(VIII) Schubert's style and influence.

19th- and earlier 20th-century commentators struggled to define Schubert's style, confining their arguments largely to whether he fitted more into a Viennese Classical or a Romantic mould. In practice, Schubert borrowed freely from the traditions of Haydn, Mozart and, eventually, Beethoven while simultaneously developing his own strategies to new, subjectively expressive ends. Perhaps most significant here was Schubert's extension of the polarized tonic–dominant Classical harmonic discourse to a full range of flat-side relationships – subdominant, flat mediant, submediant and, especially, flat submediant. With its flat-side staging posts, the well-documented three-key exposition attenuated the pull of the dominant. Though Schubert was by no means the inventor of this strategy (well-known precedents include the first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata), he raised it to extraordinary levels of subtlety. Along with this came both a blurring and an intensified colouristic use of the major–minor modal system. In its simplest form this might involve converting a major-mode theme into the minor (an extension of Mozart's practice), or it might involve a systematic rhetoric of ambiguity, as in the first movement of the C major Quintet. If Schubert's use of rhythm has received less attention, its generally looser, post-Classical structure proved eminently capable of supporting the arching melodic periods for which he is justly known. Although Schubert's melodic gift has long been celebrated, it resists generalization. But his characteristic fingerprints include a predilection for themes that revolve around the mediant, that move mostly by steps but are defined by a telling leap, in which each phrase carries the impetus for the next, and in which closure (often on to the tonic) is delayed until the last possible moment.

In line with this broadened expressive range, Schubert's style can best be understood as a series of four discrete styles. There is first of all the openly popular manner, captured in works like the Octet (d803), songs from Die schöne Müllerin and the ‘Trout’ Quintet. Schubert's popular tone is even more pervasive than Mozart's, surfacing in substantial as well as occasional genres. Counterpoised to this is what might be called the ambitious style – works (and passages) that openly declare their complexity. While weighted towards the last half of Schubert's career, they include works from every genre in which he worked. The late symphonies, masses, string quartets and piano sonatas contain only the most obvious examples. An extension of the ambitious style is the learned style, found primarily in contrapuntal passages ranging from the elaborate palindrone in Die Zauberharfe, the mirror counterpoint in the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, the extended fugal passages in both late masses, to the quasi-fugal writing in the F minor Fantasy for piano duet (d940). Finally, Schubert penned passages that can only be described (albeit unhistorically) as avant garde. These include music best described as ‘unhinged’, such as that in the slow movements of the G major Quartet and the A major Piano Sonata (d959), or the so-called Lebensstürme for piano duet. But they also include the Wagnerian pre-echoes in Lazarus and the Count's recitative (no.2) in Der Graf von Gleichen, or the Mahlerian premonitions in the Andante of Symphony no.10.

Schubert's direct influence on the course of 19th-century music arguably exceeded that of Beethoven. That, like Beethoven, he exercised no influence over opera, the dominant form of public music for the duration of the century, does not diminish his contribution. The flood of lieder by composers such as Franz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Mahler are quite unimaginable without the extraordinary precedent of Schubert. Of these, it was perhaps Wolf who came closest to replicating the vast emotional range of Schubert. While Schubert's writing for piano was less obviously innovative than that of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, its influence was by no means neglible. The ability to exploit and extend the singing qualities of the Viennese piano, the wealth of innovative accompanimental textures, the formal experimentation, and the cultivation of new single-movement genres, including miniatures such as the Moments musicaux, were all to leave their mark on subsequent generations. While the only mature symphony of Schubert's known between 1839 and 1868 was the ‘Great’ C major, its impact on Schumann, Mendelssohn and, much later, Brahms and Mahler (who also knew the ‘Unfinished’) was profound. It is hard to imagine Brahms at all without the example of Schubert. Mahler's sense of spacious Austrian countryside draws directly from the Schubert of the ‘Great’ C major. The gradual publication of Schubert's works throughout the 19th century meant that new discoveries were constantly being made, affording numerous opportunities for influence. These cropped up in unexpected places: the harmonic vocabulary of the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin, is lifted in almost textbook fashion directly from Schubert, while unmistakable Schubertian gestures such as the ubiquitous flat sixth chord pop up in, say, the Beatles' I saw her standing there. Indeed, the very language of musical theatre, from Siegmund Romberg to Andrew Lloyd Webber, is saturated with Schubertian melodic and harmonic syntax.

Schubert, Franz