Unfinished symphony

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This article is about the musical term. For the 2001 documentary film, see Unfinished Symphony.

Several (classical) composers left fragments of symphonies that for various reasons could be considered incomplete or unfinished.

The archetypal unfinished symphony is Schubert's 8th (written in 1822, but not performed until 1865, several decades after the composer's death). It featured two fully orchestrated movements, while from some sketches it is clear Schubert originally intended to create a traditional four-movement symphony.

After the discovery of the two completed movements of this symphony (in the archives of the orchestra to which Schubert had sent them) music historians and scholars toiled to "prove" the composition was complete in this form, and indeed, in its two-movement form it proved to be one of Schubert's most cherished compositions.

The rediscovery of Schubert's unfinished symphony led to a flurry of interest in other lost, rejected, or unfinished works, such as those by:

Beethoven:
- Symphony No. 10: A hypothetical work, assembled by Barry Cooper in 1990 from fragmentary sketches left by Beethoven.
- There was also a reconstruction attempted of an early incomplete symphony.
Bizet
- "Roma" symphony: After eleven years of tinkering (1860-1871), with a partial performance in 1869, Bizet could still not present a final version of his Roma symphony.
- Symphony in C: Several decades after his death one of Bizet's rejected earlier works, the unpretentious Symphony in C, was rediscovered and needed only minor "finishing" to become an all-time favorite.
Borodin
- Symphony No. 3 Borodin drafted only two movements of this work, which were completed for publication by Glazunov
Bruckner:
- Symphony No. 9
Burgmüller
- Symphony No.2 Only the first two movements were finished. The third movement, a scherzo, was finished and orchestrated by Robert Schumann
Elgar:Burgmülle
- Symphony No. 3. Elgar left a mass of sketches for the four movements of this potentially major work, with a few passages fully scored. A highly creative performing version was achieved in 1997 by Anthony Payne.
Mahler:
- Symphony No. 10: Mahler left a continuous draft of this five-movement work, with the first and third movements more or less fully scored. These two movements (Adagio and Purgatorio) were prepared for publication by Franz Schalk and Ernst Krenek in 1924. Various orchestrations and performing editions of the entire symphony have been made since the 1960s, the best-known being that by Deryck Cooke (1960-64), subsequently revised with input from Berthold Goldschmidt, Colin Matthews and David Matthews.
Schubert, (apart from the archetypal "8th"):
- Symphony No. 7 composed in 1821 in full-score format though only the opening of the first movement is fully scored and much of the work is a single line. Completions by John Francis Barnett, Felix Weingartner and Brian Newbould exist.
- A "grand symphony" was announced by Schubert in 1824 - scholars long suggested other compositions as "outlines" of this elusive grand symphony, which was also referred to as the "Gastein Symphony". Since the 1970s it has been known that Schubert was in fact referring to starting work on his 9th Symphony.
- Yet another symphonic sketch became his "10th" or "Last" symphony.
Sibelius:
- Symphony No. 8: Heroic searches for the sketches of Sibelius's 8th, announced during his life several times, have been made, but any sketches were probably destroyed by the composer.
Tchaikovsky:
- 7th symphony: What is now generally known as Tchaikovsky's 3rd piano concerto was based on sketches for a symphonic work, that would have become his 6th symphony, if the composer hadn't abandoned the work. Sergei Taneyev built the Piano Concerto version on these scketches – more faithful to the original, Semyon Bogatyrev produced the Symphony version, now numbered "7".

Other "unfinished" "symphonic" works, that came in the spotlight from the late Romantic era on, include:

Bach
- The Art of Fugue, Bach's ultimate and unfinished work left many questions, despite it having been published by his sons shortly after his death. Until the late Romantic era it was seldom heard: it was considered an "unplayable" theoretical exercise - there even was no certainty which instrument(s) it ought to be played on; but it was brought to public attention in the early 20th century performed by a symphonic orchestra, the score being "completed" and "orchestrated" by Wolfgang Graeser.

Postmodern ("PoMo") composers have also contributed to the "genre" with deliberately "unfinished" works: