The Expansion of Time and Space in Franz Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor D. 845

While Franz Schubert was not the fi rst Viennese composer to greatly expand the scope of the piano sonata (with Beethoven taking pride of place), Schubert introduced many innovations into the sonata form and cycle, broadening them and stretching their boundaries both internally and externally. In this paper I analyze Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor D. 845 (Op. 42), focusing on its fi rst movement. Th is ambitious work, completed in 1825, was the fi rst of only three sonatas published during the composer’s lifetime and aptly entitled Premiere Grande Sonata. In performance this sonata typically lasts about 40 minutes, with the fi rst (sonata) movement and the second (theme with variations) being of almost identical length when played in prescribed tempi. In my analysis of the fi rst movement I will focus on methods employed by Schubert for the purpose of expanding musical time and space – especially in its relatively static and pastoral development section, which is based more on the principle of variation than fragmentation, thus resulting in what Carl Dahlhaus has dubbed the lyric-epic quality in Schubert.The 13th Biennial International Conference on Music Theory and Analysis Music and Spatiality is supported by The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbi