Schubert · Impromptu in B♭ major, Op. 142 No. 3 · D. 935 No. 3 · Solo piano

A hundred and thirty-two measures before the cadence arrives

A theme, five variations and a coda over a harmonic frame that never changes. Almost every cadence in the work falls on the weak half of the bar. The coda supplies the one that does not — and that single metrical fact is why the ending sounds like an ending.

The Analysis Study materials

— i —

The frame is never varied

Tonic, dominant seventh with the bass falling a fifth, predominant, applied dominant, half cadence: the theme's harmonic sequence recurs in all six statements with a single substitution. The phrase design — four bars plus four, twice over, then a codetta — holds without exception.

— ii —

Two departures, both by third, one prepared inside the other

Variation 3 turns to the parallel minor, Variation 4 to the flat submediant — the only unit to leave B♭ at all. The key of the fourth variation is sounded first as a passing chord within the third, a full variation before the excursion is made.

— iii —

One cadence on a downbeat, and it is the last

Every cadence from the theme through the fifth variation arrives on the weak half of the bar. The perfect authentic cadence at m. 133 is the only one in the work to fall on a strong beat. The coda is not a sixth variation; it exists to supply that close.

The structure

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Theme — mm. 1–18

B♭ major, the referent

Closed binary in two parallel periods with a two-bar codetta. Two layers, melody over an arpeggiating left hand. Everything that follows is measured against it.

Variation 1 — mm. 19–37

Two layers become four

The melody survives intact as a notated voice, surrounded by continuous figuration and a syncopated inner line. The narrowest compass in the piece.

Variation 2 — mm. 38–56

Register and dynamic

No reharmonisation anywhere. Two layers restored, the syncopation moved into the accompaniment itself, and the range doubled.

Variation 3 — mm. 57–83

B♭ minor, three strains

The set's anomaly: the only minor unit, the only written-out repeat, the only genuine reharmonisation. The densest texture and the loudest bar.

Variation 4 — mm. 84–103

G♭ major, melody in the bass

The one departure from B♭, and the most faithful to the theme's harmony. The melody starts beneath its accompaniment and changes hands five times.

Retransition — mm. 104–105

The hinge home

Two bars under the six-flat signature but belonging tonally to B♭. They close on nothing; the resolution is withheld until the variation that follows.

Variation 5 — mm. 106–125

The melody dissolved

Scalar figuration replaces the line entirely. The highest ceiling and widest compass in the work, then a fermata over silence.

Coda — mm. 126–134

Chorale, and the close

Block chords in both hands, the accumulation reversed in a single bar. The only cadential reiteration in the piece that rises rather than falls.

At a glance

Full analysis →

Composer

Schubert

Franz Schubert, 1797–1828.

Work

Impromptu, Op. 142 No. 3

D. 935 No. 3 · from the second set of four.

Key · Tempo

B♭ major · Andante

2/2 · 134 measures · Più Lento at m. 125

Structure

Sectional variations

Theme · five variations · retransition · coda

Key areas

Three, all by third

B♭ major · B♭ minor · G♭ major