Piano Quintet "Trout", D. 667: IV. Andantino

The fourth movement of the Trout Quintet is one of the most purely joyful things Schubert ever wrote — a set of variations on his own earlier song about a fish darting through clear water, and the music makes good on that image in every measure. The ensemble of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass is unusual, and the double bass gives the texture an earthy, grounded buoyancy that a standard quartet couldn't achieve. Each variation hands the sprightly theme to a different instrument, letting the listener delight in how the same material transforms — playful in the piano, singing in the violin, almost rustic in the bass. The tempo is lilting rather than driven, and the overall mood is one of uncomplicated pleasure, the kind that asks nothing more of you than to follow along. There are moments of minor-key shadow that pass through without lingering, the way clouds move across a sunny afternoon. Culturally, this belongs to the tradition of social music-making — it was written for a gathering of friends — and it retains that informal warmth, as though it knows it is being performed in a living room rather than a concert hall. This is music for Sunday mornings with light coming through windows, for the particular happiness of having nowhere urgent to be.