Schubert's Unfinished Symphony

[Aharon Lavie]

I would like to exchange some thoughts about a very old question: why didn't Schubert finish his famous B minor Eighth Symphony, the Unfinished.

At some point in the past I happened to see and hear the unfinished third movement, the Scherzo. My impression was that Schubert was not happy with it, that it was falling short of his expectation. This impression has been reinforced when I purchased a record collection named "Schubert. The 10 Symphonies." This collection also included a document by Brian Newbould, describing his view on the background of Schubert's life as related to the symphonies.

The way I understand this document, after Schubert completed his Sixth Symphony he had the ambition to write a great symphony, a task which he finally completed with his C major Ninth Symphony. However, in his efforts to reach this goal he made four attempts which he did not complete, the last of which is the now famous "Unfinished." The first two attempts are only symphonic fragments. The third is his seventh symphony, D. 729, which he completed horizontally but not vertically, i.e., for much of the score he wrote the parts for the leading instruments but not for all the remaining ensemble. The entire symphonic structure contains about 1300 measures of which about 950 contain a single line of music.

As for the B minor Eighth Symphony, the "Unfinished," listening to the incomplete third movement Scherzo I cannot escape the feeling that Schubert was not happy with it; and while he was struggling with the composition of this Scherzo, the Styrian Music Society at Graz conferred on him an honorary diploma. In gratitude he gave them the first two complete movements. Later he proceeded to compose his Ninth. In my humble opinion (for whatever it is worth), he simply declined to do any further work on the frustrating third movement.

Does anyone here have more information on this subject?

[MaestroX]

There are many speculations why the symphony was not finished. One theory is based upon the idea that the first two movements are so good that Schubert felt that another movement would add nothing to it. The two first movements were enough. We must not forget that Schubert, during the time when the symphony was composed (1822), encountered his first difficulties with his venereal infection, making it hard to continue his work. We also have to remember that this work was made in Schubert's mind, confident that it would never be performed by an orchestra as he would have desired, especially not with professional musicians. Therefore he arranged it for piano four-hand so that he and his brother could play it.

[ttw]

It seems that he go bored with it and went on to something else.

Not every good start gets finished.

[Ballaw de Quincewold]

My teacher told me that he didn't finish it because he didn't think it was worth finishing.

[Thorolf]

I’m more for the theory that he found that the composition was nice as it was, with two movemets only, but couldn’t release it as such due to the conventional idea that a symhony should have at least three movemets.

(Later on, e. g. Shostakovich, has written one-movment symphonies (2 & 3))

Does anyone know of other two-movement symphonies?

Regards

[reith]

Originally Posted by Aharon Lavie

I would like to exchange some thoughts about a very old question: why didn't Schubert finish his famous B minor Eighth Symphony, the Unfinished.

This collection also included a document by Brian Newbould, describing his view on the background of Schubert's life as related to the symphonies.

Does anyone here have more information on this subject?

As I understand, Schubert wrote a few symphonic fragments and unfinished symphonies - what? 6? I have a set of 6 CDs of Brian Newbold's realisations of all that have come to light (that also includes the symphonies Schubert completed). What strikes me is that a few represent quite a departure for Schubert upon which Newbould speculated. I'll look them up. Quite adventurous.

Reith.

[Aharon Lavie]

After reading the responses to my original comment about Schubert's eighth symphony in B minor, the Unfinished, I purchased and read two books by Brian Newbould, namely, "Schubert, the Music and the Man" (1992, ISBN 0-520-21065-4) and "Schubert and the Symphony" (1992, ISBN 0-907689-26-4) which provide more information about the known facts. Here are the facts, as I understand them:

Schubert composed the symphony for no external motivation - nobody requested nor commissioned it - and he told no one about it prior to promising it to the Styrian Music Society in Graz. He started composing it in piano style sketches, orchestrating it while in progress. The beginning of the piano score sketch is missing, therefore it is not known when he started composing it. The first page of the orchestral score carries the date October 30, 1822. Apparently his inspiration had strong impact on his orchestration, because there are substantial differences between the orchestral score and the piano sketches. After completing the first two movements, he proceeded to compose the third one, the scherzo, in piano sketch, orchestrated two pages of it in the orchestral score, and stopped short of finishing it. He left the symphony in this state until September 1823, when he offered the orchestral score to the Styrian Music Society in Graz in gratitude for awarding him its honorary diploma earlier in April. Before sending out the score, he tore the scherzo out, but he was forced to leave the first page of the scherzo in since it was written on the back side of the last page of the second movement. The torn out part, including the second page of the scherzo followed by the remaining unwritten pages, was discovered in 1968.

Schubert kept the piano sketches. After he died, his brother Ferdinand inherited it together with other manuscripts. Since Ferdinand proposed to number the ninth symphony, the Great in C major, as Symphony number 7, he apparently was either unaware of the unfinished symphony which was in his possesion, or did not appreciate it enough to include it in the symphony count.

The Styrian Music Society trusted the orchestral score to Anselm Huettenbrenner who kept it in his drawer until his brother, Josef Huettenbrenner, managed to alert the conductor Johann Herbeck to its existence and quality in 1860. Herbeck conducted the first performance on December 17, 1865.

After finishing his sixth symphony, Schubert made four attempts to compose a subsequent one, all unfinished. The eighth symphony in B minor is the last of these four. The first two attempts ended only with symphonic fragments. The third attempt is the seventh symphony which Schubert completed horizontally but not vertically. All four are included with the rest of Schubert's symphonies in the set of records "Schubert. The 10 Symphonies" by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with Neville Marriner, and the brochure by Brian Newbold.