Schubert: String Quartet No.10, D.87

Introduction

The String Quartet No. 10 (D 87) in E-flat major was composed by Franz Schubert in 1813. It was posthumously published as Op. 125 No. 1.

Movements

1. Allegro moderato (E-flat major)
2. Scherzo: Prestissimo (E-flat major, with Trio in C minor)
3. Adagio (E-flat major)
4. Allegro (E-flat major)

The work is homotonal: all the movements are in the tonic key of E-flat major.

Most of Franz Schubert's mid/late childhood was spent as a choirboy at the Royal City College of Vienna; to whatever extent that Schubert was "taught" in the ordinary sense of the word, it was from the musicians resident at this institution -- in particular Antonio Salieri. Schubert held Salieri in high regard, and when, in the final months of 1813, he at last gave in to his father's pressure and left the Royal College to be trained as a schoolteacher, Schubert continued to take lessons with the older composer. Schubert's String Quartet in E flat major, D. 87 -- published posthumously as Op. 125, No. 1 and sometimes referred to as the String Quartet "No. 10" -- was written in November 1813, just after Schubert left the College. That Salieri's guidance was beneficial is clear from the outset -- excepting the Symphony in D major composed around the same time, the Quartet is by far the most mature and altogether successful piece of instrumental music that the 16-year-old had yet produced.

The two three-measure phrases that introduce the main thought of the Quartet's first movement (Allegro moderato) show both a flexibility of timing and a kind of humor not readily apparent in Schubert's other early works. After repeating the initial 12-bar thematic idea, Schubert moves on to offer a substantial transition passage of such breadth and reluctance to leave E flat major behind that it almost seems a kind of subsidiary theme. The second main theme (dolce) makes clever use of syncopated accents while never grazing outside the sweet, graceful pasture Schubert has prescribed for it, even when the lower three instruments propel themselves forward with a rapid dotted-note accompaniment. The development is both concise and wholly traditional, and the recapitulation differs noticeably from the exposition only when changes are required to facilitate presenting the second theme in the tonic rather than the dominant.

Schubert puts the Scherzo (prestissimo) -- usually the third movement in a four-movement plan -- second. An Adagio in 6/8 meter follows, spinning forth calmly using the thread of one serene first violin melody and then another; sonata form is in operation, but one hardly notices.

The finale is a rambunctious Allegro in the best hybrid (Haydn-Schubert) style imaginable. The bouncing three-eighth note gesture heard at the opening of the first movement pops back up during the second theme. The accompaniment moves between electrifying sixteenth notes and slightly more aristocratic triplets, occasionally taking a breather to allow some chorale-like phrases to creep in.