In diaries, letters and memoirs written by his friends and contemporaries, as well as in visual representations, Schubert is most frequently depicted at the piano encircled by friends. His association with this instrument spanned most of his life and covered a wide range of musical genres including fantasies, sonatas, dances, variations, marches and character pieces (such as those in the Hungarian style), in addition to his cultivation of the piano duet (music for piano four hands). In his Lieder – one of the genres with which Schubert is chiefly associated today – and his instrumental chamber music, the piano also takes on a significant role, almost always extending far beyond the function of an accompaniment to the voice or solo instruments. Given the predominant position of the piano in his output, it could be surmised that it was his instrument of choice. Yet despite Schubert’s diverse use of the piano, previous research on his music for the instrument has tended to focus almost exclusively on the sonatas (for two hands), analysing their musical form, harmonic disposition and Schubert’s approach to thematic development in contrast to the ‘classical’ piano sonata and to a certain extent in the shadow of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.