In Schubert's vast catalog of musical compositions, there are easily as many incomplete or fragmentary instrumental works as there are whole, finished products, and in the case of music for piano this holds especially true—for the thirteen or so finished piano sonatas that bear his name there are well over a dozen fragmentary sonatas and single movements probably meant at one time or another to be included in sonatas that never got written. Early on in his career as a composer this is not difficult to explain: his progress and development were so rapid that by the time he had finished a movement or two he had most likely vaulted up to a new level of skill that made the idea of finishing the now-uncouth music less than exciting. Later on in his short life that same reason may bear some relevance (Schubert's growth was continual, and the music of his dying days in some ways bears little resemblance to that he wrote just months earlier), but it might be better simply to mention that, whereas a composer like Brahms made a habit of destroying all unfinished, abandoned works and sketches, Schubert pretty much kept all his scraps lying around. The earliest Schubert piano sonata that has come down to posterity is the Piano Sonata in E major, D. 157 (sometimes called No. 1, in this case accurately; the traditional numbering of Schubert sonatas is something to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is frequently quite inaccurate), composed during February 1815 just after the composer's 18th birthday.

The work is, in fact, an unfinished one—at least only three of its movements have survived. There is no finale, and the idea that Schubert could at this stage in his training with Salieri have intended that his Sonata should end with a minuet and trio is patently absurd.

The second and third movements of the Sonata—an Andante and the above-mentioned minuet and trio, marked Allegro vivace—are quite charming, music that even so gifted a teen as Schubert might be proud of. The first movement of D. 157, on the other hand, is a somewhat lesser achievement, ranking far lower on the musical totem-pole than do some of the songs composed in the months preceding (Lieder like Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 and Rastlose Liebe, D. 138). It is an energetic enough Allegro, and there is a pleasant contrast between the boisterous opening music and the dolce, sprightly second theme (which is actually the outgrowth of a subsidiary gesture from the first theme area); but the modulations are perhaps too square for comfort, the grand pause that precedes the cadence into the B major second group a trifle overdone. Worse, no amount of textural distraction—pianistic bombast, sforzandos, dramatic octaves—can hide the fact that the development is pure juvenilia. The way that the gentle second theme spills over sweetly into the coda, however, is more like the Schubert of musical legend, and, with the arrival of the charming, sicilienne-like Andante a few moments later, it is tempting to forgive and forget.

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