The Symphony No. 5 in B flat major

B flat major

B major or B-flat major is a major scale based on B-flat, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats, B/E .Its relative minor is G minor, and its parallel minor is B minor....

, D.485, written in 1816 by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

 is a work in four movements:

1. Allegro in B, in divided cut (2:2) time.
2. Andante con moto in E, in 6:8 time.
3. Menuetto
   Minuet
   A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
   
   . Allegro molto in G minor, in 3:4 time, with a Trio in G major.
4. Allegro vivace in B, in 2:4 time.

Scored for one flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, two oboes, and two bassoons, along with two horn

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....

s in B and E and string

String section

The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...

s, the instrumentation is light as clarinets, trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

s and timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

 are not part of the instrumentation

First Movement

Schubert opens his Fifth Symphony in B major with a great sense of forward motion and builds musical intensity throughout bars 1 to 117 (the Exposition). This is achieved largely through the composer’s approach to rhythm, melody and texture. The first movement commences with five stark minim-length chords (I vi IV V I) played by the woodwinds in a chordal, vertical texture. The woodwind’s outline the simple metre during the first few bars and pave the way for the following semiquaver anacrusis governed by the first violins.

The first theme is presented as a variant of the opening chords which outlined the tonality. The first violins play a consonant (d m s s s) melodic idea, arpeggiated in nature. The rhythm (timka ti ti ti) and the intervallic structure of this theme are to return numerous times throughout the section and underpin the movement’s complex harmonic texture. The first theme is confined to about an octave’s range and is played by the first violins with generally legato articulations; however, accents are included at climax points. The melodic contour is step-wise and smooth. Beneath the melody is a driving, energised rhythmic quality created by the consistent ‘Allegro’ tempo and a driving semiquaver momentum in the second violins and violas. The upper instruments are presented more prominently in the foreground while the horns and lower strings remain in the background. Woodwinds are utilised as soloists and accompanists within Theme I.

When the first theme is repeated, a counter-melody of descending character is heard in the flute. This descant has freer semi-quaver motion, placed against the militaristic rhythms in the accompaniment. Of interest is the (timka ti ti ti) rhythmic pattern embedded within a canonic structure between the upper and lower strings. The lower strings accent the (timka) rhythm on beat three of the bar which installs an agitated rhythmic sense. The result is a largely homophonic texture with some call and response.

The second theme offers smoother articulations and greater step-wise motion. The melody is sounded at a lower dynamic level and is passed around the orchestra in the true classical conversational-style in order to seek a warm, yet fragile tone colour. The (timka) motive continues at this point, but is less declamatory, adding to the contrasting fluidity of the section. The fragility of the second theme is complemented by a transparent texture via the omission of lower orchestral instruments and a slightly slower tempo.

Schubert’s first movement culminates with a dramatic orchestral tutti. To create a constant interplay between anticipation and urgency, the melodic contour becomes increasingly disjoined within a wider range. The melody ascends with heavily accented (timka) rhythms and is complemented by a harsh, aggressive tone colour. In anticipation of the final cadence in a thick vertical orchestral tutti, the melody ascends through chromatic movement, mirrored by rhythmic diminution in the accompaniment. Whilst the rhythmic diminution adds to a chaotic texture, the nature of the homophonic writing is exhibited in the final three block chords at the cadence, bringing the Exposition of Movement I to a close.

The first movement is a slightly unusual sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

 since the recapitulation begins, as in the first movement of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

’s sonata facile

Piano Sonata No. 16 (Mozart)

The Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as "for beginners," and it is sometimes known by the nickname Sonata facile or Sonata semplice....

 (and Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet), in the subdominant

Subdominant

In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It is also the note immediately...

, not in the main key of the piece as is more usual.

Second Movement

The slow movement opens with a theme in two repeated stanzas, slightly reminiscent perhaps of the A refrain of the slow movement of Mozart’s 39^th

Symphony No. 39 (Mozart)

The Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 543, was completed on 26 June 1788.-Composition and premiere:The 39th Symphony is the first of a set of three that Mozart composed in rapid succession during the summer of 1788. No. 40 was completed 25 July and No. 41 on 10...

 symphony. Without pause there is a modulation into C that is very characteristic of Schubert, even at age 19. The return to the main theme is straight, passing through G minor on the way; there is a repetition of the distant modulation afterwards, though to G this time and with a more immediate return.

Third Movement

The menuetto has the chromaticism though not the polyphony of the menuetto of Mozart’s 40^th

Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV. 550, in 1788. It is sometimes referred to as the "Great G minor symphony," to distinguish it from the "Little G minor symphony," No. 25. The two are the only minor key symphonies Mozart wrote....

symphony. The progression used mid-way through the movement to modulate is borrowed almost directly from the 40th — using the same approach (a gradual layering of instruments) to a dominant 7th chord. (It might be interesting to compare the Schubert to other minor‐mode symphonic minuets of the time, however.) The trio is quiet throughout, and only gradually accumulates instruments, beginning with only bassoon and strings, and with a subtle suggestion of a pastoral mood over held lower string notes.

Sources

• Triplow, Leighton H. "Analysis of rhythm, melody and texture in Symphony No.5 Mvt.1 by Franz Peter Schubert", 2011.