This study of the fragmentary piano sonatas by Franz Schubert, composed
between 1815 and 1825, offers an individual analysis of each work, based
upon a tripartite approach. It focuses on the aesthetic-philosophical
nature of fragmentary works of art, the philological study of the extant
manuscripts as well as recorded notational material and musical
analyses. This research includes a new perspective of Schubert's
commitment to questions of form and compositional renewal and
individuality. The engagement with the incomplete, unfinished and
fragmentary piano sonatas makes it possible to see the paths towards the
later, more well-known compositions. In these works of the early
nineteenth century, the working-processes and musical innovations of the
composer Franz Schubert are seen as a development of a highly personal
stylistic and formal integrity and independence over the course of a
productive and innovative decade.