Program Notes

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished” (1822)

Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, three trombones timpani and strings 

After hearing the remarkable Eighth Symphony of Franz Shubert, there is really only one thing left to say. That one thing is not a statement, but a question. And that question is the same one that has been asked by everyone from musicologists to record-collectors. That question is this: WHY? Why, we ask, was one of the most overwhelmingly original and deeply inspired symphonic statements of the 19 th century only two movements long? Why, in short, was the “Unfinished” symphony left – well – unfinished?

If we examine Schubert’s symphonies as a whole, we find something that usually raises eyebrows. Though Schubert wrote six completed symphonies between 1813 and 1818, he left the next four, including the eighth, incomplete. Most were in early stages of composition. It seems that the composer was struggling to find solutions to symphonic form and harmonic structure that would take him beyond what he had written so far. And during this struggle, he seems to have hit pay dirt with the eighth, and the thing that has been the most baffling is why Schubert wasn’t inspired enough by this incredible start to carry it through to the end. It can be an irritating point if one bothers to give it any thought. I suppose most are content to bask joyfully in the movements we do have.

The symphony was both begun and set aside in 1822. Schubert did begin a third movement, a scherzo, which was complete up to the melody for a trio section. Several attempts have been made to complete it, but none have proved satisfactory in comparison with what Schubert himself left us in the two preceding movements. The symphony was never performed in Schubert’s lifetime, but after a long and complicated history, it was finally given its premiere on December 17, 1865.

The symphony begins with an ominous rumbling in the cellos and basses, a theme shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. This barely audible pronouncement reaches into the very depths of the soul and when its final note is deliberately drawn out, it seems an eternity. This theme could easily be mistaken for an introduction, but its notes of searching tragedy will play a key role in the movement. The tension is finally relieved when the strings take up an agitated accompaniment, and an oboe and clarinet, as if in defiance to the nervous energy, introduce a brooding theme that unfolds slowly and deliberately. On its repeat it is taken up by the orchestra which builds to a mighty climax. The bassoons and horns persistently hold on to a single note of the crashing B minor chord, encouraging the rest of the winds to join them as they gently glide into the new key of G major. A gentle syncopated accompaniment begins in the clarinets and violas, and here Schubert introduces one of the most famous melodies in the world, happily played by the cellos. Soon the theme is taken up even more gleefully by the violins. But the joy is short-lived and the melody, which we would be happy to hear go on forever, is suddenly cut off. Soon a series of violent chords reassert the movement’s true character. When the chords stop, a snippet of the second theme gently reasserts itself, but it is tossed carelessly about, and the orchestra builds again to breaking point. With this new surge of energy exhausted, the second theme cautiously makes another attempt to take charge, first in the strings, then a solo flute, but it, too, soon becomes a spent force. One more outburst leads the orchestra into the development section. Here the orchestra seems to be almost obsessed by the theme that was introduced in ominous rumblings to begin the movement, several times interrupting a pale ghost of the famous second theme represented only by its accompaniment before exploding into a wail of grief. With its grief and energy now depleted, the music falls quietly back into the recapitulation section. But here, Schubert gives us not the movement’s opening theme, but the agitated accompaniment and the oboe-clarinet melody. Soon the ominous opening theme once more dominates in the coda, and the movement ends with a final, dramatic utterance.

The opening of the second movement offers us a tranquil escape from the foreboding which has just come before it. A gentle lyricism is evident in the lovely first theme. The second theme brings back some of the agitation, and is remarkable for its time in that Schubert is able to sustain an adventurous, almost startling tonality, which shifts to remote keys. The two main themes alternate throughout and the coda presents an unaccompanied violin melody, sharing time with the winds, and the symphony ends in gentle serenity.