Impromptu in F minor, D. 935 No. 4 (Op. 142 No. 4) — complete

Franz Schubert (1,797–1,828)

First published: 1888
Key: F minor
Style: Romantic
Level: Diploma
Roughly: RCM ARCT · ABRSM ARSM · Trinity ATCL · Henle 7
Lesson: D.8 Keep dance metre through displaced accents
Musicianship: D.8 Displaced accents
Focus: Dance articulation and hemiola, fast scalar passagework, light repeated gestures and long-range return planning.

What its lesson teaches

D.8 Keep dance metre through displaced accents

Learn the complete fourth Impromptu from Schubert’s D. 935 in F minor, the last of the set. Count its 3/8 and compare the dance pulse with its cross-grouped accents and scalar runs. Practise a short reduction with the underlying beat clear, then restore the written accent pattern without changing the metre. The separate C-major repeated-note model isolates pulse and release before you return to the F-minor runs. Separately resolve the card’s A-minor augmented-sixth model outwards to E, then compare a real harmonic approach in the score without assuming that every chromatic chord is an augmented sixth.

Ideas: Hemiola
Syncopation
Augmented-sixth chords
Theory cards: Accents against the metre
The long-range line
Italian, French and German sixths
Technique: F harmonic minor scale, hands together, 4 octaves
C major repeated notes, hands together

Edition and licence

Score: Franz Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D. 935 No. 4. Source: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1888. Typeset by Simon Otten; Mutopia Project, piece 1689; Public Domain.

Adapted by Musalea: converted to MusicXML; the 13:8 tuplets rebuilt exactly from the source.

Practice tempos: from the encoding where it gives them, otherwise from Kullak's recommendations (1881–1883) or chosen by Musalea; they are practice targets, not the composer's metronome marks. The printed tempo words are kept and no number is shown in the score.

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1888; named in the original Mutopia header

Encoding source: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1689

Digital licence: Public Domain (Mutopia Project licensing: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/legal.html) · public domain

Impromptu in f-moll

Edition: Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1888

First published: 1827

Source: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1689

Public-domain source edition(s).

Typeset by Simon Otten.

Franz Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D. 935 No. 4. Source: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1888. Typeset by Simon Otten; Mutopia Project, piece 1689; Public Domain.

Digital licence: Public Domain (Mutopia Project licensing: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/legal.html)

Public Domain

Licence: Public Domain (Mutopia Project licensing: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/legal.html)

The other lesson pieces of Diploma

Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 857 — complete pair, Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2 — complete, Ludwig van Beethoven
Étude in B-flat minor, Op. 8 No. 11, Alexander Scriabin
Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 859 — complete pair, Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78 — complete, Ludwig van Beethoven
Berceuse in D-flat major, Op. 57, Frédéric Chopin
Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor, BWV 867 — complete pair, Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90: II. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen, in E major, Ludwig van Beethoven
Mallorca (Barcarola), Op. 202, Isaac Albéniz
Sonatine, M.40 — I. Modéré, Maurice Ravel
Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 No. 2, Johannes Brahms
Étude in G major, Op. 40 No. 1, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37: I. Allegro con brio, Ludwig van Beethoven

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