The A section is a wonderful and majestic melody, but Schubert has planted the diminished fifth – aka the tritone, the forbidden interval in church music – like little mines throughout. It’s just the composer being naughty.
At 3:52 the B section turns to the minor, and the melody is suspiciously like the Dies Irae from the requiem mass.
At 7:56, the A section returns in drastically shortened form.
At 8:47, the C section is a long fugue. Schubert was taking counterpoint lessons from Simon Sechter, and this is a good example of how fugues began popping up like mushrooms in Schubert’s output in his last year. The tritone is the glue that holds the fugue together, and it pops up everywhere.
Good evening, Publius, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.
Thanks for Schubert’s Gloria.
Ooooo. the TRITONE! In a MASS? naughty Naughty!
For years, Music teachers taught that the tritone was a very yucky sounding interval, and should probably only be used in scarey music, music about death or judgement, dark stuff. Yet here it is in the Part of the Mass that is about Glory!
I just LOVED it when Leonard Bernstein used the tritone over and over in one of the most ROMANTIC songs on Broadway.
Ma-—RI-a! I JUST met a GIRL named Ma- RI-a! LOL!
(That’ll show ‘em!) Leonard was known for his somewhat rebellious nature. But, he was such a genius so I guess he was entitled. Ha Ha.
Sounds like Franz did it before Leonard did!