Trout Quintet

The Trout Quintet is the popular name for the piano quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 667.

Related Topics:
Piano quintet - Franz Schubert - Otto Erich Deutsch

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The piece is known as the Trout because the fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier lied, "Die Forelle" (The Trout). Apart from being variations on the melody of that lied, the last variation also renders the characteristic musical motif picturing the "trout" appearing and disappearing in the water, which Schubert had used in the piano accompaniment of the lied.

Related Topics:
Variations - Lied - Die Forelle

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rather than the usual piano quintet lineup of piano and string quartet, Schubert's piece is written for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. The composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel has a quintet with the same instrumentation, and the Trout was actually written for a group of musicians coming together to play Hummel's work.

Related Topics:
Piano - String quartet - Violin - Viola - Cello - Double bass - Johann Nepomuk Hummel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dating from 1819, it is the only piano quintet he wrote.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The work is in five movements:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Allegro vivace - as is normal in multi-movement works of the time, this is in sonata form, however he alters it slightly by beginning the recapitulation on the subdominant, making any modulatory changes in the transition to the second theme unnecessary.
• Andante
• Scherzo: Presto
• Andantino - Allegretto - the variations on "Die Forelle"
• Allegro giusto

Movements which are a set of variations on a melody from another one of his works are found in several other pieces by Schubert, including the Rosamunde Quartet, the Death and the Maiden Quartet and the Wanderer Fantasy.

Related Topics:
Rosamunde Quartet - Death and the Maiden Quartet - Wanderer Fantasy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The British television sitcom Waiting for God used the opening of the Trout Quintet’s fifth movement as its theme music.

Related Topics:
Sitcom - Waiting for God

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~