Schubert's Homecoming

Abstract

This article explores the metaphorical identification of the tonic key as «home» in relation to the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in Bb, D.960. Rejecting conventional readings whereby a «foreign» or «alien» element is ultimately assimilated into the «home» sphere, it argues that in this movement Schubert succeeds in doing the reverse, rendering the tonic «unhomely» (unheimlich; «uncanny») at a critical moment in the recapitulation. Schubert's practice in this instance is contrasted with that of Beethoven in selected middle-period works; and Schubert's own fragmentary continuity draft for the movement, as well as songs from Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, are brought to bear on the investigation of «home» and «das Unheimliche».