Piano Sonata No. 14

At a glance

• What it isthe first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D. 784, for solo piano. A sonata is usually an instrumental work in several movements; this one has three.
• Who, whenFranz Schubert wrote it in February 1823.
• What to listen forthe clash between sounds so soft they seem to hold their breath and sudden loud outbursts.

Listen for

• The openinga few notes sound quietly, without thick chords piled on top. It feels like waiting for something with your breath held.
• The outburstsafter the quiet comes a moment when the keyboard rings out loudly all at once. Try measuring the distance between soft and loud with your ears.
• The second themethe first movement of a sonata usually brings in a second theme with a different character. Listen for what changes from the dark mood at the start.

When it was written

Around 1823 Schubert fell seriously ill and suffered for some time. In the same year he set poems by Wilhelm Müller as the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill). A song cycle is a group of songs linked into a single story.

Schubert often played new pieces at the Schubertiades, gatherings of his friends, but only a few of his piano sonatas were published while he was alive. This A minor sonata did not appear in print until 1839, more than a decade after his death. Many of his works reached the world this late.

The composer

Schubert was born in 1797 in a suburb of Vienna, the son of a schoolteacher. At eleven he joined the boys' choir of the court chapel and studied at its boarding school, and he took composition lessons from Salieri. He left more than 600 songs and died in November 1828 at the age of thirty-one.