Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)

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Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished (German: Unvollendete), was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives. It has long been theorized that Schubert may have sketched a finale which instead became the big B minor entr'acte from his incidental music to Rosamunde, but all the evidence for this is circumstantial.[1] One possible reason for Schubert's leaving the symphony incomplete is the predominance of the same meter (three-in-a-bar). The first movement is in 3/4, the second in 3/8 and the third (an incomplete scherzo) also in 3/4. Three movements in a row in exactly the same meter do not occur in any of the symphonies, sonatas or chamber works of the great Viennese composers.

Contents

[edit] Early history

Although the two completed movements of the symphony were written in 1822, Schubert only made them public in 1823 when he gave them to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, in his role representative of the Graz Music Society, which had given Schubert an honorary diploma. The movements were not performed until 17 December 1865, when they were conducted in Vienna by Johann Herbeck, who had persuaded Hüttenbrenner to show him the score and who added the last movement of Schubert's Third Symphony as the finale.[2]

Sometimes this work is referred to as Symphony No. 7 (for example in the New Schubert Edition), since the other work sometimes referred to as Schubert's 7th was also left incomplete, but in a different way.

[edit] The completed portion

The key of the symphony was unusual for a symphony written in the Classical period, and shows elements of the transition into the romantic Period: Neither Haydn, Mozart nor Beethoven wrote a symphony in B minor. His first movement starts in B minor, and modulates to a second subject in G major after a surprisingly short four measures of transition.

The two complete, and completely orchestrated movements, which are all of the symphony as it is performed in the concert repertoire, are:

[edit] First Movement: Allegro moderato in B minor

The symphony's first movement is in sonata form, opening softly in the strings followed by a melody sounded by the oboes and clarinets. A typical Schubertian transition consists of just four measures, effectively modulating to the submediant key of G major (mm. 38-41). The second subject group — one of Schubert's most famous — is played by the celli and repeated by the violins. An emphatic closing theme features heavy sforzandi, and is based on continual development of the second subject.

An important moment in the first movement occurs in measure 109 (and is repeated 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. Unfortunately in recent times, a well meaning (but inexperienced) editor removed this dissonance by altering the second bassoon and first horn part. Conductors must check these parts carefully to make sure that the 'B' pedal is intact.

The development section is extended and features a reworking of the primary theme group. Near the end, the flutes and oboes recapture their melodic role from the movement's beginning, preparing a transition to the recapitulation.

The recapitulation follows standard sonata form principles, except for a somewhat unusual modulation for the second subject. Instead of the conventional employment of the tonic (B minor), Schubert composes the second subject in D major (initially, we heard this theme in G major). The closing theme reaches the threshold where the exposition had repeated, but leads instead to a coda in the tonic that recalls the opening theme.

[edit] Second Movement: Andante con moto in E major

The second movement alternates between two contrasting themes. The first features counterpoint between the basses, horns, and violins. The second theme appears first in the solo clarinet before passing to the other woodwinds. Both themes are interrupted by episodes of counterpoint, and are repeated in variation.

The fragment of the scherzo intended as the third movement returns to B minor.

[edit] References to Schubert's unfinished symphony

  • Leopold Godowsky composed a Passacaglia with 44 Variations, cadenza and fuge on the opening theme of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, for piano.[3]
  • The principal theme is heard prominently and repeatedly in the movie Minority Report as Tom Cruise's character attempts to construct the yet-"unfinished" murders.
  • The first subject of the first movement was also used on The Smurfs as the leitmotif of the villain Gargamel.[citation needed]
  • It was also featured in an episode of the television series The Simpsons, where Lisa's school band played the piece, with Homer believing it would be very short due to its title.
  • An episode of the Casper cartoon series was entirely centered on the two pages for piano of this symphony. In it, Schubert's ghost continuously tries to complete them, but his concentration is constantly interrupted by street noises.[citation needed]
  • Briefly sampled by Beck in the song "High Five (Rock the Catskills) from the album Odelay (1996).
  • Japanese musician Yoshiki Hayashi used some themes of Unfinished Symphony in his rock symphony Art of Life (X Japan, 1993)
  • In Akira Kurosawa's 1947 film One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi), the impecunious lovers are unable to attend a performance of this work. Towards the end, the man Yuzo is shown leading an imaginary orchestra in a performance of this symphony with his lover Masako being the sole member of the audience.
  • In Billy Wilder's movie Double Indemnity (film), there is a scene in which the characters played by Fred MacMurray and Jean Heather sit down and talk in the woods having the Hollywood Bowl as background, and a portion of the first movement of the Unfinished Symphony can be heard coming from the concert being played in that venue.
  • The main theme of the symphony is also utilized in the soundtrack for the PC Game Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far.
  • The opening theme of Schubert's 'Unfinished Symphony' was also used by the Brazilian Power/Progressive metal band Angra, on their debut album 'Angels Cry'. It was a short instrumental piece called 'Unfinished Allegro', used as a classical introduction to the legendary song 'Carry On'.
  • The "protagonist" of Being There (the 1979 film after the novel by Jerzy Kosinski), nimbly underplayed by Peter Sellers, is shown right at the start in his grim Washington, D.C., flat, watching TV as always, and what's on is none other than an orchestra playing the "Unfinished" Symphony.

[edit] Modern completions

After Herbeck's discovery of the two completed movements of this symphony, some music historians and scholars toiled to "prove" the composition was complete in this form, and indeed, in its two-movement form it has proved to be one of Schubert's most cherished compositions. The fact that classical decorum was unlikely to accept that a symphony could end in a different key from its beginning, and the even more undeniable fact that Schubert had begun a third movement (of which the score he gave to Huttenbrenner included the first page) seems to disprove the thesis.[4]

In 1928, the anniversary of Schubert's death, the Columbia Graphophone Company held a world-wide competition to complete the symphony (see the article on the competition for citations). Probably about 100 completions were submitted, but also a much larger number of original works. The pianist Frank Merrick won the 'English Zone' of competition and his scherzo and finale were later performed and recorded, but are now largely forgotten.

Only some of the completions - Merrick's is not one of them - make use of Schubert's sketched scherzo. Orchestrations of the scherzo only (the trio of which had to be completed) were made by Geoffrey Bush in 1944 and the conductor Denis Vaughan in about 1960.

More recently, the English musicologists Gerald Abraham and Brian Newbould have also offered completions of the whole symphony, using Schubert's scherzo and the entr'acte from his incidental music for the play Rosamunde. This movement had long been suspected by some musicologists to be the finale for this symphony.[1] (In fact, it was played as a finale at the symphony's British premiere on 6 April 1867.) Both works have B minor as their fundamental key, they have identical instrumentation, the entr'acte is in sonata-form (as are all Schubert's symphonic finales) and they share a very similar mood. If the entr'acte indeed started life as the finale of this symphony, then Schubert evidently discarded it (probably at that stage unorchestrated) from the symphony and used it instead in the play, presumably only orchestrating it for this purpose and perhaps making compositional changes.

The Russian composer Anton Safronov has completed the 3rd movement upon the Schubert's sketch and created a new finale for the symphony (some themes of it are based upon a number of Schubert keyboard works), which he has described as 'an attempt to move into the mind of the composer'. Safronov's completion was performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London on November 6th, 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.[5]

[edit] Audio files

Ogg file format - http://www-plan.cs.colorado.edu/henkel/fso/index-en.html - CD1

Performers 
ENSEMBLE: Fulda Symphonic Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Simon Schindler
Recording 
LOCATION: Fürstensaal des Stadtschlosses Fulda
DATE: 2000-04-09 (recorded)
ALBUM: 1. Benefiz Symphonie-Konzert
TRACKNUMBER: 6 - 7
License 
LICENSE: EFF Open Audio License (http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal.php)
Movement Time File size External download
1. Allegro moderato 14:28 21.1 Mb http://www-plan.cs.colorado.edu/henkel/fso/cd1/track06.ogg
2. Andante con moto 10:45 15.2 Mb http://www-plan.cs.colorado.edu/henkel/fso/cd1/track07.ogg

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Brian Newbould, Schubert and the Symphony: A New Perspective, p. 189 and pp. 294-6
  2. ^ http://www.stocktonsymphony.org/Program06-Schubert.htm
  3. ^ A recording of this composition of Godowsky, by the pianist Rian de Waal is available on Helios CDH-55206
  4. ^ Brian Newbould, op. cit. pp.180-181
  5. ^ The Guardian, 11 July 2007

[edit] Further reading

  • Corey Field, editor. The Musician's Guide to Symphonic Music: Essays from the Eulenburg Scores. Schott Music Corporation
  • Brian Newbould, Schubert and the Symphony: A New Perspective (Toccata Press, 1992)

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Symphonies by Franz Schubert

No. 1 in D major · No. 2 in B flat major · No. 3 in D major · No. 4 in C minor (Tragic) · No. 5 in B flat major · No. 6 in C major (Little) · No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished) · No. 9 in C major (Great)

Fragmentary: No. 7 in E major • No. 10 in D major (Last)

List of compositions by Franz Schubert