Schubert Fantasie Article

You might also like

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 27

A Candidate for the Canon?

A New Look at Schubert's Fantasie in C Major for Violin and


Piano
Author(s): Patrick McCreless
Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Spring, 1997), pp. 205-230
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746862 .
Accessed: 17/06/2014 05:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19th-
Century Music.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
A Candidate for the Canon?
A New Look at Schubert's Fantasie
in C Major for Violin and Piano

PATRICKMCCRELESS

The Fantasie in C Major for Violin and Piano, distinguished company of the C-Major Sym-
D. 934 (op. posth. 159), occupies a curious and phony, the late string quartets, the string quin-
uncomfortable place in the corpus of Schubert's tet, the piano trios, the late piano sonatas, and
late instrumental works.' Finding itself in the the F-Minor Fantasie for Two Pianos, the C-
MajorViolin Fantasie seems a pariah, an inter-
loper in a neighborhood where it does not be-
19th-CenturyMusic XX/3 (Spring1997). ? by The Regents long. Alfred Brendel, in his essay on Schubert
of the University of California. in Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts, makes
'I follow the modern convention of listing the melodic this sentiment explicit. Referringto all the in-
instrument first in duo works with piano, in contradis- strumental works composed after 1822, Brendel
tinction to the practice of Schubert'stime: that is, Fantasie
"forViolin and Piano" rather than Fantasie "forPiano and writes, "With the exception of a few pieces
Violin." Schubert himself used the latter title, referringto written for virtuoso display in the concert hall,
the work as "Fantasiefilr Pianoforteu. Violine" in a letter such as some of the violin music and the Varia-
(21 February1828) offering the Fantasie and a number of tions on 'Trockne Blumen' for Flute and Piano
other works to B. Schotts S6hne. The autograph(Vienna
Stadtsbibliothek MH3977/c) is untitled. See Otto Erich [D. 802, 1824], nearly all these compositions
Deutsch, Schubert: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, Franz are on the same high level of accomplishment."2
Schubert:Neue Ausgabe simtlicher Werke,ser. VIII,vol. 5
(Kassel, 1964), p. 495.
When the Fantasie was finally published by Diabelli in
1850 as op. 159, it was entitled Fantasie pour Piano et 2AlfredBrendel,Musical Thoughtsand Afterthoughts(Lon-
Violon composeepar FranpoisSchubert.See Deutsch, Franz don, 1991), p. 58. The B-Minor Rondo, entitled simply
Schubert: Thematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke in "Rondo" on the autograph, was published in 1827 as
chronologischer Folge, Franz Schubert: Neue Ausgabe Rondeau brillant pour Pianoforte et Violon . . . Op. 70.
simtlicher Werke, ser. VIII,vol. 4 (Kassel, 1978),p. 597. See Deutsch, Thematisches Verzeichnis,pp. 563-64.

205

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH Brendel'spassing reference to "some of the vio- have tended to fault the work on three counts:
CENTURY
MUSIC lin music" surely points to the Violin Fantasie, (1) its technical difficulty, especially for the
as well as to the Rondo in B Minor (or Rondeau violin; (2) its appropriation (or misappropria-
brillant) for Violin and Piano, D. 895 (1826); tion, as some critics have claimed) of the poi-
both these compositions are commonly linked gnant Sei mir gegriisst as the theme for a set of
with the "Trockne Blumen" Variations as vir- virtuoso variations-a set that many writers
tuoso pieces that fail to maintain the standards have found wanting in substance and in musi-
achieved in the other instrumental works of cal taste; and (3) its formal structure.
the period. On the practical side one might simply ar-
Brendel'sassessment echoes the almost uni- gue that the piece is so formidable technically,
formly negative critical opinion that has al- for both pianist and violinist, that it is rarely
ways hounded the Fantasie. Schubertcomposed played. Such a view might make it possible to
the lengthy and technically difficult work, preserve a favorable critical judgment of the
which consists of four interconnected move- work, since its lack of success could be blamed
ments-Andante molto, Allegretto [all' on its excessive technical demands. The occa-
ongarese], Andantino [theme and three varia- sional proponent of this admittedly minority
tions on the song Sei mir gegriisst], Allegro view may be found both in Schubert's time and
[March]-in December 1827, presumably on a in our own. One review of the premiere praised
commission from the Czech violinist Josef the Fantasie as deservingof a hearing,but "only
Slavek. Slavek, who had been in Vienna at least in a smaller room and by an audience of true
since early 1826, premiered it in a public con- connoisseurs," and only when played by per-
cert 20 January 1828. At the premiere neither formers "wholly fitted for it"-something that
the audience nor the critics were pleased. One the pianist, Carl Mariavon Bocklet, apparently
reviewer wrote, "HerrFranz Schubert's Fanta- was, but that the young violinist, Slavek, by
sia for Pianoforte and Violin ... lasts rather universal consent, most assuredly was not.5
longer than the time that the Viennese are pre- Over a hundredyears later, Paul Mies echoed a
pared to devote to their aesthetic pleasures. similar opinion, praisingthe Fantasie as a work,
The hall graduallyemptied and your correspon- but claiming that its technical difficulty has
dent admits that he, too, is unable to say how prevented it from becoming better known.6
this piece of music ended."3Another was even That the Fantasie's ferocious technical de-
more dismissive: "A new Fantasia ... made no mands have always had a negative impact on
appeal of any sort. It would be a fair judgment its reception and programminghistory is hardly
to say that the popular composer has frankly disputable.The musicologist and violinist Boris
gone off the rails here."4 Schwarz,in an enlightening 1971 essay, dubbed
Why did the hall empty before the piece was some of the violin passages in the work-for
over? Why has the Fantasie faredlittle better in example, the arpeggiationsin mm. 529-32 and
the assessment of twentieth-century Schubert 583-86 in the final movement--"virtually
scholarship? Why has it failed to establish for
itself a place in the Schubert canon? The rea-
sons for its absence from the canon are com-
plex, but published critiques since the premiere
5Review from the Wiener allgemeine Theaterzeitung, 29
January1828. Deutsch, Schubert:A Documentary Biogra-
phy (London, 1946), p. 715. The poor early reviews of the
3Review from the Sammler, Vienna, 7 February1828. See Fantasie were at least in part responsible for its not being
Deutsch, Dokumente, p. 480. Translation from Alfred published in Schubert's lifetime. The publisher H. A.
Einstein, Schubert:A Musical Portrait (New York, 1951), Probst, on writing to Schubert of his acceptance of the E-
p. 276. The emptying of the hall before the end of the Major Piano Trio, was at pains to insist that under no
performancewas particularlydamning,given that the con- circumstanceswas the Fantasieto be included in the agree-
cert was a matinee. ment, since the Leipziger allgemeine Zeitung had given
4Review from the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 2 Slavek's performanceof the work there a negative review.
April 1828. Deutsch, Dokumente, p. 480. Translationfrom Deutsch, Dokumente, p. 512.
Einstein, Schubert, p. 276. 6PaulMies, Franz Schubert (Wiesbaden,1954), p. 115.

206

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
unplayable."7Apparently such an opinion has revolution conceived and carried out by PATRICK
MCCRELESS
ample precedent: in the late nineteenth cen- Paganini himself. Schubert's technical writing Schubert's
tury, the violinist August Wilhelmj published for the instrument, though virtuosic in its own Fantasie in C
an edition of the Fantasie in which he trans- manner, was in fact awkward and unidiomatic.
posed the Sei mir gegriisst variations in the third It was certainly no match for the wizardry of
movement from AbMajor to A Major in an at- Paganini,whose pyrotechnicalwriting was born
tempt to make them more idiomatic for the of a lifetime of experience playing the violin,
violin.8 And even in our own day, which boasts and whose treatment of it quickly established a
a surfeit of young virtuosos and recording art- model for all future developments, thus leav-
ists, the Fantasie may claim only a handful of ing Schubert forever excluded from the main
recordings and infrequent public performances. line of the instrument's technical traditions.'0
Schwarz's essay situates the Fantasie con- Whatever the effect of its technical difficul-
cisely in the history of violin technique. Its ties on its checkered history, the most frequent
place in that history is inseparable from the objections raised against the Fantasie turn on
new trends in musical taste that were apparent the claim that it is aesthetically flawed, a mis-
in Vienna, and in Europein general, in the late fire of taste or of compositional craft, or both-
1820s: the advent of the virtuoso, especially in especially with regard to its use of the new
the sphere of the public concert. A budding virtuoso style. Maurice J. E. Brown describes
school of violin playing in Vienna, the appear- the Fantasie as
ance of young artists such as Slavek and Ignaz
Schuppanzigh, growing public adulation of the a full scalework,containingmuchvirtuosowriting
virtuoso, the increasing prominence and mar- forbothinstruments.Butlike the "Rondeau brillant"
ket success of composers and composer-per- it fails to reconcilethe claims of such technical
formers who hitched themselves to the new displaywith those of his own genius.All four sec-
aesthetic-all were signs of a significant shift tionspromisewell at the start:the emotionalunder-
in taste. Schubert's composition, in 1826 and tones, the poised themes, the exaltedatmosphere;
but all too soon the rich embroiderybeginsandthe
1827, of the Rondo in B Minor and the Violin musicgrowsturgid."
Fantasie testifies to his awareness of the change
and to his willingness to turn it to his own Without doubt, the butt of the most withering
advantage. But Schwarz points out that, al- criticism has been the set of variations on Sei
though Schubertcomposed the Fantasiein what mir gegriisst. As with Brendel'scomment noted
was, for him, a virtuoso idiom, he did so only a earlier, it is here the issue of virtuosity that
few months before Paganini took Vienna by
again is somehow linked to the failure of the
storm in the spring of 1828.9 Paganini's arrival
piece. But not virtuosity in and of itself, or poor
in Vienna served to articulate the fact that not technical writing for the instrument-rather,
only was there a revolution in taste under way, "empty"virtuosity, as it were, applied thought-
but also a revolution in violin technique--a
lessly, needlessly, to a song supposedly unde-
serving of such treatment. In the eyes of critics
like Einstein and Brown, Schubert'sset of char-
7BorisSchwarz, "Die Violinbehandlung bei Schubert,"in
Zur Auffuihrungspraxisder Werke Franz Schuberts, ed. acteristic variations brillantes on Sei mir
Vera Schwarz (Munich, 1981), p. 90. gegriisst visits on this song the same indignity
8Schubert,Werkeffir Klavierund ein Instrument,Schubert: that Donald Francis Tovey deplores in the
Neue Ausgabe sdimtlicherWerke, ser. VI, vol. 8, foreword,
p. ix. "Trockne Blumen" Variations for Flute and Pi-
9Schwarz, "Die Violinbehandlung bei Schubert," p. 89. ano: "['Trockne Blumen'] has a pathos that
Paganini's first concert, on 29 March, was only three days makes us grudge Schubert forgiveness for sub-
after a now famous concert of Schubert's own works, in-
cluding "the first movement of a new string quartet," sequently writing on it a set of variations, which
possibly the G-Major String Quartet, D. 887 (Deutsch,
Dokumente, p. 503). Although the 29 March concert was
not well attended, Paganini's fame spread quickly in
Vienna, and he stayed in the city for four months, giving '0Schwarz,"Die Violinbehandlungbei Schubert,"p. 89.
fourteen concerts, of which Schubertwent to at least one. "MauriceJ.E. Brown,Schubert:A Critical Biography(Lon-
Deutsch, Dokumente, pp. 505, 515. don, 1958),p. 270.

207

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH was a bad thing to do; and writing them for the refrain at the end of each short stanza.'6
CENTURY
MUSIC
flute, which was worse; and making some of Schubert follows the poetic pattern literally,
them brilliant, which was blasphemous."'2 always setting the formula to the same melody
Brown especially takes umbrage at the (see mm. 13-16 of ex. 1, which gives the song
Fantasie's variations, dubbing them a "worth- in its original key of B6;Schubert transposed it
less display" that constitutes the poorest varia- to Aband significantly altered it when he trans-
tion set that Schubert composed, one in which formed it into a theme for variations in the
the theme is "progressivelyfilled in with scales, third movement of the Fantasie). For Godel,
in unison, octaves or chords, thick figuration, this melodic fragment encapsulates the circle
arpeggios, broken chords, trivial syncopations, of longing and despairof the Romantic subject:
ornaments, all without the slightest elevation an intensification of longing through the up-
or distinction."'3 ward motion to g2 (m. 13), then frustration and
A recent and more detailed critical view of denial of that longing through the turn of the
the variations is that of Arthur Godel, whose melody down through f#2and f2, and thus back
critique of the Violin Fantasie is the most ex- down to the tonic. Without acknowledging so
tensive and most trenchant that has appeared explicitly, Godel seems to rely here on an as-
to date.14Godel finds fault not only with the sumption that the melody has an impulse to
variations themselves-like previous critics, he continue on toward the octave, bb2;otherwise,
finds them shallow and meretricious-but also how could a turning back to the f#2 represent a
with how Schubert recontextualizes and rein- denial or lack of fulfillment?'7
terprets the song in the Fantasie. Forhim, what What this assumption gains for Godel when
is genuine and moving about the song is its he moves from the song to the Fantasie is as
poetic and musical representation of the Ro- follows. At the end of the Fantasie, the fourth
mantic "tragic-ironic" trope in which love is movement, the March, graduallydissolves into
fulfilled in the imagination, but denied in real- a return of the opening measures of the song (as
ity. What he finds objectionable about recomposed by Schubert for the variation
Schubert's co-opting of Sei mir gegriisst in the theme)-first in A6major, the key to which the
variations is that the song, with its touching original song is transposed in the Fantasie's
Romantic subjectivity, seems isolated from its variations, and then in C (mm. 639-64; see pp.
Romantic roots, and appears almost as a "for- 227-29, ex. 12), Godel's point (again, I make
eign body" (Fremdk6rper)in the anonymous explicit certain details that he suggests ellipti-
virtuosity of the Fantasie.'s cally but does not fully articulate) is that the
Godel focuses his argument regarding final statement of the concluding melodic ges-
Schubert's (mis)appropriationof the song on ture of the formula is not allowed to close
the melodic setting of the formulaic text "sei (mm. 661-64). Rather, the penultimate domi-
mir gegruisst/ sei mir gekiisst," and the use to nant is left hanging (melodically on 2, harmoni-
which this melody is put when it is recalled for cally on the dominant), and after a pause, a
the last time in the coda of the Fantasie. The purely conventional, presto, virtuoso C-major
poem, from RiMckert'sOstliche Rosen of 1823, stretto sweeps the Fantasie to an incongruously
is a Ghasel (or ghazal), a Persian genre of mel- brilliant conclusion. Such an ending to the
ancholy, mystical love poems, of which the Fantasie, according to Godel, utterly negates
most distinctive formal feature is a formulaic

'6SeeJohnReed, The SchubertSong Companion (Manches-


ter, 1985), p. 383. Riickert was a student and translatorof
Oriental poetry, the forms of which he frequently used in
'2Quoted(without source)in Brown,Schubert's Variations his own work. In addition to Sei mir gegriisst, Schubertset
(London,1954), pp. 53-54. three other songs from Riickert's Ostliche Rosen. On the
'3Brown,Schubert's Variations,pp. 85, 87. ghazal, see The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry
14Arthur Godel, "Zur Eigengesetz der Schubertschen and Poetics, ed. Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan
Fantasien," in Schubert-Kongref3Wien 1978, ed. Otto (Princeton,N.J., 1993),pp. 478-79.
Brusatti (Graz, 1979), pp. 199-206. '7See Godel, "Zur Eigengesetz der Schubertschen
'SIbid.,p. 202. Fantasien,"p. 200.

208

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Langsam PATRICK
Mit erhobenerDiimpfung MCCRELESS
Schubert's
Fantasie in C

. r
7

O du Ent - ri - ne mir und mei -nem Kus - se,

I
F;I

13

sei mir ge - gr St, sei mir ge - kiit, sei mir ge - kiit!

Example 1: Sei mir gegriisst, mm. 1-18.

the meaning of the song that is its centerpiece, the genre-the so-called Wandererfantasie (D.
precisely because it subverts the completion of 760) of 1822, and the F-Minor Fantasie for Pi-
the Romantic circle of longing and denial in ano Four Hands (D. 940), the composition of
favor of a (presumably unearned) triumph.'18A which followed immediately after that of D.
crucial feature of this subversion (not men- 934-the Violin Fantasie itself is, of course,
tioned explicitly by Godel) is that the musical easy to find wanting.19 On the one hand, it
motion of the coda is almost entirely ascend- lacks the obvious motivic integration of the
ing: indeed, at the very end the piano has a Wandererfantasie, since no motive of Sei mir
monstrous ascending C-major scale in octaves gegriisst ties its movements together in the
through its entire range, as though, in a bizarre explicit and readily apparent way that the fa-
deus ex machina, the melody's longing to com- mous rhythmic figure from the song Der Wan-
plete an ascent to the higher octave is suddenly derer does for the earlier fantasy-hence the
and inexplicably-indeed, almost comically-- frequent criticism that the song citation in the
fulfilled.
Finally, a third critical view of the work
faults it on structural grounds. Weighed in the '9Inaddition to these three well-known fantasies, some of
balance of Schubert's other two majorefforts in Schubert's earliest works are for piano four hands: D. 1
(1810), D. 9 (1811), and D. 48 (1813). He also wrote an
early Fantasie in C Minor, D. 2E (1811) and the so-called
GrazerFantasie,D. 605A, both for solo piano. See Deutsch,
'8Ibid.p. 202. Thematisches Verzeichnis,pp. 8, 351.

209

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH Violin Fantasie is less integral to the piece as a problem that the Violin Fantasie, as one of
CENTURY whole. Similarly, although the Violin Fantasie Schubert's late instrumental works, does in-
MUSIC
strings together four movements attacca, like deed keep the best of company, yet it has been
the Wandererfantasie,it abandonsthe rigorous judged to be flawed. Here I do not intend to
sonata argument of the earlier work and seeks question that judgment-at the end of the exer-
an entirely looser structure. In this sense, it has cise we may feel the Fantasie to be just as
been seen as merely an exercise in preparation flawed as before-so much as I wish to pro-
for the greaterwork that followed, the F-Minor blematize the piece in a new way: to ask what
Fantasie, which dispenses both with the quota- Schubert might have meant to communicate
tion of a song and with sonata rhetoric, yet through the form and genre of the piece; to ask
manages to find in its freedom a convincing what it means that he should have undertaken
formal structure.20 such a project, so uncharacteristic of him, in
virtuoso writing; to inquire about the nature of
II subjectivity in the work by questioning the
So the work has been censured for indulging ways in which it intermingles the subjectivity
in cheap virtuoso variations, for violating the of the Romantic song and the subjectivity of
innocent Sei mir gegriisst, and for failing to the Romantic virtuoso piece; and to speculate
articulate a comprehensible structure. Where on the question of whether Schubert was just
does this sordid critical history leave us, as tossing off a potboiler on commission to bring
late-twentieth-century musicians? If the in some much-needed cash, or whether he took
Fantasie is a flawed work, and we have a clear the piece seriously, in terms of the imagination
sense of why it is flawed, in terms of tech- and craft that he invested in it, but somehow
nique, taste, and structure,why even talk about miscalculated. Our search for answers to these
it at all? Why subject it to analysis and criti- questions will begin with analysis: with a few
cism? Why not let it rest in peace? It seems to remarks on the formal structure of the Violin
offer little hope as the subject for an analytical Fantasie. We will then wend our way into criti-
rehabilitation, according to the trope: I take a cism with a consideration of genre and the role
recognized or unrecognized masterpiece, un- of virtuosity in the piece, proceed still further
cover the hidden beauties of its logic and co- into critical territory with a look at the notion
herence, and thereby either justify its estab- of subjectivity, only to find we need to return
lished place, or plead for it a new place, in the to the music for a much closer analytical pass
musical canon. ForD. 934 seems defective from through the work, in order to answer the ques-
the start, and thus to promise little gain for the tions that the critical pass has engendered.
analyst, and little hope for its own admission The Violin Fantasie presents certain formal
to the canon. We can hardlyrehabilitate a piece anomalies that render its structure more am-
that was never well received in the first place. biguous than that of the fantasies that Schubert
Nor does the Fantasie seem promising for a composed on either side of it-the Wanderer-
new critical look: it has been picked over enough fantasie and the F-Minor Fantasie. As Alfred
already, its blemishes already more than suffi- Einstein has noted, D. 934, like the Wanderer-
ciently exposed. fantasie, is a structure of four interconnected
Yet problematic works can often reveal to us movements, but the formal sequence is no
as much about a composer, a style, and a cul- longer governed by the conventions of the four-
tural practice as universally acclaimed ones. movement sonata cycle, as it was in the earlier
We can learn much from the anomalous-from Fantasie, with its clear Allegro (sonata exposi-
the unstable, or from the unsuccessful. Thus it tion)-Adagio-Presto-Allegro structure (cf. fig.
is a not uninteresting intellectual and artistic la to fig. lb).21 Nor is the Violin Fantasie so
straightforward formally as the F-Minor Fantasie
(fig. Ic), which, although the first movement is
20Brown,Schubert Essays (London, 1966), p. 90. See also
William Kinderman, "Schubert'sTragic Perspective," in
Schubert:Critical and Analytical Studies, ed. WalterFrisch
(Lincoln, Neb. 1986), pp. 75-82. 21Einstein,Schubert,p. 276.

210

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
a. I II III IV PATRICK
MCCRELESS
Allegro Adagio Presto Allegro Schubert's
Fantasie in C
[Scherzo]
C-G c#-E AL C
(Exposition) (Development) (Recapitulation)

b. I II III (Repriseof IV (Repriseof CODA


Introduction) song theme)
1-36 37-351 352-479 480-92 493-638 639-64 665-700
Andante molto Allegretto Andantino [And.molto] Allegro [Andantino] Presto
A A A Dev. A Dev. Variations A B Dev. A B Dev. A
(aabab) (aabb)
C a-C A- a-C C- A6 C C C a-C A -- a-C C
A,-C

c. I II III IV
Allegro molto Largo Scherzo/ Tempo I
moderato Trio
f/F---a-f f# f#-D-f# f/F

Figure 1: Schubert's three mature Fantasies: A formal comparison.


a. Fantasie in C Majorfor Piano, D. 760 (November 1822).
b. Fantasie in C Majorfor Violin and Piano, D. 934 (December 1827).
c. Fantasie in F Minor for Piano FourHands, D. 940 (Jan.-April1828).

a simple ternary form rather than a sonata ex- ergy, behaves in a way like a traditional first
position, resembles the Wandererfantasie in movement (see fig. lb). This dancelike move-
that it is in effect a "double-function" sonata ment, however, is not in the global tonic of C
cycle. The sequence of movements, Allegro but in the relative key of A minor. Further-
molto moderato-Largo-Scherzo-Tempo I, si- more, it is not a sonata movement, as would be
multaneously fulfills the functions of the single- expected of an opening fast movement, but
movement sonata form and the sonata cycle, rather a looser structure in which a small part
such that the first movement, in F minor, works form (aabab) alternates with developmental
as an exposition, the two middle movements, material (A-Dev.-A-Dev.), the second develop-
both in F# minor, function as a development, mental section ultimately metamorphosing into
and the final movement, back in F minor, func- a transition to third movement, the variations
tions as a reprise.22 in Ab major on Sei mir gegriisst. The latter
Rather, in the Violin Fantasie a slow intro- movement, after the theme and its three varia-
duction (Andante molto) in C major leads to a tions, also dissolves into a transition, which
jaunty all'ongarese movement (Allegretto), modulates back to C major for a reprise of the
which, with its faster tempo and rhythmic en- introduction. The reprise, now varied some-
what, in turn prepares the final movement, an
Allegro that resembles the Allegretto in that it
is in effect a character piece-now a march
220n the double-function sonata, see William S. Newman,
The Sonata Since Beethoven (3rd edn. Chapel Hill, 1983), rather than a gypsy dance-and in that it adopts
pp. 134-35, 373-78. a similarly simple structure, A-B-(brief Dev. of

211

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH A)-A-B-(brief Dev. of A)-A.23The return of the duction, or the reprise of a first movement?
CENTURY
MUSIC song theme near the end preparesfor the coda. Again, both interpretations are plausible. Since
What is striking about this structure is its the reprise marks a clear return to C major
lack of formal clarity. Is the opening Andante after movements in A minor and Abmajor, it
molto an introduction or a first movement? Its sounds as though it might be a reprise of a slow
tempo, lyrical character, and brevity suggest first movement. Yet at the same time, espe-
that it is an introduction. But in terms of the cially since only the first phrase of the original
tonal structure of the piece as a whole, it has to two returns, now adjusted to end on the domi-
function as a first movement, since the Alle- nant of C, one can easily hear it as an introduc-
gretto that follows is in A minor. Indeed, the tion to the final Allegro, so that it now func-
introductory characterof the section has led at tions "correctly" by preparinga movement in
least one critic, Godel, to view the Fantasie as a the right key.
three-movement, rather than a four-movement The formal structure here lacks clarity in
work, combining the Andante and Allegretto yet another sense. For all its change of charac-
into a single first movement.24 However im- ter, the Allegro could be heard as a final ex-
probablethis interpretationmay be from a tonal tended variation, in C, on the variation theme.
point of view, it manages to avoid hearing the The opening ascending melodic gesture, the
Andante, which in reality consists of only two foursquare phrase structure (2 + 2 + 2 + 2 mea-
phrases--one in C major and one moving from sures), the full melodic and tonal closure after
C major to A minor-as a full-fledged first exactly four phrases, and the rhythmic similar-
movement, and it is consistent in that none of ity to the cadential figure of the eighth mea-
the other first movements of Schubert's ma- sure of the song highlight the close, if not glar-
ture piano sonatas and chamber works, includ- ingly obvious, relationship between the two.
ing the other two fantasies, has a slow intro- Indeed, Einstein interpretedthe Allegro as both
duction. On the other hand, the complete a fourth movement and a final variation on the
change of character that ensues with the Alle- song.25
gretto, combined with the fact that only the What are we to make of such large-scale
Andante is in the global tonic of C, forces us to formal ambiguities in the Fantasie?At the very
hear the Andante as a separate movement. least, we can see Schubert trying his hand at an
The question of the formal function of the extended instrumental work that would be in-
Andante arises once more after the third move- debted neither to the model of the single-move-
ment, when what seems to be a fourth varia- ment sonata form nor to the conventions of the
tion on the Sei mir gegriisst theme turns into a four-movement sonata cycle. In the Violin
transition that leads into a reprise of the begin- Fantasie, these bonds are loosened far more
ning of the piece. Is this the reprise of an intro- than they were in the Wandererfantasie,which,
strikingly original in concept as it was at the
time, nevertheless constitutes an absolutely un-
23Theformal divisions in the Allegretto and Allegro are as ambiguous four-movement structure in the
follows. Allegretto: A (m. 37, a small aabab form, A mi- standard sequence, and which features a first-
nor-C Major),Developmental section (m. 83, modulating, movement Allegro that preserves the connec-
beginning in A major),A (m. 182, A minor-C major),De- tion to the sonata tradition by functioning as a
velopmental section (m. 219, modulating, beginning in C
major).Allegro: A (m. 493, a small aabb form, C major),B clear sonata exposition. We could also see the
(m. 525, C major-A minor), Developmental section (m. Violin Fantasie as a stepping stone between the
541, modulating, beginning in A minor), A (m. 555, C
major), B (m. 579, A major), Developmental section (m. Wandererfantasieand the F-MinorFantasie:D.
595, modulating, beginning in F# minor), A (m. 611, A 934 abandons the first-movement link to so-
minor-C major). nata form, experiments further with uncon-
24Godel,"Zur Eigengesetz der Schubertschen Fantasien," ventional key relationships in the inner move-
p. 202; unlike Einstein, Godel views the Violin Fantasie as
a "Sonatenzyklus." The combination of an opening slow ments, and also preserves the earlier work's
movement in C and a faster movement in A minor, within
the context of a global tonic of C, exactly replicates
Beethoven Sonata in C Majorfor Cello and Piano, op. 102,
no. 1. 25Einstein,Schubert,p. 276.

212

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
idea of composing a fantasy around a song, this to view genre not in terms of classification, but PATRICK
time making the link between the song and the in terms of communication.26That is, granting MCCRELESS
Schubert's
instrumental work both more and less obvi- that there is an undeniable taxonomic function Fantasie in C
ous-more obvious by adapting the song as the of genre-we do need to know what the charac-
basis for a lengthy set of variations, less obvi- teristic features of different generic categories
ous by not having it cite an important motive are-what is productive, critically speaking, is
of the song in each movement. By this teleo- not simply to tabulate distinctive features in
logical account, what the F-Minor Fantasie order to classify some pieces as toccatas, some
achieves with respect to the earlier two fanta- as sonatas, and some as mazurkas, but to ask:
sies is to free the genre of the dependence on a What does it communicate if one entitles a
previously composed song, to free it also from a piece toccata, or sonata, or mazurka?The ques-
dependence on the single-movement sonata tion we should thus ask ourselves about
form and its standard key plan, and thus to Schubert's D. 934 is not "What features does
establish a more lyrical, less dynamic multi- this Fantasie share with other fantasies?", but
movement structure. rather "What does it mean that Schubert en-
To see the Violin Fantasie as a transitional titled the piece 'Fantasie'in the first place?" To
work between Schubert's two great fantasies is use genre in this way, as Kallbergpoints out, is
unexceptionable, so far as it goes. But surely it to establish context; that is, to appropriateit as
does not tell the whole story. For in many a way of hearing the intertext that the very
respects-the brief, lyrical opening Andante, title of a work implies. The intertext itself is
the formal ambiguity of this movement and both musical and social: the title conditions
the Allegretto that follows, the placing of the listeners to expect that it will probablybehave
first fast movement in the relative minor rather according to particularformal conventions; but
than the tonic, the returns of both the Alle- it also conditions them to expect that it will
gretto and the song theme later in the piece-- fulfill a particularexpressive or social function.
the Violin Fantasie is a much more radicalpiece And what did Schubert mean by giving the
than the F-Minor Fantasie. That is, given the piece the title "Fantasie"?Surely he meant in
sorts of changes that Schubert institutes be- part simply to communicate a sense of freedom
tween D. 760 and D. 934, we would expect D. from establishedforms, of spontaneity, of imagi-
940 to be even more radical, whereas it marks a nation, of dexterity-in short, of everything
return to a clearer structure, just dropping off implied by the verb phantasieren, or even by
any reliance on a sonata form and quotation of the earlier Italian sonar fantasia or Spanish
a song. taijerfantasia, at the very inception of the genre
What makes the Violin Fantasie more radi- in the sixteenth century. But his title must also
cal, if at the same time less stable and success- have been intended to contextualize the piece
ful, than its companions involves more than more narrowly for his audience, so they would
just its ambiguous form and the way it appro- hear the piece in terms of what they, as listen-
priates one of Schubert's own songs. That the ers in the third decade of the nineteenth cen-
work was confusing to Schubert's audience- tury, understood as a Fantasie. That under-
and that it seems confusing to us as well- standing must have at some level included the
turns on the way it situates itself in terms of
genre. And its generic features are interwoven
in telling ways with its play on the Romantic
26JeffreyKallberg,"The Rhetoric of Genre: Chopin's Noc-
notion of subjectivity and with its use of virtu- turne in G Minor," this journal 11 (1988), 238-61.
osity. We have seen above that the Fantasie is Dahlhaus's extensive writings on genre include discus-
in many respects a formal anomaly. But to un- sions in Esthetics of Music, trans.William W. Austin (Cam-
bridge, 1982); Foundations of Music History, trans.
derstand its formal idiosyncracies depends in J. B. Robinson (Cambridge,1983);and Nineteenth-Century
turn on our understanding how to construe it Music, trans. J. B. Robinson (Berkeley and Los Angeles,
in terms of genre. Recent work in the theory of 1989). See also Alastair Fowler, Kinds of Literature:An
Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes (Cam-
musical genres-particularly that of Carl bridge, Mass., 1982); and Adena Rosmarin, The Power of
Dahlhaus and Jeffrey Kallberg-encourages us Genre (Minneapolis, 1985),both cited by Kallberg.

213

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH notion, as it clearly does in the Wanderer- Yet, paradoxically,in the 1820s, at the same
CENTURY
MUSIC fantasie and the F-Minor Fantasie, of a binary time that the Fantasie experienced centrifugal
opposition to the sonata; the title says, then, forces that led it to spawn more and more move-
"This is a substantial, multipartite piece of ments that were less and less related to one
which a central distinguishing feature is that it another, it also began to experience centripetal
is not a sonata." forces that had the opposite effect: to take on
The Fantasie is one of the most volatile and aspects of the sonata and indeed to begin to
unstable, yet simultaneously perhapsone of the merge with it. Schleuning notes the gradual
most characteristic and vital genres of the early disappearance, in pieces entitled Fantasie, of
nineteenth century. As Peter Schleuning has the unique, improvisatory forms of the eigh-
shown, the free, improvisatory Fantasie of teenth century in favor of formal plans that
C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart gives way, in look more and more uniformly like sonata
the early nineteenth century, to a Fantasie that, cycles: sonatalike movement (often preceded
while remaining structurally looser than the by an introduction), slow movement, scherzo
sonata, replaces the total freedom of the late- or other dancelike or characteristic movement,
eighteenth-century Fantasie with an aesthetic and finale-a plan that well describes numer-
that depends sometimes on quasi-improvised ous Fantasies of Czerny and Kalkbrenner, in
variations on a theme, and sometimes on the the late 1820s and 30s, as well as Schubert's
imaginative interlinking of conventionally in- own Wandererfantasie and Fantasie in F Mi-
dependent generic categories into a single nor.30We can profitably view Schumann's fa-
multimovement work. Both of Beethoven's fan- mous Fantasie in C Major, op. 17, in the light
tasies-op. 77 for piano (1810), and the Choral of both this tradition and that of combining
Fantasy,op. 80 (1811)--are of the variationtype. different generic categories into a single work.
They feature an improvisatoryintroduction and The Schumann Fantasie works like a three-
a set of variations on an original theme; we en- movement (ratherthan four-movement) sonata
counter the same pairing of the title "Fantasie" cycle, connects its movements without a break,
and variation sets in the countless salon varia- and integrates into its structure not only the
tions on operathemes in the 1830s andbeyond.27 quotation from Beethoven's An die ferne
On the other hand, even more Fantasies of the Geliebte at the end, but also the puzzling Im
1810s and 20s-the precursorsof what Czerny Legendenton section of the first movement.
called the potpourrifantasy28-combine generic Now to claim that the Fantasie and the so-
categories in the most improbableways, some- nata gradually coalesce to a point where one is
times bringing in quotations from preexistent indistinguishable from the other may seem bla-
works. Dussek's F-MajorFantasie,op. 76 (1812), tantly to contradict my earlier point that
strings together a slow introduction, a free Al- Schubert carefully circumscribed the expecta-
legro, a menuet, a Marche solennelle, a prelude, tions of his listeners by giving his violin piece
a reprise of the introduction, and a Finale alla the title of "Fantasie"rather than "Sonata."If
polacca; here, and in other pieces of this sort, two genres begin to eradicate the boundaries
phantasieren suggests more the skill of com- that separatethem, what differencedoes it make
bining elements that do not really belong to- whether a composer calls a piece one or the
gether than it does to improvise freely.29 other? But that is precisely the point of
Dahlhaus's and Kallberg's work on genre. To
be sure, our fast ride through the history of the
27Peter Schleuning, Die freie Fantasie: Ein Beitrag zur
Fantasie from C. P. E. Bach to the 1830s has
Erforschung der klassischen Klaviermusik (G5ppingen, made it abundantly clear that, taxonomically
1973), p. 354. My discussion here is deeply indebted to
Schleuning's monograph,and to his introductoryessay in
Die Fantasie II: 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert,Das Musikwerk,
vol. 43 (Cologne, 1971),pp. 5-23. 30Schleuning quotes an anonymous writer in the
28SeeCarl Czerny's discussion in A Systematic Introduc- Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung who in 1813 wrote that
tion to Improvisation on the Pianoforte, Op. 200, trans. what had in previous years been called a Fantasie was by
and ed. Alice L. Mitchell (New York, 1983),pp. 86-106. then regarded"only as a type of sonata." Schleuning, Die
29SeeSchleuning, Die freie Fantasie, p. 355. freie Fantasie, p. 355.

214

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
speaking, Schubert's D. 934 is the perfect ex- But again, the nineteenth-century Fantasie PATRICK
MCCRELESS
emplar of the Fantasie of its time. If the work is is rife with paradox.We have already seen that Schubert's
anomalous, it is not so because of any failure to it was in some respects the binary opposite of Fantasiein C
exemplify the structural expectations of its the sonata. Now, inasmuch as the Fantasie was
genre. The linking of its generically disparate valorized as a personal statement-in the man-
types-lyrical introduction, the all'ongarese ner, say, of C. P. E. Bach's redende Prinzip, in
style, variations brillantes on a preexistingsong, an earlier generation-we might expect that in
marchlike finale, reprises of earlier material-- the 1820s the sonata would be a public genre
with a virtuoso stretto at the end: all this re- associated with a more formal rhetoric and a
minds us of the Dussek Fantasie and others greater dependence on a culturally sanctioned
like it, just as its set of variations reminds us of convention, while the Fantasie would be a pri-
the Beethoven fantasies and looks forward to vate genre associated with intimate personal
Liszt. statement. From the point of view of musical
Whatever the title Fantasie conveys in terms structure, this seems to be true: no matter how
of structural expectations-and well-informed closely the two genres merged, the sonata cycle
listeners must surely have had such expecta- tended on the whole to retain fully articulated,
tions-it more importantly conveys a set of separate movements in the conventional se-
expectations concerning the expressive func- quence rather than linking them together in
tion of the genre. For here, no matter how the manner of the Fantasie; and it generally
closely the two genres intermingle structur- adhered to the tradition of having at least one
ally, they remain separate expressively. What movement in sonata form. The Fantasie, on
remains of the older Fantasie (that of C. P. E. the other hand, although it often did employ at
Bach, for example) is its intimate connection to least one sonata-form movement, was gener-
the personal experience of the composer-a con- ally more free-rangingand thus by implication
nection to which the early decades of the nine- more imaginative and personal, in terms of for-
teenth century added the notion that the mal structure.
Fantasie is permeated by a poetic idea: that From the point of view of social function
only the Fantasie can capture the experience of and expressive intent, however, matters are
love or represent mystery.31 Surely this is a more complex-and complex in two histori-
factor in Schumann's well-known difficulties cally interdependent ways. Early in the nine-
in settling on a title for the piece that was teenth century the concept of the Fantasie, or
ultimately published as op. 17; whatever his of phantasieren, gradually outgrew its associa-
perfectly valid structural and generic reasons tion with a particular genre and began to per-
for entitling it "Sonata," he also knew that meate the notion of musical composition-es-
calling it a "Fantasie" would suggest a more pecially instrumental composition-in general.
personal statement.32A similar reasoning was Schenker's notion of composition as improvi-
probably at work in the decision of the pub- sation is an apt, after-the-fact instantiation of
lisher to entitle the intimate first movement of this idea, just as the accounts of numerous
Schubert's Sonata in G Major, D. 894, as a early-nineteenth-century writers claiming that
Fantasie, despite that Schubert himself did not the Fantasiehad penetratedinto all other genres,
do so. Likewise, there may be little doubt that so that it may hardly be regardedas a genre of
the desire to signify a personal utterance, as its own any more, is a telling contemporary
well as the desire to acknowledge the struc- one.33In the music of Beethoven and Schubert
tural similarity of these works to Fantasies he especially, this importation of the intimate,
knew, led Schubert to entitle the three Fanta-
sies under consideration here as he did.
33Schleuning(Die freie Fantasie, p. 358) cites an 1804 re-
view that refersto Beethoven's Eroica Symphony as "eine
31Schleuning,Die Fantasie II, pp. 16-17. sehr weit ausgefiihrte, kiihne und wilde Phantasie," and
32For a thorough account of Schumann's many changes of he supports with many contemporaryaccounts the claim
mind regardingthe title of op. 17, see Nicholas Marston, that many of the composer's middle and late works were
Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17 (Cambridge,1992),pp. 23-33. viewed as productsof phantasieren.

215

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH personal qualities of the Fantasie into the more the excessive virtuosity, the self-conscious com-
CENTURY
MUSIC
conventional, more formal sonata makes it im- positional craft of concatenating into a single
possible to claim for the music of these com- work elements that do not necessarily belong
posers the same equation that we can claim for together-are those that are in one way or an-
the music of C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart: other associated with the instability of the
that is, personal utterance in the Fantasie, con- Fantasie as a genre in the late 1820s.
ventional utterance in the sonata. Indeed, the In the social and expressive sphere, what
opposite often seems to be true: with the pos- ties these various features together is the no-
sible exception of Schubert's F-MinorFantasie, tion of Romantic subjectivity itself. If Roman-
the Fantasies of Beethoven and Schubert seem ticism marks the birth of the modern subject,
more conventional and extroverted, the sona- as is so often claimed, then the Fantasie is a
tas more personal and intimate.34 centrallocus in which that subjectivity becomes
Simultaneously, as the idea of the Fantasie conscious. For Schubert, of course, it was not
extended its tentacles into other genres, in a the Fantasie that was the primary form of sub-
related historical process the Fantasie itself jective utterance, as it was, say, for C. P. E.
gradually metamorphosed from an intensely Bach; it was the Lied. But in the Wanderer-
private genre for connoisseurs to one that fantasie, the Violin Fantasy, and the F-Minor
reached out to a larger public. The gift of Fantasy, the effects of the generic expectation
phantasierien, previously reserved for the mu- of subjectivity are clear enough. That subjec-
sically sophisticated few, became an item for tivity is achieved in the first two of the Fanta-
public spectacle. C. P. E. Bach "fantasized"on sies by importing one of Schubert's own songs
Hamlet's soliloquy for a roomful of cognoscenti. as a basis for each work, and by a deliberate
Liszt fantasized on Don Juan in front of huge appeal to virtuosic effect, just as it is achieved
concert audiences, with a corresponding ad- in the last by a studied intimacy and by a re-
justment of what was required,musically speak- placing of dynamic forms with lyrical ones. It
ing, of the listener. Now the focus is less on the is also achieved in all three Fantasies by a clear
improvisational and compositional skill of the striving for originality and coherence of formal
composer and more on the virtuosity of the organization, albeit within the generic con-
performer. In the Fantasie, perhaps more than straints of the time.
in any other genre, we begin to see the modern We might speculate that much of what has
functions of composer and performer tease been found wanting in the Violin Fantasie is
themselves apart.35 the result of a collision between a commission
Schubert's Violin Fantasie is positioned at for a virtuoso piece and Schubert's own generi-
the very center of this change: nine months cally conditioned expectations for subjective
after the death of Beethoven, three months be- utterance in a Fantasie. If, to use Lawrence
fore Paganini's arrival in Vienna. In it we can Kramer's apt phrase, the Romantic Lied pre-
hear, even feel, the tug of forces, the interac- sents subjectivity in action, that action can be
tion of which makes the piece the anomaly it heard in all sorts of musical and textual-musi-
is. That the piece is anomaly, as we have seen, cal aspects of Schubert's songs, and it can in-
has little to do with the way it exemplifies the deed be heard equally well in the instrumental
structural norms of its genre: it is a classic music.36 But his natural voice is not virtuosity,
1820s Fantasie-admittedly a genre that gave which he employs to good effect only in the
wide berth to eccentricity. The very features Wandererfantasie,some of the chamber music
that set it apart from Schubert's other mature and piano sonatas, and a few select songs, in all
instrumental works-the experimental form, of which other factors combine to contextualize
the ambivalent relations to the sonata cycle, and integrate it. Schubert lived on the cusp of a

34AlfredBrendel reminds us that only one of Beethoven's


piano sonatas was performed in a public concert during 36LawrenceKramer,"The Schubert Lied: Romantic Form
his lifetime (Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts,p. 69). and Romantic Consciousness," in Schubert: Critical and
3aSeeDahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, pp. 137-38. Analytical Studies, p. 201.

216

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
time when Romantic subjectivity would be Schubert was not just mindlessly fulfilling a PATRICK
embodied in the virtuoso: Paganini and Liszt MCCRELESS
commission, but that he was invested person- Schubert's
were soon to become dominant figures in the ally and artistically in the work: that is, that Fantasiein C
1830s. For Schubert, always in search of a pub- although he wrote it as a Fantasie of the 1820s,
lic, the new virtuoso style was too tempting to he also was guided by the demand for personal
resist, but too foreign to be comfortable. Just a utterance and for compositional skill that char-
few years after the composition of the Violin acterized the free Fantasie of the previous gen-
Fantasie, the Fantasie would be a centerpiece eration, and indeed that in the Violin Fantasie
of the virtuoso style. Yet for him, even in 1827, he betrays a certain anxiety, with respect to
the genre still had too many private, musically both the distinguished tradition of the genre
elitist connotations to write a wholly success- and his own distinguished achievement in it-
ful Fantasie in the new manner. Sensitive to the Wandererfantasie.
the forces that were pulling him in both direc-
tions, he found himself, in the Violin Fantasie, III
skewered on the horns of two conflicting con- How did Schubert meet the challenges of
cepts of the Fantasie that were, at least for the personal utterance, compositional craft, and
moment, incompatible. originality in the Violin Fantasie? He did so in
But what about his subjectivity as a com- part, of course, by building it around one of his
poser, pure and simple? What about his posi- own songs-and one of an intimate, subjective
tion with respect to the demand, carried over quality at that. He did so also by developing a
from the eighteenth century, that the Fantasie new and idiosyncraticform in the work-a form
exhibit phantasieren of the highest level, that that may indeed be problematic, but certainly
the composer prove his mettle by rising to the one that is original, and breaks new ground
challenge of communicating clearly in the ab- against the backdropof the Wandererfantasie.
sence of established forms, or, in Schubert's But to what degree is his craft successful? Can
own time, by linking together generic types analysis simultaneously explain the work's
that are not obviously compatible? Is there not critical failure and demonstrate its craft?
subjectivity here, and is it not a subjectivity Our assessment must begin with an evalua-
inherited and further developed from the tion of Schubert's recomposition of Sei mir
phantasieren of Schubert's predecessors? This gegrfisst as a variation theme. We have already
second issue of subjectivity-that of composi- observed one critical response to his use of the
tional craft-brings us closer to the Schubert song in the Fantasie: Godel's claim that the
we know than the issue of virtuosity did. It virtuoso peroration in the coda negates its Ro-
also brings us, paradoxically, closer to an un- mantic essence. But there are aspects of
derstanding of the Violin Fantasie. Schubert's very recomposition of the song as a
Paradoxically, because compositional craft variation theme that already erase some of its
is precisely what the Violin Fantasie has al- most distinctive musical features.
ways been said to lack. What it has, suppos- In the song, Schubert sets Riickert's six-
edly, is an aberrant form and turgid variations stanza poem in the following form, with the
on a song that is unrelated to the rest of the Ghasel refrain (R)concluding each stanza (text
piece; it has not been praised for its composi- and translation given in fig. 2):
tional sophistication. But closer examination
of the Fantasie suggests that Sei mir gegriisst is mm. 1-8 pianointroduction
far better integrated into the structure than has mm. 9-18 stanza1 (aR)
mm. 19-29 stanza 2 (aR)
been hitherto observed, and that as a result the
mm. 30-44 stanza 3 (bR)
whole piece gives evidence of a level of compo- mm. 45-60 stanza 4 (a'R [minor mode, expansion])
sitional craft for which it has yet to be credited. mm. 61-77 stanza 5 (b'R)
Whether this compositional sophistication mm. 78-99 stanza 6 (a"R)and piano conclusion
saves the Fantasie, critically speaking, is, of
course, a matter of opinion. Yet I would argue The progressive intensification of the succes-
that, at the very least, it serves as evidence that sive stanzas, both through making each slightly

217

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH O du Entri3ne mir und meinem Kusse, (O you, who have been torn from me and my
CENTURY sei mir gegrfisst, sei mir gekiisst!
MUSIC kiss[es], [might]I greet you, [might] I kiss you!
Erreichbarnur meinem Sehnsuchtsgru3e, You, attainable only to the greeting of my
sei mir gegriisst, sei mir gekiisst! longing, [might]I greet you, [might] I kiss you!
Du von der Hand der Liebe diesem Herzen You, given to this heart by the hand of love,
Gegebne, you, taken from my breast! with this flood of
du von dieser Brust Genommne mir! mit diesem tears [might] I greet you, [might] I kiss you!
Trinengusse sei mir gegr~isst,sei mir gekiisst!

Zum Trotz der Ferne, die sich, feindlich In spite of the distance, which, separatingus like
trennend, an enemy,
hat zwischen mich und dich gestellt; has placed itself between me and you,
dem Neid der Schicksalsmichte zum Verdrusse and in defiance of the powers of fate,
sei mir gegr~isst,sei mir gekiisst! [might] I greet you, [might] I kiss you!
Wie du mir je im sch6nsten Lenz der Liebe As you came to me once in the brightest
mit Gruf3und KuSientgegenkamst, springtime of love,
mit meiner Seele gliihendstem Ergusse with greetings and kisses,
sei mir gegriisst, sei mir gekiAsst! with the glowing warmth of my soul
[might] I greet you, [might]I kiss you!
Ein Hauch der Liebe tilget Rium und Zeiten, A breathof love dissolves space and time,
ich bin bei dir, du bist bei mir, I am with you, you are with me,
ich halte dich in dieses Arms Umschlisse, I hold you in the embraceof my arms,
sei mir gegrfisst, sei mir gekaisst! [might] I greet you, [might] I kiss you!)

Figure 2: Sei mir gegriisst, text and translation.

longer than the preceding one, and through in- account in part for the negative critical response
troducing musical contrast and development, to what happens to the song in the Fantasie-is
counteracts the static tendency suggested by that, whereas in the most successful instances
the recurring refrain, and imparts a clear dra- of Schubert's taking one of his own songs as a
matic structure to the whole. basis for a set of variations-the slow move-
In order to adapt the song for the Violin ments of the "Trout" Quintet and the D-Minor
Fantasie, Schubert has to reduce the ninety- String Quartet-he needed to make no adjust-
nine-measure Lied to a twenty-four-measure ments in the form of the songs, which were
binary variation theme. For the first part of the strophic anyway, here he is obliged to alter the
binary form, he simply takes the initial stanza, song radically and thus to do violence to its
aR, of the song (he omits the piano introduc- dramatic psychology. The song builds through
tion). For the second part, he extracts stanza 5 formal repetition, variation, the ongoing reit-
(b'R, mm. 61-77), now making certain melodic eration of the formula "sei mir gegriisst / sei
and harmonic adjustments, and completely ex- mir gekAisst," and other means of intensifica-
cising three measures (mm. 63-65). The ends of tion to the final strophe, which clinches the
the two binary sections, of course, rhyme, since stabbing pain of loss on the bitterly ironic words
the little refrain concludes both (see ex. 2). "ich bin bei dir / du bist bei mir / ich halte dich
Even if we concede that Schubert had of in dieses Armes Umschltisse." The variation
necessity to trim and simplify the song in order theme, on the other hand, flattens this dra-
to turn it into a variation theme, it is difficult matic process into a seemingly endless pattern
not to judge the transformation as resulting in of repetition-especially as the refrain appears
a net loss. A crucial point here-one that may at the end of both parts of the binary form, and

218

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
352 Andantino PATRICK
MCCRELESS
Schubert's
Andantino
Fantasiein C

0 -- -r 1y 1 rA
l

p
P
F 1 mi -;f - L) I A J

372 ppI

I I I
Scresc Icesc I

379

7 " t•i• • MM FNU


: r, ,r '< F- r , , I Li i , ' ifi
p-, ,'-, i i '
..M_i. . ,.' .

decresc. ! f 1
pe
I. w•

Example 2: Violin Fantasie, movt. III,theme (mm. 352-85).


219

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH as each part is always repeated. Even the song these rhythmic and harmonic regularities oc-
CENTURY curs in mm. 376-79. Again, the fact that we
MUSIC itself, because it closely follows the structure
of the poem, holds a threat of becoming too hear the whole structure four times (theme
repetitive. plus three variations), each time with both
Adding to the liabilities ensuing from con- halves repeated, tends to accentuate the rhyth-
stant repetition is a certain regularity of har- mic and harmonic predictability, and even to
mony. The harmonic root progression that un- render it irritating. (Of course, it is also pos-
derlies the opening section of the song (and sible that the whole point here is to draw us
thus of the variation theme as well) begins into the vortex of the variations, entrappingus
with a sequential pair of descending fourths (I- in a loop of circular repetitions from which we
V over four measures, vi-III over two measures), cannot escape-a ploy not unusual for late
to which is appended a V-I cadence (two mea- Schubert,and one that would suggest our inter-
sures), so that the progression as a whole con- preting his harmonic moves in a more positive
sists of three descending bass leaps: I-V, vi-III light.)
(V/vi), V-I (see ex. 2, mm. 352-59). An oddity of Perhapsthe most telling change wrought by
the progression is that, although not literally Schubert in the variation theme is what he
circular, it seems as though it is. For example, does to the melody-a change that may seem
if the chromatically marked V/vi were to re- insignificant until we realize its ramifications.
solve normally, rather than making the poi- In Sei mir gegriisst, as in many other of
gnant move directly to V and thus forcing the Schubert'sLieder,a wonderfully expressive fea-
#5 to behave as 16, the progression would be ture is the relation between the top voice of the
palindromic (I-V-vi-V/vi-vi-V-I). Or, if the se- piano accompaniment and the vocal line. The
quence of descendingfourths,each a thirdlower, piano introduction lays out most of the essen-
were to continue, a much longer (and quite tials. The melody begins on 3, and its charac-
improbable)diatonic sequence would result (I- teristic motion is the sequential 3-#4-5, 2-3-4,
V-vi-V/vi-IV-I-ii . . . IV-I). Either way, the followed by the arpeggiation up to 6 (in struc-
fifth chord, the V, breaks the established pat- tural melodic tones; the actual melody reaches
tern. Yet ironically, this short-circuitingof what the octave) and the descent back to the tonic.
could have been a perfectly circular progres- In Schenkerian terms, the melody's
sion does not have the effect of mitigating the middlegroundline in mm. 1-4 proceeds from 5
impression of circularity. On the contrary, the to 4, at which point an inner voice leaps above
continual reiterationof the successive harmonic this already established voice to achieve 6, af-
pairs I-V, vi-III, V-I, provides both a sense of a ter which the voices are separated into two
circularjourney and a sense of brokenness, thus different strands (see linear analysis in ex. 3, cf.
serving as a harmonic analogue to Godel's me- score in ex. 1).
lodic image of a (damaged)Romantic circle of Another crucial feature is rhythm: the as-
longing and despair. cending gestures in the right hand are always
Compounding the harmonic predictability on offbeats, syncopated against the left hand,
is that Schubert's recomposition of the fifth which always plays on the beat. When the voice
strophe manages to begin the second binary enters, it begins not on 3 but on 1. Since the
part of the variation theme with a transposed melodic line of the piano's right hand retains
retrogradeof the sequential four-chordpattern the 3-#4-5, 2-3-4 motion, the singer (a tenor,
that begins the first part: V-i4-VII-bIII,as op- presumably-we can assume a male subject
posed to I-V-vi-III (V/vi). (See ex. 2, mm. 372- here) in effect articulates an inner voice, a third
75.) What is gained by this clever move in terms below that of the piano, in its first four mea-
of harmonic and motivic coherence is perhaps sures.37 But on the words "sei mir gegrtisst / sei
counterbalanced by the monotony resulting
from an unyielding dependence on two-mea-
sure rhythmic units and on sequential root- 37Sincethe argument here turns on melodic scale-degree
function rather than literal register, I will refer to the
position bass motions of fourths and fifths. In tenor's line as being a third below the upper voice of the
the entire variation theme, the only relief from piano, even though the interval is actually a tenth.

220

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
PATRICK
A-- A MCCRELESS
Schubert's
Fantasiein C

Example 3: Linearanalysis of Sei mir gegriisst, mm. 1-8.

mir gekiisst," he reaches to the higher register and each time it turns out that he does not
established by the piano, even though the pi- really establish the upper register anyway, but,
ano remains, on the whole, a third higher. on the words "sei mir gekiisst," leaps back
Rhythmically the voice sings, of course, on the down to the tonic from which he came, skip-
beat, while the melodic piano part remains off ping the intervening steps of the descent.
the beat. In strophes 3, 4, and 5, the singer attempts to
Now when we compare the variation theme initiate a substantial (middleground)ascent that
to the song, it is clear that Schubert has chosen will legitimately attain the higher register, but
the upper, piano line rather than the vocal line without success (see analysis in ex. 4). But in
for the melody; how could he do otherwise, the final strophe, a'R (mm. 78-97), inspired by
since the opening augmented second of the ini- the words "Ein Hauch der Liebe tilget Riium
tial measure of the voice part in effect identi- und Zeiten"-words that seem to connect him
fies it as a subsidiary, inner voice. Schubert to his beloved in reality (in space and time)
also chromaticizes the new melodic line, 3-4- rather than in his imagination, he adopts one
#4-5, thereby adding a slight schmalzig touch final strategy (see ex. 5). He shifts, for the one
lacking in the original, and he necessarily places and only time in the song, to the present in-
it on rather than off the beat. dicative mood ("ich bin bei dir, du bist bei
All these changes are perfectly reasonable mir," mm. 82-85), having thus far used either
ones to make in changing the song to a varia- the subjunctive mood (in the formula) or the
tion theme for instruments. Yet these ostensi- past tense (in the middle strophes). And it
bly innocent alterations of detail result in a works! Forfour blissful measures (mm. 82-85),
transformation of expressive meaning, espe- the singer is suddenly in the upper register for
cially if in the first place we understand how which he has always longed (3-#4-5,2-3-4), the
the original details structuredmeaning. Because very same register as the melodic voice of the
the normative melodic motion at the begin- piano. Reactingto this unexpectedly happy situ-
ning of the song is 3-#t-5? and the singer always ation, the harmonic rhythm quadruples from
has the third below, 1-#2-3, we might well in- what it has always been in support of this me-
terpret the upper line as representing what the lodic figure (two harmonies to the measure
singer longs for but cannot attain: the beloved, rather than one every two measures), and for
"du Entrif3ne mir und meinem Kusse." And the first and only time in the song it alters its
the Entriflung is literal. She always hovers in a sequential pattern to a conventional circle-of-
space (the higher register)and time (the offbeat) fifths rather than a sequence of pairs of thirds.
that he cannot attain. In his hopes ("sei mir But the fortissimo bass C6 that breaks into
gegriisst / sei mir gekiisst") he can, through an the unreal and unprecedented harmonic se-
act of will, in an unnatural motion that goes quence (a sequence too "natural"for this song)
against the grain of the musical motion already jolts the singer into a desperate fear that he is
established-that is, in what Schenker would not in the real, indicative present, but the delu-
call an Obergreifung-reach up to that higher sional present. The crashing CGmotivates yet
register. But then the piano goes even higher, another Ubergreifung, this time with both

221

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH
CENTURY bR
MUSIC

30 34 39 42
3 4 3

45 49 54 57

61 65 72 75

Example 4: Linearanalysis of Sei mir gegrfisst, strophes 3-5 (mm. 30-77).

singer and the top voice of the piano in the Thus far, analysis has helped us to flesh out
same register. But now the reaching-overis not and perhapsexplain certain aspects of the nega-
to diatonic 6, as always before, but to 66;and tive critical responses to the Fantasie, espe-
while the singer shrieks the melodic gb, the cially those that find it wanting in its adapta-
piano's right hand hammers the same note re- tion of Sei mir gegrfisst. Can analysis at the
peatedly, as if momentarily to help him hold same time offer evidence of Schubert's compo-
on to the illusions, "ich bin bei dir, du bist bei sitional craft in the work, evidence of his tak-
mir," and "ich halte dich in dieses Arms ing it as a serious challenge to his powers of
Umschltisse." The final irony involves this gb: phantasieren, in the tradition of his most ac-
after countless f#s in the piece have resolved complished predecessors?
down to f, at the climactic moment this wrench- Strangely, it can. In spite of its flaws, the
ing melodic gb (the only one in the song) is Violin Fantasie exhibits a formidable level of
enharmonically changed to an f#,which for the compositional skill. Despite the claims of crit-
first time resolves correctly, to g, only to see ics to the contrary, the song Sei mir gegriisst is
the g fall through f# and f and, in the inevitable indeed integrated into the fabric of the compo-
return the status quo, leap back down to the sition, but in a different way from the integra-
tonic on the (again subjunctive) "sei mir tion of the song "Der Wanderer" into the
gekiisst." Wandererfantasie.The crucial differenceis that
All this, of course, is lost in the Violin the motivic connection of the song to the rest
Fantasie's theme and variations, which of the piece is no longer on the surface, as was
smoothes over the rhythm, regularizesthe form, the case in the earlier Fantasie; there the con-
standardizes the harmony, and, most of all, nection is hard to miss, since a single motive
eliminates altogether the play of registers.What from the song serves as a head motive for each
critics surely miss in the Fantasie's version of of its movements. Rather, the connections are
Sei mir gegriisst is not only its expressive ef- more hidden, more subtle: more, I might sug-
fect, but the extraordinarycraft that made that gest, in the manner of Schumann's concealed
effect possible in the song. motivic work in the early piano music; or, from

222

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
78
PATRICK
MCCRELESS
Schubert's
I I , I I Fantasiein C
Ein Hauch der Lie be til - get Rdum' und Zei ten, ich bin bei

83

dir, du bist bei mir, ich hal - te dich in die - ses Arms __ Um -

A
89 I
J.

schlus - se, sei mir ge - grift, sei mir ge -

~- PP

94

S•
kiifgt, sei mir ge - ktiift!

Example 5: Sei mir gegrfisst, final strophe (mm. 78-99).

a theoretical point of view, in the manner of 6), and the previously mentioned similarity of
Schenker's verborgene Wiederholungen. the opening of the final Allegro and the first
All that the Violin Fantasie has yielded pre- phrase of the song-not much reward for a few
viously with respect to motivic connectedness decades of analytical effort. Yet a closer hear-
is the simple relation of the ascending thirds of ing reveals a number of striking connections,
the beginning of "Sei mir gegrtisst" to those of both harmonic and melodic, just below the sur-
the Andante molto and the Allegretto (see ex. face, and quite obvious once we notice them.
223

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH a. Openingmeasuresof variationtheme. formulaic refrain of the song, and thus of the
CENTURY variation theme as well. These same scale de-
MUSIC
A .I A , grees, in the global tonic of C
(the spelling and harmonic function major-A-A--G
of the notes
b. Openingmeasuresof Allegro.
here, of course, are different from what they are
in the song and variation theme), initiate the
first bass, and thus harmonic motion in the
Fantasie. And the bass motion in the middle of
Example 6: Melodic similarity of variation
theme and Allegro (March)theme. the long opening phrase of the Andante molto
passes through these same sensitive notes, now
in the ascending form G-G#-A, in mm. 14-16,
For example, as alreadyseen, the harmonic pro- on the way to the cadence that overlaps with
gression of the first phrase of the song is I-V- the beginning of the second phrase (see ex. 10).38
vi-III (V/vi)-V-I. Transposed to C, this same A particularly elegant relationship is that
progression underlies the second of the two between the chromatic ascent from the third to
long phrases of the Andante molto, since it is the fifth melodic scale degree in the first two
used as a simple means to move from the C measures of the variation theme and the chro-
major of the beginning to the A minor of the matically descending "tenor" voice of the pi-
Allegretto second movement (see ex. 7). The ano accompaniment in the tremolo chords at
same simple chords, now in A minor and in a the beginning of the piece (ex. 11)--a figure
different order, undergird the opening section that is also transferredto the bass in mm. 19
of the Allegretto (ex. 8). In the second strain of and 21.
the Allegretto theme, the bass line (A-E-G-C) This ascending-thirdfigure also plays a cru-
is a literal transposition of the F-C-EVAbcon- cial role in the final turn to C major after the
clusion of the Sei mir gegriisst formula, al- reprise of the song near the end of the Fantasie.
though now put to different harmonic ends (i- As noted early in this essay, at m. 639 the song
III6-V/III-IIIin A minor; see mm. 53-56)-the theme returns in its original key of Ab major,
inverted chords allow the bass el-gl-c2 to be and its first half is stated in full (although now
canonic with the violin. its two-measure tag is extended to four mea-
sures, mm. 649-52). Then at m. 653, the violin
repeats the beginning of the theme, now with a
18 22

ivt- J(v/ vi-


diatonic variant of the ascent from 3 to 5 in Ab.
I
This time, however, rather than sequencing
V-- vi--HIII(V/vi
this motion by moving it down a step, as it
Example 7: Harmonic/Bass analysis of always has before, the melody continues to
Andante molto, second phrase (mm. 18-36). ascend, over an A?-G motion in the bass,
through E-F-G-that is, through3-4-5 in C, so
On the melodic front, a much richer net-
work of motivic connections links the four
movements. A link already noted is that be-
38Inhis classic essay "A Romantic Detail in Schubert's
tween Sei mir gegriisst and the first eight mea- Schwanengesang," Joseph Kerman cites the Violin
sures of the final movement. Another is the Fantasie-along with, for example, the song Am Meer and
connection of these eight initial measures of the first movement of the String Quintet-as works in C
majorthat begin with a strikingharmonicprogression(usu-
the finale and the violin melody of the Andante ally tonic-"common-tone" diminished seventh-tonic) that
molto-a hidden, but nonetheless striking rela- establishes a mood but is structurallyunrelated to the rest
of the piece. Although I show that important linear pat-
tionship (ex. 9). terns that create the progressionhere are motivically re-
A further relation between the Andante lated to other parts of the Fantasie, Kerman'spoint about
molto and the song involves the chromatic step the harmony remains perfectly valid: the colorful chords
between the fifth and sixth scale degrees. We of the beginning never recur, except when this introduc-
tion returns near the end of the work. Kerman'sessay is
have already noted that the chromatic descent reproducedin Schubert: Critical and Analytical Studies,
&6-#-5 is the crucial melodic element of the pp. 48-64.

224

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
37
PATRICK
MCCRELESS
Schubert's
Fantasiein C
Allegretto

43

II

r-

57

bP

Example 8: Allegretto, mm. 37-63.

that the two ascending third figures, one in Ab succession in Aband C: I-V-VI-III(V/VI)-V-Iin
and one in C, are linked together (see ex. 12,
Abmajorin mm. 639-48 (the last four measures
which gives the music from m. 639 to the end are repeated in mm. 649-52); and the same
of the Fantasie). progression(with the LVIof mm. 653-54 substi-
The reprise of the song and its sudden turn tuting for the initial tonic) in C major in mm.
to Abfrom C is also, of course, crucial from a 653-60. What this tonal reprise accomplishes
tonal point of view. For here the fundamental is a direct juxtaposition of the three structural
harmonic progressionof the opening of the song, keys of the song in a single progression (see
to which we have heard references in both the harmonic analysis in ex. 12, mm. 639-60, and
introduction and the Allegretto, is stated in reduction in ex. 13). The C-majortriad, it turns

225

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH Andantemolto
CENTURY
MUSIC a.

AAllegro
b. A

--TI II - I! I I I tl ,e
;- ' -F

Example 9: Melodic relation of Andante molto theme and Allegro theme.

Andantemolto

Violin
Andantemolto
simile

Piano P

A _ ______

Example 10: Andante molto, mm. 1-9.

m. 1 2 3 4 5 mm. 19 and21 cf. variationtheme

A A A

5 #4 44
tip-

Example 11: Chromatic third figure in Andante molto and variation theme.

226

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
639 Allegretto PATRICK
I I MCCRELESS
A0 1- Schubert's
, , .
Fantasiein C
Allegretto

644I

vv
649

: IC0 -:-V

:I
IA WO•0
" Iffa ......
657
A44
I
PJcec _OW

-•7 -:

Example 12: Violin Fantasie, mm. 639-end.

227

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH 661 Presto
CENTURY
MUSIC

667

A1 t

67

2........... . ..

r- i
RK r r

S? I 1I
678 ,...
•,,

de resc. P r

Idecresc. P3
P

Example 12 (continued)
228

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
689 s PATRICK
MCCRELESS
i : Schubert's
cre-- - -- - -. - .-----scen. ---------------- do cresc Fantasiein C

cre------------------ scen-------------------- do cresc

695

Example 12 (continued)

IIFl f

A6: I V vi
V/i =C:I V vi
V/vi V I
a: i V

Example 13: Harmonic reduction, mm. 639-60.

out, is a fulcrum that joins the keys of Ab(the critique of the end of the Fantasie: that the
key of the song theme), C (the global tonic), virtuoso conclusion violates the essence of the
and A minor (the key of the Allegretto). As poem and its text. Having earliernoted the role
shown in the example, the four-chordprogres- of the unrelenting ascending motion in this
sion, beginning in Ab,leads to C. (It could lead peroration, I shall now take a brief moment to
to F minor; but because of the characteristic expandon that observation.The brilliant stretto
melodic turn in the formula, and the return to that is the coda takes flight from the melodic
the tonic, it never does). Starting then from C, figure of the two opening measures of the Alle-
as the progression literally does in the Andante gro finale. After a quick ascent of two octaves-
molto, it leads to A minor; here, unlike in the an ascent that one might suggest as having
song theme, the submediant is actually been effected by Obergreifungrun amok-the
tonicized: what is suggested but never accom- figure gets stuck on the notes A and G, as
plished in the variations, in the foreign key of though it cannot decide which way to turn:
Ab,is fully realized in the Andante molto and down to 5, or up to the tonic of the next octave
the Allegretto. The entire process is summa- (referagain to ex. 12). At m. 671 it seems to opt
rized in ex. 13. for the ascent, since it moves up a semitone to
A final analytical point will return us to the Bk,from which, however, it soon turns back. A
critical concerns with which this essay began. I repetition of the harmonic BV-F-G(bVII-IV-V;
have already cited Arthur Godel's perceptive note the parallel to the formulaic I-V-vi)

229

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
19TH cadentialprogressionin mm. 675-78 is extended ation in these measures;but the subject experi-
CENTURY
MUSIC to bring the conclusive harmonic cadence in m. encing that alienation is the lonely virtuoso in
683. Thereafter,the melodic figure that is most the glitter of the concert hall, not the wander-
emphasized is 7-8-that is, the attainment of ing minstrel looking into bourgeoissociety from
the upper octave. Indeed, once this B-C figure the outside. Schubert's piece misfires precisely
(which quickly descends, canceling out the pre- because, perhapsin an attempt to keep up with
vious ascent) reaches its lowest octave, in m. the Fantasie of his time, he took on a subjectiv-
686, the piano begins its monstrous sweep ity that was not his own.
through the ascending C-majorscale that leads But what about the piece as a whole? Analy-
to the final cadence. So in the end, it is not only sis has shown that the Violin Fantasie is hardly
ascending motion in general, or even ascending the string of unrelated movements that is has
motion as a scale, that concludes the piece, but long been thought to be. The whole piece is
specifically the large-scale middleground mo- suffused with the harmonic and melodic mo-
tion 5-647-7-8, G-A-B--B-C, the completion tives of Sei mir gegrfisst, to the point that its
to the higher octave of the ascending impulse-- fundamental telos turns on the variations as its
the Romantic desire, as it were-embedded in central core: the first two movements prepare
the song's formulaic refrain. the variation set, while the finale is in part a
Godel does not analyze in detail what hap- last, frenetic variation. Yet the Fantasie seems
pens to the melody, but he notes, more gener- foreverrelegatedto looking into the canon from
ally, that "the content of the song appears in the outside, much as the Romantic subject of
the brilliant light of tragic-ironic alienation; Schubert's songs looks into bourgeois culture
the anxious virtuosity of the piece is that of from the same perspective. Does the original-
despair.""39Godel is surely right: there is some- ity and the craft that, as we can now see,
thing frighteningly empty about the final rou- Schubert brought to it, as a composer in the
lades of the piece. The brilliant ending that great tradition of the Fantasie, of phantasieren,
completes the octave ascent over twenty or so save it from critical purgatory,or at least from
measures and then hammers it in from one end critical hell? This question, of course, we all
of the keyboard to the other is far from the must answer for ourselves. Perhaps a better
tragic alienation of the Romantic poet and question is: Does there need to be a critical
singer. Whatever subjectivity is present here is purgatory,or a critical hell-or a critical heaven,
also far removed from the subjectivity of for that matter? The Violin Fantasie offers us
Schubert the song composer. There is alien- moments of artistic pleasure, and its odd posi-
tion in Schubert's mature instrumental works
stimulates useful and productive inquiry about
form and genre, about virtuosity and subjectiv-
39Godel,"Zur Eigengesetz der Schubertschen Fantasien," ity, about analysis and criticism.
p. 202. Need it do more?S

230

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:19:16 AM


All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

You might also like