Notturno (Schubert)
composition for violin, cello, and piano by Franz Schubert
The Notturno in E♭ major, Op. 148 (D. 897), also called Adagio, is a nocturne for piano trio (i.e. piano, violin, and cello) by Franz Schubert.
Description
This substantial but relatively neglected piece has affinities with the slow movements of both the String Quintet in C major D. 956, and the Piano Trio No. 1, D 898. Completed in the Autumn of 1827, it is possibly a rejected slow movement of the Piano Trio No. 1. It has the sublime slowness of the string quintet movement (in one recording of the Notturno, by the Beaux Arts Trio, Schubert takes half a minute to leave the opening tonic harmony), together with a similar use of pizzicato at various points, and with the same paradoxical effect: the pizzicato decorations of the main tune seem to enhance the underlying tragedy of the music, rather than lightening it.
The main thematic idea has a characteristic common to a number of Schubert's most celebrated melodic ideas, including the second subjects of both the C major string quintet's first movement and the "Unfinished" Symphony No. 8's first movement: that of "not going anywhere", pitch-wise, but seeming to revolve round a single note (the third note of the scale in this case).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Notturno (Schubert)” as composition for violin, cello, and piano by Franz Schubert. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as composition for violin, cello, and piano by Franz Schubert. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7063774. VIAF identifies the subject as 294183524. The Library of Congress control number is n81041866. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1827.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Notturno (Schubert)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.