The Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, D. 125, is a symphony by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

 composed between 1814 and 1815.

There are four movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

• I. Largo - Allegro vivace
• II. Andante in E flat major
  E flat major
  E major or E-flat major is a major scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A.Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
  
  
• III. Menuetto
  Minuet
  A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
  
  : Allegro vivace in C minor
  C minor
  C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
  
   - Trio in E flat major
  E flat major
  E major or E-flat major is a major scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A.Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
  
  
• IV. Presto

In the opening movement, the initial theme of the Allegro vivace is based on the corresponding first theme of Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's overture to The Creatures of Prometheus

The Creatures of Prometheus (Beethoven)

The Creatures of Prometheus is a ballet composed in 1801 by Ludwig van Beethoven following the libretto of Salvatore Viganò. The overture to the ballet is part of the concert repertoire...

.

The second movement is a theme with five variations

Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...

 in E flat major

E flat major

E major or E-flat major is a major scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A.Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....

. Although there is some variation in the melody, the primary focus of the variations are on instrumentation and tone color. The first variation features violins and winds. The second variation passes the theme between the low strings and the woodwinds. The third variation is again violins and winds. The fourth variation is in C minor

C minor

C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...

 and features some acceleration with the use triplet-sixteenth notes. The fifth variation maintains the triplet-sixteenths, but they move into the background with the melody returning close to its original form as a kind of recapitulation. A coda

Coda (music)

Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...

 concludes the movement.

The minuet is in C minor and mainly scored for the tutti and fortissimo. The contrasting Trio in E flat major

E flat major

E major or E-flat major is a major scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats: B, E, A.Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....

 is more thinly scored winds, violins and pizzicato bass. The melody of the trio is actually a variation of the theme used in the second movement forming a melodic and harmonic (E-flat/C minor) link is made between the inner two movements.

The finale is a galop

Galop

In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse , a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popular in Vienna, Berlin and London...

in fast 2/4 time.