Description
Ungarische Melodie (Hungarian Melody), D. 817, was composed in 1824. That year Schubert stayed as music teacher on the Esterházy family estate at Zseliz in Hungary (now Slovakia), and this small piece, written in the Hungarian style fashionable in Vienna at the time, is often associated with impressions from that stay. It shares material with the four-hand Divertissement à la hongroise, D. 818, from the same period.
It is in B minor and 2/4. Dotted rhythms and an exotic, folk-inflected melody are its hallmarks, with the spring of a two-beat dance carrying it along. At about two minutes forty-five seconds and roughly 1,451 notes it is moderate in size, a wistful minor-key melody returning again and again.
Rated intermediate, its bass goes slightly below a 61-key keyboard, so 88 or 76 keys suit it. It calls for a light touch that brings out the bounce of its dotted figures, and the crispness of those rhythms defines its character. Slow the playback to absorb the long-short pattern of the dotted rhythms exactly, and loop phrases of the melody with A-B to capture both its lilt and its melancholy.
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About the Composer
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Franz Schubert was a Vienna-born composer who died at only 31 but left behind a vast body of work, especially in the field of Lieder. Known for his gift for melody and subtle modulation, songs such as "Erlkonig" remain widely performed today. His piano works, including the Impromptus, are equally rich in lyricism. This site includes the Impromptus, Opp. 90 and 142, and the "Hungarian Melody."
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