Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony

Nineteenth Century Music

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 111-133

  Solomon, Maynard ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60950077367     PISSN: 01482076     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/746894     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. The autograph is in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna (A 244); see Sinfonie in h-Moll ("Die Unvollendete"): Franz Schubert: Vollständiges Faksimile der autographen Partitui und der Entwürfe, ed. Walther Dürr and Christa Landon, Publikationen der Sammlungen der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, ed. Otto Biba, vol. III (Munich, 1978)
2. For a facsimile of the title page, see Deutsch, SDB, p. 256
3. The paper bears the same watermark as a paper used, among others, for the "Wanderer Fantasy," D. 760 - the autograph of which is dated November 1822 by Schubert - and the Lieder, Die Mutter Erde, D. 788
4. and Pilgerweise, D. 789, both dated April 1823
5. See Robert S. Winter, "Paper Studies and the Future of Schubert Research," in Schubert Studies: Problems of Style and Chronology, ed. Eva Badura-Skoda and Peter Branscombe (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 222, 224
6. The manuscript is now in the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, facs. in Christa Landon, "Neue Schubert-Funde: Unbekannte Manuskripte im Archiv des Wiener Männergesang-Vereines," Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift 24 (1969), 299-323 (at p. 316)
7. Landon, who discovered it, writes that it "appears to have been kept by Schubert, and to have remained with his family after his death" (Landon, "New Schubert Finds," Music Review 31 [1970], 215-31 [at p. 226])
8. As suggested in Peter Gülke, Franz Schubert und seine Zeit (Laaber, 1991), p. 201
9. For a suggestion along these lines, see Martin Chusid, "The Historical Background," in Franz Schubert, Symphony in B Minor ("Unfinished"): An Authoritative Score, ed. Chusid, A Norton Critical Score (rev. edn., New York, 1971), pp. 7-8
10. Schubert: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, ed. Deutsch (Kassel, 1964), pp. 199-200
11. (trans. amended) (facs. in Richard Wickenhausser, "Der steiermärkische Musikverein in Graz," Neue Zeitschtift für Music 72 [1905], 466-69; Beilage, p. 499)
12. As a good-natured jest, Schubert's letter was designed to look like a certificate or diploma granted by him to the Musikverein, with the words "Löblicher Musikverein" and "Eines löblichen Vereines" appearing in bold calligraphy across the top of the letter and above Schubert's exaggeratedly formal signature in cursive script. Missing the humor of Schubert's response, a recent paper has proposed that the letter is inauthentic, allegedly fabricated or copied by Josef Hüttenbrenner. See R. Bozic, "Franz Schubert, die 'Unvollendete' u. der Steiermärk. Musikverein," in 175 Jahre Musikverein für Steiermark, ed. E. Kaufmann (Graz, 1990), with facs. on p. 34
13. The matter is summarized in Schubert Lexikon, ed. Ernst Hilmar and Margret Jestremski (Graz, 1997), p. 203 (see also pp. 118, 444). Proffered as evidence are the unusual design and the signature, which is said to have been copied from the "Unfinished" Symphony's autograph score. But the similarity in the signatures results from the fact that both were written by the same author; and the numerous minor points of difference in detail between them indicates that they were done independently of one another
14. Alfred Einstein, Schubert: A Musical Portrait (New York, 1951), p. 202
15. Maurice J. E. Brown, "Schubert, Franz," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1980), vol. 16, p. 761
16. Brown's authority is Felix Hüttenbrenner, "Anselm Hüttenbrenner und Schuberts H-moll Symphonie," Zeitschrift des Historischen Veteines für Steiermark 52 (1961), 122-37
17. Hellmut Federhofer, "Hüttenbrenner," Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Friedrich Blume (Kassel, 1949-86), vol. 6, col. 850
18. This same position is taken by Otto Biba, who suggested that the work might not have been sent to the Musikverein because "one can hardly imagine that a fragmentary composition would have made a particularly fitting gift" (Otto Biba, Franz Schubert: Ausstellung dei Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek zum 150. Todestag des Komponisten [Vienna, 1978], p. 238)
19. Most recently, Ernst Hilmar discounts the possibility that Hüttenbrenner "consciously suppressed" the Symphony and finds it "not unusual" to own a Schubert manuscript, which, he claims, were not particularly valued in mid-nineteenth-century Vienna. See Schubert Lexikon, p. 202
20. See also John Reed, Schubert, The Master Musicians (London, 1988), p. 103
21. M. J. E. Brown and Hans Ferdinand Redlich, "Franz Schubert," Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 12, col. 119
22. Brown, "Anselm Hüttenbrenner," The New Grove, vol. 8, p. 829
23. A report to Kreissle maintained that Schubert found Josef Hüttenbrenner "almost repugnant," despite his "undeviating veneration and readiness to serve" the composer (Deutsch, Memoirs, p. 175)
24. The arrangement, the manuscript of which is presently in the archive of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, is listed in Hüttenbrenner's Werkverzeichnis of 29 October 1858
25. and Landon, "New Schubert Finds," p. 228
26. According to Rudolf Feigl, Klar um Schubert: Beseitigung von Irrmeinungen, Fehlangaben usw. (Linz, 1936), p. 27, the arrangement may actually be in Josef Hüttenbrenner's hand
27. See also Schubert Lexikon, p. 203. If true, it probably indicates not that Josef wrote the arrangement, which he always attributed to Anselm, but simply that he made a fair copy of his brother's arrangement, whose name is on the title page
28. Josef Hüttenbrenner to Alexander Wheelock Thayer, 8 October 1860, Deutsch, Memoirs, p. 190. Josef called himself in this letter "Schubert's prophet, singer, friend and pupil" (ibid.)
29. Josef Hüttenbrenner to Johann Herbeck, 8 March 1860, cited in Ludwig Herbeck, Johann Herbeck: Ein Lebensbild (Vienna, 1885), pp. 164-65
30. Herbeck, Johann Herbeck, Ein Lebensbild, p. 166
31. Anon., "Ein steirischer Tondichter," Tagespost (Graz), 8 August 1863, quoted in Felix Hüttenbrenner, "Anselm Hüttenbrenner und Schuberts H-moll Symphonie," p. 133
32. Constantin von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 1750-1850 (Vienna, 1856-91), IX, 406ff
33. Kreissle von Hellborn, Franz Schubert (Vienna, 1865), pp. 255-56
34. abridged trans. in Kreissie von Hellborn, The Life of Franz Schubert, trans. Arthur Duke Coleridge (London, 1869), vol. I, pp. 257-58 (trans. corrected)
35. The orchestral works are the Overture to Hüttenbrenner's comic opera Armella, oder die beiden Vizekönigennen (1824)
36. the Overture to Schiller's drama Die Räuber (1857); and the Overture in C Minor (1837)
37. See Dürr and Landon, Sinfonie in h-Moll, pp. II-III
38. Johann Herbeck to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, 9 October 1866, Deutsch, Memoirs, p. 440
39. Josef Hüttenbrenner to his brother Andreas, 6 June 1865, Deutsch, Memoirs, p. 439
40. Josef Hüttenbrenner to his brother Andreas, 11 February 1867, Deutsch, Memoirs, p. 442
41. (trans. corrected: the original presumably should read, "Es machte die Ouvertüre nichts," not "Er machte die Ouvertüre nicht," as given in Deutsch, Schubert: Die Erinneiungen seiner Freunde [Leipzig, 1967], p. 390)
42. Josef failed to mention that Hanslick, in his review of the concert in the Neue freie Presse, ridiculed Anselm Hüttenbrenner as one who had kept Schubert manuscripts "locked in a trunk" and taken the key "to bed" at night. Eduard Hanslick, Aus dem Concertsaal: Kritiken und Schilderungen (Vienna, 1870), p. 350
43. Kreissle, Franz Schubert, p. 71, n. 1
44. It is difficult to evaluate the truth of this statement: what is certain is that the score was in Anselm Hüttenbrenner's hands by 4 April 1842, that being the date of his letter to Josef listing Schubert autographs in his possession (see p. 116 above)
45. Cited from Max Friedländer, Beiträge zut Biographie Franz Schuberts (Berlin, 1887), p. 44n.
46. in Ferdinand Bischoff, Chronik des steiermärkischen Musikvereines (Graz, 1890), p. 71n
47. The plain fact is that the score bears no dedication of any kind. Schubert's normal practice was to dedicate works on their publication, although he often inscribed autographs or fair copies of smaller works to intimate friends. During their early years of association with Schubert, both Hüttenbrenner brothers received such dedications, to Anselm of the Deutscher Tanz in Amusical flat sign Major, D. 365, no. 2 (" Trauerwalzer")
48. Bischoff, Chronik des steiermärkischen Musikvereines, p. 71. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that Anselm, as a leading member of the Verein, influenced the decision
49. The author even neglects to quote Schubert's letter of acceptance to the Musikverein with its promise to send it a symphony in full score, relegating it to a glancing reference in a secondary source quoted in his n. 9 (p. 135)
50. For an earlier article on the subject by Felix Hüttenbrenner, see "Zur Geschichte der H-moll-Symphonie," Sängeizeitung des Steirischen Sängerbundes 8, no. 2 (February 1928), 31-32
51. The information in what follows is drawn primarily from Bischoff, Chronik des steiermärkischen Musikvereines and Erika Eisbacher, Das Grazer Konzertleben v. 1815 bis März 1839 (diss., Karl-Franzens Universität Graz, 1956)
52. supplemented by data in Deutsch, SDB and Franz Schubert: Dokumente, 1817-1830, ed. Till Gerrit Waidelich, vol. I (Tutzing, 1993)
53. The statistics are subject to some variance because some programs have not survived; allowance must also be made for incomplete or ambiguous listings, insufficiently described compositions, and disagreements between the sources. See also E. Krempel, Anfänge der Grazer Konzertgeschichte (diss., Karl-Franzens Universität Graz, 1950)
54. and Bischoff, "Beethoven und die Grazer musikalischen Kreise," in Beethovenjahrbuch, ed. Theodor von Frimmel (Munich, 1908), I, 6-27
55. A Statistical tally of most frequently performed composers at all events in Graz between 1815 and 1838 shows a total of 1384 works, among them Rossini (140), Beethoven (87), Mozart (74), Hummel (31), and Haydn (19). Eisbacher, Das Grazer Konzertleben v. 1815 bis März 1839, p. 86
56. Waidelich, Franz Schubert: Dokumente, p. 276
57. Beethoven's domination of symphony performances in Vienna was quite similar: of symphonies performed at the first one hundred concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde between 1815 and 1840, Beethoven led with thirty-five, followed by Mozart (twenty), Krommer (five), Haydn (four), Lachner (three), and a handful of others with one or two. See Eduard Hanslick, Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien (Vienna, 1869), p. 292
58. See nn. 13 and 14
59. The Symphony No. 3 in D, D. 200, according to Dürr and Landon, Sinfonie in h-Moll, p. II. The first performance of the two movements by themselves was presented by Herbeck in a Gesellschaft concert of 4 November 1866
60. C. F. Pohl, Die Gesellschaft dei Musikfreunde . . . und ihr Conservatorium (Vienna, 1871), p. 86
61. Maurice Schlesinger to Beethoven, 3 July 1822, Ludwig van Beethoven: Briefwechsel Gesamtausgabe, ed. Sieghard Brandenburg (Munich, 1997), IV, 506 (no. 1476)
62. Hugo Wolf, in the Wiener Salonblatt, cited in Frank Walker, Hugo Wolf: A Biography (New York, 1952), p. 150
63. Reed, Schubert, p. 105
64. Walter Dahms, Schubert (6th-9th edn., Berlin, 1918), p. 130
65. Herbert F. Peyser, "The Epic of the 'Unfinished'," Musical Quarterly 14 (1928), 659-60. "Its very incompleteness may be due to Schubert's recognition of its tragic sense, to his unwillingness to mitigate the thrust and the deep appeasement thereof" (p. 644)
66. Joseph Müller-Blattau, "Schuberts 'Unvollendete' und das Problem des Fragmentarischen in der Musik," in his Von der Vielfalt der Musik: Musikgeschichte, Musiketziehung, Musikpflege (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1966), pp. 285-301 (at p. 288)
67. See also Hansgeorg Maier, "Anmerkungen zum Wesen des Fragments," Die Literatur 38 (1935-36), 555-57, cited by Müller-Blattau, p. 288, n.3
68. Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (New York, 1941), p. 783
69. Susan McClary, "Constructions of Subjectivity in Schubert's Music," in Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology, ed. Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas (New York, 1994), pp. 224, 227
70. Finally, Arnold Schering, in an outlandish reading that ignores the import of the sketches, proposed that the Symphony was written from the start in two movements as a musical realization of Schubert's "Mein Traum," his brief prose narrative dating from earlier in 1822. The argument rests shakily on the propinquity of the two works and on Schering's mistaken reading of "Mein Traum" as being, like the Symphony, in two sections. See Arnold Schering, Franz Schuberts Symphonie in h-moll und ihr Geheimnis, Kleine deutsche Musikbücherei, vol. 1 (Würzburg-Aumühle, 1939), pp. 14-16
71. Mosco Carner, "The Orchestral Music," in The Music of Schubert, ed. Gerald Abraham (New York, 1947), p. 63
72. The B-major ending in the score sketches was first discussed in Maurice J. E. Brown, Essays on Schubert (London, 1966), p. 10
73. Personal communication