As Robert Schumann put it, 'Only few works are as clearly stamped with their author's imprint as his'. This book explores Schubert's stylistic traits in a series of chapters each discussing an individual 'fingerprint' with case-studies drawn principally from the piano and chamber music. Schubert emerges as someone exerting intellectual control over his musical material and imbuing it with poetic resonance.

Susan Wollenberg is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Music, and Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall, as well as Lecturer in Music at Brasenose College. Among her publications are contributions on Schubert to various journals and symposia including Schubert Studies, ed. Brian Newbould (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), and Schubert durch der Brille, Journal of the International Schubert Institute (2002 and 2003). Her paper given at the international Schubert bicentenary conference in Paris (1997) appeared as 'Schubert's Poetic Transitions' in Le style instrumental de Schubert: Sources, analyse, évolution, ed. Xavier Hascher (2007).

List of Figures, List of Music Examples, Acknowledgements, List of Abbreviations, Note on the Format of Music Examples and Figures, 1. Introduction, 2. 'His Favourite Device': Schubert's Major-Minor Usage and its Nuances, 3. Poetic Transitions, 4. Schubert's Second Themes, 5. Schubert and Mozart, 6. Schubert's Violent Nature, 7. Threefold Constructions, 8. Schubert's Variations, 9. 'Heavenly Length', 10. Concluding Remarks: 'Whose Schubert?', Select Bibliography, Chronology of Schubert's Instrumental Works Discussed, Index of Schubert's Works, General Index