violence in Schubert's episodic forms, as explored in my earlier work on Schubert's dream imagery. The book highlights Schubert's characteristic treatment of the sonata form second theme' a component of the form that was traditionally somewhat sidelined in sonata.