Schubert's (Unfinished) Symphony in B Minor

Author(s): George Grove

Source: The Musical Times , Dec. 1, 1907, Vol. 48, No. 778 (Dec. 1, 1907), pp. 790-792
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/904360

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790 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-DECEMBER I, 1907.

SCHUBERT'S priests
struck up a solemn piece, and the officiants-three (UNFINISHED) SYMPHONY
and two choir rulers, all in cloth of gold copes-came slowly
IN B MINOR.
forth from the sacristy.
BY SIR GEORGE GROVE, C.B.
Advancing up the dusky northern aisle, I mounted the
stately escalier at the end of it, and took my stationAllegro moderato. B minor.
close to
Andante
the parclose screen of the choir, ready to assist at the service. con moto. E major.
A small one-manual organ-the only instrument Thesethe
two movements, and nine bars of a thir
cathedral
all that exist
boasts-stood on the floor against the northern of the
wall of Schubert's Eighth Symphony.
They
quasi-transept, and about it was stationed were
a choir ofcomposed
men in the year 1822, in com
with the opera of 'Alfonso and Estrella' and th
who sang the psalms in concerted parts under the baton of
in A flat. The autograph manuscript-now
an ecclesiastic, while the antiphons were chanted to the
possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreu
plain song by the clergy in the apse of the high choir.
Vienna-is The
on oblong paper, freely but very
latter got a trifle flat, causing the faces of the outside
written, withchoir,
great grace in the writing, and w
rare corrections.
who, by the way, were in the garb of every-day The first page is dated 'Vie
life, to exhibit
Oct.
tokens of risibility, while sundry winks and3oth, 1822.'
nudges whichThis was no doubt the day on
Schubert
passed between them had anything but began to write, and judging from th
an ecclesiastical
appearance. The Office hymn, the Lauda marked on his other Symphonies, the two mov
-SionvSalvatorem,
probably
sung to its proper ancient melody, was very occupied
enjoyable, him no more than a week or te
but at
to put on paper. For the Scherzo he made consid
the conclusion of the Magniftcat the individuals in plain
sketches, which are also preserved in the libr
clothes above mentioned decamped, leaving the inside choir
the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna, bu
to get on as best they might, and making do not seemdeal
a good of
to have satisfied the composer, and
unnecessary clatter as they descended thenever
steps completed.
and went outThe Unfinished Symphony rem
along the aisle, through whose open in door the sunlight
manuscript and concealed till the spring of
playing on the pavement of the piazza in front
when ofpublished
it was the by Spina, of Vienna,
was first performed in this country at the C
cathedral produced a most charming effect.
Palace Saturday Concert of April 6, 1867.
Organ-playing seems to be at a lowSymphony ebb in Italian
No. 6, in C, was performed at the C
churches, judging by some of thePalace voluntaries
SaturdayMr.Concerts of November 21, 186
Bumpus heard. At Verona March 12, 1881. No. 7 (in the key of E) is a sket
skeleton,
The procession did not at once enter the ofpassed
choir but an unprecedented nature, the work
across the Cathedral to a chapel in the complete from
South aisle, wherebeginning to end, as to the l
the Bishop offered up some preliminary parts; but the score
devotions, the is not filled up after the
of the first Allegro. [This Symphony, which
organist playing meanwhile the slow movement from the
the date 'August, 1821,' was given by Ferdin
overture to Zampa ! But then one does not feel surprised at
Schubert to Felix Mendelssohn, who, it is
anything he may see or hear in an Italian place of to
intended worship.
have completed it, an intention wh
Mr. Street in his Brick and Marble alludes to the abominably
premature death prevented him from carryin
The score
light opera music he heard in many a church, then
and came into the possession of P
which
Mendelssohn,
sounded, as may readily be imagined, very the composer's brother, who pre
discordant within
their solemn walls, adding that he had it to Sir
even George
heard Grove. The symphony was
a polka
ultimately
played by the organist of St. Mark's, Venice; completed
and a friendby Mr. John Francis Barnett,
and performed at the Crystal Palace Concerts of
whose veracity is not to be impugned informs me that one of
the organ pieces played during High May Mass5, 1883, and March
at Milan was 8, 1884. See a paper, by
Mr. Barnett, on the subject, read before the Musical
the Largo al factotum from Rossini's II Barbiere di
Siviglia !
Association on June 9, 189I. Proceedings, vol. xvii.,
1890-91, p. 177.-ED. Al.T.]
The following summarises the opinion which our Four years and a-half had passed between the
author formed of Italian church music during his Symphony of I818 (No. 6) and that under notice, and
travels : in the interval Schubert had become a man. If we
wish to know what that interval did to him, we have
Many a student of ecclesiastical music starts for Italy under
only to listen to this B minor Symphony, and to bear
the impression that he will hear the sublime strains of Allegri
No. 6 in mind, and we shall not be in doubt. That,
and Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, and Vittoria in the land
though full of the fire and fusing power of real genius,
of their birth, but when he arrives there he will find himselfwas coloured by all sorts of antecedents. It reflected
woefully deceived, Experto crede. Although my visit to theHaydn, it reflected Rossini, it was the work of a
Land of Song extended over the whole of June, which last youth-a splendid youth-but still a youth open to all
year embraced the great festivals of Pentecost, Trinity the influences and impressions around him. But, as
in the case of a youth not less remarkable, it was the
Sunday, Corpus Christi, the Sunday within its octave, the
time for 'swallowing formulas,'* and here in his
Nativity of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter, spent
respectively at Verona, Bologna, Modena, Piacenza, Pavia,'Unfinished' Symphony we see Schubert, after swallow-
ing and digesting all the formulas that his predecessors
and Turin, each containing a cathedral of the first class, the
music I heard in them was of the feeblest and most trivialhad to administer, giving them out in his own truly
original and independent forms and colours. While
description. Travel certainly expands the mind, but itthe Symphony of 1818 was continually recalling some
destroys many a pleasant illusion. obscure or half-obscure reminiscence, that in B minor
In conclusion, the book is a most readable one from never (except perhaps in one place) suggests a thought
of anybody or any music but Schubert and his own
cover to cover. It is fully illustrated and beautifully
got up. To anyone interested in church architecture most characteristic strain. In fact the gap between
or church music, no more suitable Christmas the work of 1818 and the work of 1822-between the
present or New Year's gift could be found than ages of twenty and twenty-four-is both wide and deep.
'The Cathedrals and Churches of Northern Italy' * Carlyle on Mirabeau in Lis French Revolution, vol. i., Book IV.,
by Mr. T. Francis Bumpus. chap. iv.

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 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-DECEMBER I, 1907 791
I. There is here no introductory movement as thereand clarinets, and sounding like an echo of the
is in the other Symphonies by this master; but thebeautiful theme :
Violins (in octaves).
Allegro commences at once with the following No. 5-
mysterious passages in the violoncellos and double
basses:

No. . AAlegro moderato.

VP~3.al.e
sop Violas & V'cellos

It is immedia
gipsy characte
r I

natural in the
in a semiquave
No. 2. Oboe & Clarinet. Then the th
the first section of the movement. This is then
repeated, and we arrive at the 'working-out.'
The whole of this development section is full of
/I.06
personal feeling, of the history of cruel disappoint-
ments at
This-finished up by short blasts of the brass, and broken hopes. It begins with a modified
version of the original passage for the basses and
once effective and suggestive-is very soon succeeded
by the 'second subject' of the movement, in a phrase
every- borrowed therefrom-the violins in octaves,
thing but tenderness and beauty a complete the violas and bassoons answering in imitation-so
contrast
to the first-but in those qualities as completeinstrumented
a rival. as to convey a curious cold, forlorn
The second subject is in G, and the transition feeling,
fromlike that in the analogous place in the Finale
of Schubert's Symphony in C :
B minor to the new key is managed in the following
simple manner, the long holding note imparting No. 6. a
peculiar suspense to the transition :
fzd Bassoons & Horns.

I ----.---. -....
P2: M~
No. 3. pp .
Ezjiff? I Va. & Bssn.

The new subject-not altogether unlike that in IL L I L L - .4 I L I - L -.

first movement of the string quintet in C by the
composer-is first heard in the violoncellos, acc
panied by the clarinets and violas in syncopated n
and is then taken up by the violins in octaves :
cres - cen - do. &c.
Clarinets & Violas (an octave lower).

- V'cellos.-.--- -, cres cen-do.

There are some passages where a

Basses. phzz. "!s
is succeeded by a sudden fall; others where the
syncopated accompaniment proper to the lovely second
theme is heard; and yet Schubert's depression is too
great to enable him to utter the accents of hope and
peace conveyed in the subject itself. In fact, this
section exhibits the most unmistakable picture of keen
expectations, indulged only to be disappointed. And
who can wonder ? Conceive oneself the possessor of
gifts such as those which Schubert possessed;
I I I I
imagination in its grandest, wildest, and most delicate
flights; tenderness to a degree which no poet or
composer ever surpassed, and for proof of which we
need turn to no other work than that now before us;
&c. melody such as few musicians have been gifted with;
facility and power of expression which Mozart himself
might have envied ; and yet all these rich endowments
not sufficing to give their possessor his proper place
among his fellows, or even to lift him above the cares
This art
and miseries of the lowest station in life ! Difficult as
brough it is to believe, we are forced to accept the testimony
bursts of his associate Lachner, who told a friend of the o
simple familiar grace passes unscathed. If this writer's that Schubert looked just like a cabman-
Allegro be, as it must be, a true picture of the mindwie ein Fiaker. We also know from other equally
and heart of its composer, what a combination of trustworthy sources that he often had to go without his
simple gaiety with terrible gloom and distress must dinner ! Conceive the distress of a man thus gifted
have reigned therein ! and thus placed, and we shall no longer wonder at the
tones alternately so touching, so wild, so artless, so
A phrase out of the last quotation gives rise to some
imitative exchanges between the violas and violoncellos
gloomy, so furious, which appeal to us more or less
on the one hand, and the violins in octaves on from all Schubert's compositions, but from none so
the other, supported by sustained notes in the flutesirresistibly as from this.

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 792 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-DECEMBER I, 1907.

II. The second movement, Andante conused moto, if inlessthe basses, with an imi
at the
tragical in tone, is not less touching than distance
the of one bar :
Allegro.
It is throughout a miracle of wild, tender grace.
No. 9. Viol.Itz.
opens with a phrase in the horns accompanied by the
basses in a descending scale f5izzicato, which leads
into the melody of the principal theme (in the violins)
and serves to punctuate and divide the periods of the
movements throughout :
- -
Andante con .noto. ,PPw

No. 7. --- - T--I--- -

NO- 7-60 V'cello.

I , --- --- -" -- -~z :l-

~ ____ e5T 47

N 16,1 iii -air.

After this the return to the first subjec
LpC 1_ 14. F- by short phrases in the oboe, flute, clarin
is nothing short of magical.
So far the published movements. The
ment of the Scherzo is as follows :

f13 No. 0o. Allegro. Tuttl Unison.

F" --

The second theme of the movement, heard first in
the clarinet and then in the oboe, and accompanied
by an agitated figure in the violins and violas, is
indescribably touching in its character. It is heralded
by a short passage in the first violin alone, calling
attention, and, as it were, proclaiming silence for it,
and gently leading into two bars of syncopated
accompaniment :
No. 8. Viol. Iz.
Strings.__. '- -4
Oboe.
31
&c.
So is left incomplete a work which for its nameless
charm and its power over the listener is undoubtedly
Schubert's finest and most characteristic orchestral
composition. The treatment of the wind instruments
throughout in any other composer would be called
masterly. To Schubert it seems to have been simply
native. So absolutely is the art concealed that the
effect is everything and the means are nothing. In no
other piece of music, perhaps, is the feeling so entirely
produced that one has been in communication with
the very person of the composer himself.

[As an interesting sequel to the above analysis, the

Clarinet. "---- following letter, written by Sir George Grove to
Mrs. Wodehouse, may be quoted from Mr. C. L.
Graves's 'The life and letters of Sir George Grove, C.B.'
p. 368.-Ed. A. T.]
Lower Sydenham, S.E.,
April, 189I.
. . How infinite are the gradations of
feeling! so very near to each other and yet so
different-I thought this when I listened to those
two wonderful movements of Schubert's B minor
Symphony. What miles they are above F.M.B.,
in some particulars even above - . Please
cres. f &e.
forgive me! you know my feeling for him
(B.), and yet if one judges by the transport that
is in it, one cannot doubt. It is not that it is
greater. It is dearer, nearer. Isn't it strange
This beautiful, speaking how melody issweet,
critics can hear those continued
great things, and for
eleven bars longer, and is(I then
suppose) entertaken up
into them, innever
and yet the showkey of
D flat by the oboe; but it itsoon
by a wordgoes in their off
wretchedinto
accounts?imitations
Could
between oboe and flute, which show
you write down us
an account what
of the grace
performance of and
beauty were at last to come out
the B minor of
and not the
by ten wordsplay of the
just let the
wind instruments so frequent inthat
world know theit hadearlier Symphonies.
fetched, transported you,
In the latter portion of tho'
the movement
you had the
no room for more than theme is
ten lines?'

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