D. 759
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Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (sometimes renumbered as Symphony No. 7, in accordance with the revised
Deutsch Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to: *''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places *''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym *Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...
catalogue and the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe), commonly known as the ''Unfinished Symphony'' (german: Unvollendete, link=no), is a musical composition that Schubert started in 1822 but left with only two movements—though he lived for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in
piano score The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
but with only two pages
orchestrated Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
, also survives. It has been theorized by some musicologists, including
Brian Newbould Brian Newbould (born 26 February 1936) is an English composer, conductor and author who has conjecturally completed Franz Schubert's Symphonies D 708A in D major, No. 7 in E major, No. 8 in B minor ("Unfinished") and No. 10 ("Last") in D major ...
, that Schubert may have sketched a finale that instead became the big B minor ''
entr'acte (or ', ;Since 1932–35 the French Academy recommends this spelling, with no apostrophe, so historical, ceremonial and traditional uses (such as the 1924 René Clair film title) are still spelled ''Entr'acte''. German: ' and ', Italian: ''inte ...
'' from his incidental music to '' Rosamunde'', but all evidence for this is circumstantial. One possible reason for Schubert's leaving the symphony incomplete is the predominance of the same meter ( triple meter). The first movement is in , the second in and the third (an incomplete scherzo) again in . Three consecutive movements in basically the same meter rarely occur in classical symphonies,
sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...
s, or chamber works. Schubert's Eighth Symphony is sometimes called the first
Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
symphony due to its emphasis on the lyrical impulse within the dramatic structure of Classical sonata form. Furthermore, its orchestration is not solely tailored for functionality, but specific combinations of instrumental timbre that are prophetic of the later Romantic movement, with astonishing vertical spacing occurring for example at the beginning of the development. To this day, musicologists still disagree as to why Schubert failed to complete the symphony. Some have speculated that he stopped work in the middle of the scherzo in the fall of 1822 because he associated it with his initial outbreak of
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
—or that he was distracted by the inspiration for his '' Wanderer Fantasy'' for solo piano, which occupied his time and energy immediately afterward. It could have been a combination of both factors.


Early history

In 1823, the Graz Music Society gave Schubert an honorary diploma. He felt obliged to dedicate a symphony to them in return, and sent his friend
Anselm Hüttenbrenner Anselm Hüttenbrenner (13 October 1794 – 5 June 1868) was an Austrian composer. He was on friendly terms with both Ludwig van Beethovenhe was one of only two people present at his deathand Franz Schubert, his recollections of whom constitute an ...
, a leading member of the Society, an orchestral score he had written in 1822 consisting of the two completed movements of the ''Unfinished'' plus at least the first two pages of the start of a scherzo. This much is known. What may never be known is how much of the symphony Schubert actually wrote, and how much of what he did write he gave to Hüttenbrenner. The following exists: * The first two movements, complete in full score * The first two pages of a scherzo in full score The rest of the scherzo (except for the missing second strain of the trio) exists in a separate manuscript in
short score Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabi ...
(not sent to Hüttenbrenner, but found among Schubert's copious manuscripts after his death and carefully preserved by his devoted schoolteacher brother Ferdinand), along with a complete short score of the second movement and the end of the first movement, but nothing of any fourth movement. A fourth movement finale in the home key (B minor) would have been the norm for any symphony written at that time, but there is no direct evidence that Schubert ever started work on it. It has, however, been surmised that the most extended ''entr'acte'' from ''Rosamunde'' (also in B minor, in the same style of the first movement and with the same instrumentation as the symphony) was indeed that fourth movement, which Schubert recycled by inserting it into his ''Rosamunde'' incidental music composed in early 1823 just after the ''Wanderer Fantasy''. The Schubert scholar Brian Newbould, who harmonized, orchestrated and conjecturally completed the piano sketch of the scherzo, believed this to be true; but not all scholars agree. Pages appear to have been torn out after the beginning of the scherzo in the full score sent to Hüttenbrenner, in any event. That Hüttenbrenner neither had the work performed, nor even let the society know he had the manuscript, is curious and has spawned various theories. Old age and approaching death seem to have influenced Hüttenbrenner to reveal the work to an important and gracious visitor at long last (in 1865, when he was 71 and had only three more years to live). This was the conductor
Johann von Herbeck Johann Ritter von Herbeck (25 December 1831 – 28 October 1877) was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer, born in Vienna, best known for leading the premiere of Franz Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony. He was practically a self-educa ...
, who premiered the extant two movements on 17 December 1865 in Vienna, adding the brilliantly busy but expressively lightweight perpetual-motion last movement of Schubert's 3rd Symphony in D major, as an inadequate finale, expressively quite incompatible with the monumental first two movements of the ''Unfinished'', and not even in the correct key. The performance was nevertheless received with great enthusiasm by the audience. The score of those two movements was not published before 1867. The ''Unfinished'' Symphony has been called No. 7 (recently, for example, in the New Schubert Edition) instead of No. 8 as it usually is, since the other work sometimes referred to as Schubert's 7th (in E major, completed by Felix Weingartner) was also left incomplete but in a different way, with at least fragments of all four of its movements in Schubert's hand.


The completed movements

The two complete movements (scored for 2
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
s, 2 oboes, 2
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
s, 2
bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
s, 2
horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
s, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and
strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
), which are all of the symphony as it is performed in the concert repertoire, are:


I. Allegro moderato

The first movement, in B minor, opens in sonata form, softly in the strings, followed by a
theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
shared by the solo oboe and clarinet. A typically laconic Schubertian transition consists of just four
measure Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Mea ...
s for the two horns, effectively
modulating In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...
to the
subdominant parallel Parallel and counter parallel chords are terms derived from the German (''Parallelklang'', ''Gegenparallelklang'') to denote what is more often called in English the "relative", and possibly the "counter relative" chords. In Riemannian the ...
key of G major (measures 38–41). The second subject begins with a celebrated lyrical melody in that key, stated first by the cellos and then by the violins (sometimes drolly sung to Sigmund Spaeth's words as "This is ... the sym-phoneee ... that Schubert wrote but never fin-ished") to a gentle
syncopated In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...
accompaniment. This is interrupted by a dramatic closing group alternating heavy tutti '' sforzandi'' interspersed with pauses and developmental variants of the G major melody, ending the exposition. ;Opening melody (celli and basses) : \relative c ;First theme (oboe and clarinet) : \relative c'' ;Second theme (celli) : \header \score An important moment in the first movement occurs in measure 109 (and repeats in the recapitulation in measure 327). In these measures, Schubert holds a tonic B pedal in the second bassoon and first horn under the dominant F chord, that evokes the end of the development in Beethoven's ''Eroica'' Symphony. Unusually for sonata form, the development section begins with a quiet restatement of the opening melody in the
subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...
( E minor), a tonality usually reserved for near the end of a sonata form movement somewhere in the recapitulation or
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
, and rises to a prolonged climax in the same key, starting with a dramatic variant of the opening melody in the full orchestra with prominent trombones. The expected
relative major In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major an ...
(D) of the tonic minor first appears only at the end of that climax, and then again for the second subject of the recap (in place of the expected tonic
B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its ...
)—instead of much earlier, in the second subject of the exposition, as customary. The flutes and oboes then resume their melodic role at the end of that dramatic outburst, transitioning to the recapitulation. The recapitulation consists mostly of orthodox sonata-form restatement of the themes, except that Schubert restates the melodious second theme in the relative key of D major instead of the usual B major (parallel to the tonic B minor). The dramatic closing section, however, does end in B major and leads to a coda in the tonic B minor. This recalls the opening theme for still another, final, dramatic reworking to pave the way for the emphatic concluding chords.


II. Andante con moto

The second movement, in
E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...
, alternates two contrasting themes in
sonatina form A sonatina is a small sonata. As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form, but is shorter and lighter in character, or technically more elementa ...
(sonata form without development, with a quietly dramatic, elegiac, extended coda that could be characterized as a concluding development section). The lyrical first theme is introduced by the horns, low strings, brass, and high strings playing in
counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
. The plaintive second theme, in minor, after four simple unharmonized notes in transition spelling out the tonic chord of the relative C minor quietly by the first violins, begins in the solo clarinet in C minor and continues in the solo oboe in
C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...
in an example of the major–minor juxtapositions that are a hallmark of Schubert's harmonic language. A dramatic closing theme in the full orchestra returns to C minor, but ends in D major (the enharmonic equivalent of C major). A short transition back to the tonic E major ushers in the recapitulation—notable for how it restates the second theme in the subdominant
A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...
(instead of the expected tonic parallel E minor) begun by the oboe and continued by the clarinet (vice versa to their roles in the exposition). The coda starts with a new theme that is simply an extension of the two-bar E major
cadential In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (19 ...
figure that opens the movement. This gives way to the laconic triadic first-violin transition motto, which leads to a restatement of the first theme by the woodwinds in distant
A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...
followed by the motto again leading back to the tonic E major for a final extended transformation of the first theme, leading in turn to a final extended version of the opening
cadential In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (19 ...
figure that reappears to close.


Third and fourth movements

The fragment of the scherzo intended as the third movement returns to the tonic B minor, with a G major trio. The first 30 measures are preserved in full score, but the entire rest of the scherzo proper (both strains) only in
short score Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabi ...
. Only the first strain of the trio exists, and that as a mere unadorned, unharmonized single melodic line. The second strain is entirely absent. After Hüttenbrenner's release of the two completed movements of the ''Unfinished'' to Herbeck, some music historians and scholars took much trouble to "prove" the composition complete even in the truncated two-movement form, and indeed that abbreviated structure alone has captivated the listening public to consider it as one of Schubert's most cherished compositions. The fact that classical tradition was unlikely to accept that a symphony could end in a different key from the one it began in (with the B minor first movement and the E major finale by default incomplete), and the even more undeniable fact that Schubert had begun a third movement in B minor (leaving precisely 30 bars of fully orchestrated scherzo and 112 succeeding bars in short score), stands against the view that the two completed movements can legitimately stand alone.


Reception

Reviewing the premiere of the symphony in 1865, the music critic
Eduard Hanslick Eduard Hanslick (11 September 18256 August 1904) was an Austrian music critic, aesthetician and historian. Among the leading critics of his time, he was the chief music critic of the ''Neue Freie Presse'' from 1864 until the end of his life. H ...
wrote: He ended by stressing that the symphony is among Schubert's most beautiful instrumental works.


Modern completions

In 1927–28, Felix Weingartner composed his Sixth Symphony, ''La Tragica'' (in memory of 19 November 1828, the day Schubert died), as a tribute to Schubert on the centenary of his death. The second movement of Weingartner's symphony is a realization of Schubert's incomplete sketch of the scherzo (seventy years before
Newbould Newbould is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Alfred Ernest Newbould (1873–1952), British cinematographer and politician *Brian Newbould (born 1936), British composer, conductor and author *Frank Parkinson Newbould (1887–1951), ...
's independent effort). In 1928, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's death,
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
held a worldwide competition for the best conjectural completion of the ''Unfinished''. About 100 completions were submitted, but also a much larger number of original works. The pianist
Frank Merrick Frank Merrick CBE (1886–1981) was an English pianist and composer in the early 20th century.Obituary, ''The Times'', 21 February 1981, p. 14 Life Merrick was born in Clifton, Bristol, Clifton, now part of Bristol, the son of musical parents.Me ...
won the "English Zone" of the competition; his scherzo and finale were later performed and recorded (on Columbia), but are long out of print. Only some of the completions—Merrick's is not one of them—used material from Schubert's scherzo sketch. The first movement of
Joseph Holbrooke Joseph Charles Holbrooke (5 July 18785 August 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. Life Early years Joseph Holbrooke was born Joseph Charles Holbrook in Croydon, Surrey. His father, also named Joseph, was a music hall music ...
's Fourth Symphony, one of the British entries, is mostly a performing version of the sketch (the second strain of the trio of which, entirely missing from the sketch, had to be conjecturally completed), and a theme from the scherzo appears in his finale. Independent completions of the scherzo movement also were made by
Geoffrey Bush Geoffrey Bush (23 March 1920 – 24 February 1998) was a British composer, teacher and music scholar. Largely without formal training in composition, he produced a wide range of compositions across different genres, including many songs and wor ...
in 1944 and conductor Denis Vaughan c. 1960. More recently, British musicologists Gerald Abraham and Brian Newbould have also offered completions of the symphony (scherzo and finale) using Schubert's scherzo sketch and the extended B minor ''entr'acte'' from his incidental music to the play ''Rosamunde'' Schubert wrote a few months later, long suspected by some musicologists as originally intended as the ''Unfinished''s finale. (In fact, it was even played as the finale as long ago as the British premiere of the symphony on 6 April 1867.) Its first movement, the scherzo sketch and the ''entr'acte'' are all in B minor, their instrumentation is the same, and the ''entr'acte'' (like the first movement) is in sonata form (as are all Schubert's symphonic finales) and in a very similar style and mood. If the ''entr'acte'' indeed started life as the finale of this symphony, then Schubert evidently recycled it (probably at that stage unorchestrated) from the symphony to the incidental music, presumably orchestrating it for the play and perhaps making compositional changes. British pianist and Schubert specialist Anthony Goldstone prepared a new 4-movement performing edition of the Symphony for piano duet, using the transcription of the first two movements prepared by Hüttenbrenner, his own completion of Schubert's Scherzo, and the ''Rosamunde entr'acte'' in a transcription by Friedrich Hermann, edited by Goldstone. The work in this completed version was given its first recording in 2015 by Goldstone and his wife/duet partner Caroline Clemmow as part of their 'Schubert: Unauthorised Piano Duos' series for Divine Art Records. The Russian composer completed the scherzo sketch and created a new finale for the symphony (some themes of the latter based on themes from several Schubert piano works), which he described as "an attempt to move into the mind of the composer". His completion was performed at the
Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
in London on 6 November 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and on 2 October 2007 with the Russian National Orchestra (followed by the American tour in the early 2008,) both performances conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Due to his unusual use of material from Schubert keyboard works in the finale, Safronov's completion has been subject to criticism varying from definitely positive to ambivalent and negative. Robin Holloway, Cambridge University professor of composition, has realized the Scherzo based on, but not bound to, the sketches; e.g., with two trios, the first from Schubert's sketch and the second entirely his own composition. It was premiered by the Cambridge University Musical Society on 18 June 2011. In January 2019, Chinese technology company Huawei used artificial intelligence to create hypothetical melodies for the third and fourth movements, based on which Lucas Cantor then arranged an orchestral score. The composition was performed live at
Cadogan Hall Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), the first ...
in London on 4 February 2019. However, many consider that the result is disappointing and far from Schubert's style.
Goetz Richter Goetz Richter is a musician, violinist and teacher. He is Associate Professor and Chair of Strings at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Director for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He is involved in music competitions including most recently ...
writes, for instance: "The completed movements are trivial and achieve ultimately a loose and inauthentic family resemblance to Schubert".


In popular culture

* The symphony's first movement was used as a leitmotif in the 2002 film directed by
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
, ''
Minority Report Minority Report may refer to: * Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09 * "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon * "The Minority Report ...
'', starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell. * In the 1957 Harvey Films '' Casper the Friendly Ghost'' animated short
Boo Bop
'' Casper discovers the ghost of Franz Schubert struggling to "finish" the symphony at his original piano in a Museum of Music. Schubert's ghost keeps playing the second/celli theme of the first movement on the piano, but is repeatedly distracted, first by Casper and then by outside noises such as a clopping horse, a shooting gallery, construction, and traffic. Casper silences the offending noises through various means, then helps inspire Schubert's ghost to compose past the end of that theme. *At the start of the 1979 comic film '' Being There'', directed by Hal Ashby, the character Chance, played by Peter Sellers, wakes as a television remotely snaps on, showing an orchestra performing the subject symphony. The implied connection may be to the character's abnormally "unfinished" personality.


See also

* The composer and pianist Leopold Godowsky composed a '' Passacaglia with 44 Variations, cadenza and fugue on the opening theme of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony'', for solo piano. Godowsky added a quarter-note F to the beginning of Schubert's theme, as an anacrusis. * The composer Gilad Hochman composed a contemporary homage to Schubert's Symphony titled ''Shedun Fini'' ( metathesis of the word 'Unfinished') for a
clarinet–cello–piano trio A clarinet–cello–piano trio is a clarinet trio made up of one clarinet, one cello, and one piano, or the name of a piece written for such a group. This formation is similar to the classical piano trio except that the violin is replaced by th ...
in form of Prelude and Allegro, using different quotations and stylistic influences.


References

Notes Sources *


Further reading

* Corey Field, editor. ''The Musician's Guide to Symphonic Music: Essays from the Eulenburg Scores''.
Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...


External links

*
Piano reduction
(''Note:'' the PDF shows C-naturals in measures 198 and 200 of the first movement; these should be C-sharps.)
About the Composition: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 ("Unfinished")
Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

OGG Recording {{Authority control No. 08 Schubert, Symphony 008 Schubert 8 1822 compositions Compositions by Franz Schubert published posthumously Compositions in B minor