Piano Sonata in A minor, D 784 (Schubert)

[3] Bar 9 transfers this rhythm to the bass, and uses repeated plagal cadences (iv-i) to evoke the atmosphere of a funeral march.

[3] At b.26 the first subject returns, now in fortissimo and being followed by parallel chords in dotted rhythms suggesting the French overture – but still ending abruptly on an eighth note on a weak beat.

[3][2] A victorious passage then follows, firmly establishing E major, and seen by Eva Badura-Skoda to express the rhythm and sentiment of the words "Non confundar in aeternam" ("I shall not perish in eternity") from the Te Deum.

[3] The second subject area is shorter than normal for Schubert movements, which Brian Newbould speculates as being due to its creating "such an illusion of space in [its] scarcely-varied somnambulistic tread".

[3] The calmness of the second subject is further ensured by the triplets that only now appear to lessen the impact of the downbeat accent,[2][3] and the fortissimo intrusions are now followed by diminuendos that suggest that the tragic weight of the sonata is being resolved in this passage.

Leo Black has commented that Schubert made use of the same rhythm of the 1818 song "An den Mond, in einer Herbstnacht" in this sonata's slow movement.