Schubert's symphonies
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Franz Schubert began thirteen symphonies, of which up to ten are generally numbered, but only completed seven; nonetheless, one of his incomplete symphonies, the Unfinished Symphony, is among his most popular works.
Early symphonies
By 1818, Schubert had completed 6 symphonies:[1]
- (1813)
- (1814–1815)
- D 200, Symphony No. 3 in D major(1815)
- D 417, Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Tragic (1816)
- (1816)
- D 589, Symphony No. 6 in C major, Little C major (1817–1818)
There is also an early unfinished symphony:
- Symphony in D major[formerly D 997] (1811?, fragment of the first movement is extant)
Late symphonies
Apart from the Great C major (D. 944), all of Schubert's late symphony projects remained unfinished.[2]
- Symphony in D major(1818, piano sketches of two movements are extant)
- Symphony in D major(after 1820, piano sketches of all four movements are extant)
- D 729, Symphony (No. 7) in E major(1821, sketches of all four movements are extant)
- D 759, Symphony (No. 8) in B minor, Unfinished (1822, unfinished – two complete movements and a fragment of a "Scherzo" third movement are extant; the "Entre-Acte nach dem I. Aufzug", D 797 No. 1 is possibly the fourth movement)
- D 936A, Sketch of a Symphony (No. 10) in D major(1828?, piano sketches of all three movements are extant)
- D 849)
Despite the Deutsch number, D 936A is a later work than D 944.[3]
Numbering issues
Confusion arose quite early over the numbering of Schubert's symphonies, in particular the Great C major Symphony. George Grove, who rediscovered many of Schubert's symphonies, assigned the following numbering after his 1867 visit to Vienna:
- No. 7: E major, D 729 (completely sketched but not entirely scored by Schubert, with multiple historic and modern completions)
- No. 8: B minor, D 759 Unfinished
- No. 9: C major, D 944 Great C major
Breitkopf & Härtel, when preparing the 1897 complete works publication, originally planned to publish only complete works (which would have given the Great C major No. 7), with "fragments", including the Unfinished and the D 729 sketch, receiving no number at all. When Johannes Brahms became general editor of that project, he assigned the following numbers:[4]
Some of the disagreement continued into the 20th century. George Grove in his 1908 Dictionary of Music and Musicians, assigned the Great C major as No. 10, and the Unfinished as No. 9 (it is unclear from his article which symphonies, fragmentary or otherwise, are Nos. 7 and 8).[5] The 1978 revision to the Deutsch catalogue leaves the order as follows:
As a consequence, generally available scores for the later symphonies may be published using conflicting numbers.[7]
Grove and Sullivan also suggested that there may have been a "lost" symphony. Immediately before Schubert's death, his friend
In conclusion, the resulting and most current order followed by the English-speaking world is:
- No. 7: E major, D 729
- No. 8: B minor, D 759 Unfinished
- No. 9: C major, D 944 Great C major
- No. 10: D major, D 936A
Completions
D 708A, D 729, D 759, and D 936A have been completed by Schubert scholar Brian Newbould.[9][10] D 729 has additionally been completed by John Francis Barnett and Felix Weingartner.[11] Brian Newbould additionally orchestrated the existing sketches for D 615.[3]
References
- ^ Newbould 1999, Chapter 6: "The Early Symphonies", pp. 73–89
- ^ Newbould 1999, Chapter 22: "The Late Symphonies", pp. 373–388
- ^ a b Liner notes by Brian Newbould to Mackerras' recording
- ^ Lindmayr, p. 56
- ^ Grove (1908), pp. 320–328
- ^ 1978 Deutsch Catalogue
- ^ See references below for citations containing different numbers for the Unfinished Symphony.
- ^ a b Newbould (1999), p. 385
- .
- ^ "Discovering Music - the Spirit of Schubert - Schubert Fragments - BBC Sounds".
- JSTOR 958822.
Sources
- ISBN 978-3-7618-0571-8.
- Grove, George; Fuller-Maitland, John Alexander (1908). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, volume 4. Macmillan. OCLC 407077.
- Lindmayr-Brandl, Andrea (2003). Franz Schubert: Das fragmentarische Werk (in German). Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-08250-1.
- ISBN 9780520219571.
Numbering of symphonies
The following citations illustrate the confusion around the numbering of Schubert's late symphonies. The B minor Unfinished Symphony is variously published as No. 7 and No. 8, in both German and English. All of these editions appeared to be in print (or at least somewhat readily available) in 2008.
- Schubert, Franz (1996). Symphony, No 7, D 759, B minor, "Unfinished" (in German). Bärenreiter. OCLC 39794412. German-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as No. 7.
- Schubert, Franz (2008). Symphony No. 7 in B minor D 759 Unfinished Symphony. Eulenburg Audio+Score Series. Eulenburg. ISBN 978-3-7957-6529-3. English-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as No. 7.
- Schubert, Franz; Reichenberger, Teresa (1986). Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 Unfinished (Paperback). ISBN 978-3-7957-6278-0. English-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as No. 8.
