23. Schubert: Piano Quintet in A ("The Trout")

(This recording: LaserLight Digital, 1988 --
The Colorado String Quartet
Danielle Dechenne, Piano)

Franz Schubert died in 1828 in Vienna at the age of 31. At the time the cause of death was listed as typhoid fever but modern researchers think he probably had syphilis. During his brief lifetime he composed over 1000 works, about 600 of which are "lieder", which are songs. This quintet is unusual because of the instrumentation. Most quintets are composed of a piano plus a string quartet -- two violins, a viola and a cello. In the "Trout" one of the violins is replaced with a double bass. The work was composed when Schubert was 22 but was not published until 1829, a year after his death.

So yeah. I've been thinking about all this music I've been listening to and how the good stuff usually has two or three underlying meanings. Like I never thought of Steely Dan's "Gaucho" as depressing until I really listened to it. I'm beginning to think it's all depressing. Check out this commentary on the piece from Wikipedia:

2. Andante in F major (the flattened submediant of the work's main key, A major). This movement is composed of two symmetrical sections, the second being a transposed version of the first, except for some differences of modulation which allow the movement to end in the same key in which it began. Each section contains three themes, the second of which is notable for its poignancy. The striking feature of this movement is its tonal layout: the tonality changes chromatically, in ascending half tones, according to the following scheme (some intermediate keys of lower structural significance have been omitted): F major - F sharp minor - G major - A flat major - A minor - F major. Such a tonal structure is revolutionary to the harmonic concept of Classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.

Bummer. I thought it was just a pretty song.

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