Schubert's Fingerprints: Studies in the Instrumental Works

As Robert Schumann put it, 'Only few works are as clearly stamped with their author's imprint as his'. This book explores Schubert's stylistic traits in a series of chapters each discussing an individual 'fingerprint' with case studies drawn principally from the piano and chamber music. The notion of Schubert's compositional fingerprints has not previously formed the subject of a book-length study. The features of his personal style considered here include musical manifestations of Schubert's 'violent nature', the characteristics of his thematic material, and the signs of his 'classicizing' manner. In the process of the discussion, attention is given to matters of form, texture, harmony and gesture in a range of works, with regard to the various 'fingerprints' identified in each chapter. The repertoire discussed includes the late string quartets, the String Quintet, the E flat Piano Trio and the last three piano sonatas. Developing ideas which she first proposed in a series of journal articles and contributions to symposia on Schubert, Professor Wollenberg takes into account recent literature by other scholars and draws together her own researches to present her view of Schubert's 'compositional personality'. Schubert emerges as someone exerting intellectual control over his musical material and imbuing it with poetic resonance.

Susan Wollenberg is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Music, and Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall, as well as Lecturer in Music at Brasenose College. Among her publications are contributions on Schubert to various journals and symposia including Schubert Studies, ed. Brian Newbould (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), and Schubert durch der Brille, Journal of the International Schubert Institute (2002 and 2003). Her paper given at the international Schubert bicentenary conference in Paris (1997) appeared as 'Schubert's Poetic Transitions' in Le style instrumental de Schubert: Sources, analyse, évolution, ed. Xavier Hascher (2007).