| Author |
Subject |
Richie
Henderson
Registered User
(10/5/00 4:51:50 pm)
Reply |
Unfinished?
My University Symphony is playing
Schubert "Unfinished", and we read it today. I read some literature
before class that implied the Symphony really was not unfinished,
but that there was strong evidence that Schubert intended it this
way. My conductor disagreed and told everyone that it was
unfinished, and he knows that because there is a sketch of what
Schubert intended. In my reading I read something about that being a
theory that was disproven. Is there a concensus on this issue in the
musical world? Where does the issue stand? I'd really like to hear
what things others have heard, or discussed.
|
Bob
Registered User
(10/5/00 7:10:55 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Unfinished?
The "Unfinished" symphony is only
the most famous unfinished work of Schubert's. There are many
others, including the early A major piano sonata, the
"Quartettsatz," and others. What's interesting is that none of these
were pieces that he was working on when he died; in every case he
went on to complete other, later works in the same genre. His unique
creative sensibility was such that he could apparently sense in
mid-stream when his genius was not firing on all 12 cylinders, and
he would set the work aside. Some works, perhaps, he later returned
to and managed to complete. Others he couldn't find his way out of.
There exists a fragment of a scherzo for the "Unfinished" symphony;
while I've not seen it, I've read an analysis which argued that it
was indeed on a lower artistic level than the two completed
movements.
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SlavaBilly
Registered User
(10/5/00 8:12:25 pm)
Reply |
Schubert's Unfinished
To me this piece is one of the most
ethereal and beautiful symphonies ever written. I always think that
it is not quite of this world, but rather something that has passed
over from another, less real world. Perhaps Schubert decided that
there was really nothing that could complement these two movements
effectively, so he simply left it.
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TerryM
Registered
User
(10/5/00 8:57:39 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Unfinished?
I recall a few years back that
someone attempted to 'complete' at least part of the symphony from
the surviving sketches and I even recall a recording that I heard of
this attempt. From what I heard, I would say that the reconstruction
job should of been left as a sketch. It was definitely not of the
same quality at all.
I always liked the idea of an
unfinished symphony...
Terry
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Richie
Henderson
Registered User
(10/5/00 10:42:35 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Unfinished?
Well, other things imply that he
wanted it like that. For instence I read that he was accepted to a
society of musicians and as a thank you he sent a letter that said
he would send the trascript of one of his Symphonys. He sent no. 8.
Why would he send a "work in progress" as a thank you. Plus the
thing is like 25 min. long, and it has a substantialy big ending. It
doesn't sound like it SHOULD go on.
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Bob
Registered User
(10/6/00 7:17:52 am)
Reply |
Re:
Unfinished?
Except that neither Schubert nor any
other composer had ever written a 2-movement symphony; that simply
wasn't what "symphony" meant. And the proportions of the completed C
major symphony exceed those of the "Unfinished," and there is just
as much "grandeur" at the end of its slow movement.
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