Presentation: Andante Un Poco Mosso of Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-Flat Major

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The returning of A section is full of surprises and take the audience farther away from home, E-flat major. The accompaniment figuration changes from the previous eighth notes chords to sixteenth notes arpeggiation, forming a more flowing character. Starting at the subdominant A-flat major, violin instead of the cello takes the lead to sing the heart-warming melody. Without stopping the phrase, Schubert magically transformed the melody to another unknown world, the Neapolitan E major. Later on, the harmony goes further and leads us to C major until the cello starts singing the second theme in this “wrong” key. Schubert subtly maneuvered the chromatic mediant (from C major in B section to A-flat - E(F-flat) - C), which is typically used by many romantic composers for distant travels in tonal system. In a sudden, He took the audience back home without preparation, merely by using the violin to repeat the second theme in E-flat major. Eventually, the movement ends with the closing material featuring bell-like accents on weak beats.

In Schubert’s musical language, we can observe details in many different aspects, including the intriguing harmonic settings that enrich a greater variety of colors, along with huge dynamics difference. As a performer, it is also necessary to interpret notation markings, the important clues the composer left for us to explore. In this case, accents can be played in many possible ways as the context, harmony, rhythm alters. The vocal nature of the Andante un poco mosso gives an opportunity for violin and cello to convey a soothing, affectionate duet similarly between soprano and tenor. However, the piano not only bears the responsibility to maintain harmonic and rhythmic background but has its unique way of expressing melodic lines that balances up the three instruments in this piece.