Book contents
- Schubert’s Piano
- Schubert’s Piano
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I The Piano in Schubert’s World
- Part II Instruments and Performance
- 5 Schubert and the Viennese Piano
- 6 Performing Simultaneous Triplets and Dotted Rhythms in Schubert’s Piano Music
- 7 Viennese Pianoforte Treatises as a Reflection of Schubert’s Pianistic Audience
- Part III Sound and Musical Imagery
- Part IV Understanding Schubert’s Writing for the Piano
- Select Bibliography
- Index
7 - Viennese Pianoforte Treatises as a Reflection of Schubert’s Pianistic Audience
from Part II - Instruments and Performance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- Schubert’s Piano
- Schubert’s Piano
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I The Piano in Schubert’s World
- Part II Instruments and Performance
- 5 Schubert and the Viennese Piano
- 6 Performing Simultaneous Triplets and Dotted Rhythms in Schubert’s Piano Music
- 7 Viennese Pianoforte Treatises as a Reflection of Schubert’s Pianistic Audience
- Part III Sound and Musical Imagery
- Part IV Understanding Schubert’s Writing for the Piano
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Analysis of addressee and writer–recipient relationships is a common methodology for the interpretation of written correspondence of ‘great’ composers. By contrast, when a musical text is the object of study, music philologists and performers alike tend to neglect such a contextual perspective when attempting to reveal its meaning – as if composers had no particular audience in mind when they wrote their piano music. This chapter attempts a characterisation of Schubert’s pianistic audience in Vienna as reflected in contemporary Viennese pianoforte treatises. The first part presents evidence to support such a geographically focused source selection – the distinctly nationalist stance of the Viennese pianoforte scene in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna. The second part compiles a brief genre history of the Viennese pianoforte treatise – both produced in Vienna and imported from abroad – during Schubert’s lifetime. The third part deduces several common principles from this fascinating corpus of sources and reads selected passages from Schubert’s works through this lens, exemplifying how some of the traditional ‘problems’ can be resolved in the context of early nineteenth-century Viennese pianism.
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- Schubert's Piano , pp. 136 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024