Schubert’s Unfinished Masterpiece
Franz Schubert’s most popular masterpieces lie in his chamber music and piano works, yet his most famous work by far, is a symphony. Composed in 1822 and premiered in 1865, Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” remains an incredible mystery in the canon of classical music. In addition to the mysticism already surrounding other unfinished works, such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 10, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 (or even Schubert’s other unfinished works), the B minor symphony retains the most haunting reputation. Additionally, the work was unfinished intentionally, or rather, Schubert died six years after ceasing work on it. If he had wanted to finish the piece, he would have. While there are many theories as to why it was left unfinished ranging from his contraction of syphilis, to his preoccupation with the Wanderer Fantasy, to his possible satisfaction with a two-movement symphony, the piece leaves many questions unanswered. The two fully existing movements of the symphony not only mark Schubert as a remarkable symphonist, but simultaneously predate and establish many attributes of a romantic Symphony. The first movement opens with the key of B minor (an uncommon key for a symphony to begin with), in a lyrical and deeply unsettling theme played by the celli and basses. After this introductory theme, the clarinet brings in the main theme of the exposition before transitioning to the submediant of G major for the second theme, played by the celli. This is an unusual key area to reside for a piece written in B minor. Schubert then saves the introductory theme not for the recapitulation (serving as evidence that it is indeed an introduction and not a main theme), but for the coda.
Focusing primarily on the second movement of the symphony, it contrasts two themes in quasi-sonata or sonatina form. The key relationship of the first and second movements (B minor to E Major) is peculiar. Schubert moves to the sub-dominant. This departure from the common practice of moving to the relative key (which he incidentally does within the second movement), is perhaps a way to grapple with the anxiety of influence. Most notably in his third and fifth symphonies, Beethoven utilizes “traditional” key relationships, and moves to the relative keys when composing second movements. In his third symphony, Beethoven moves from the key of E-flat to the key of c minor. Furthermore, in his fifth symphony, he moves from the stormy and fate filled key of c minor, to the warm of innocent key of A-flat major. Schubert does no such thing when writing his unfinished symphony. In the years following Beethoven’s death in Vienna, composing a symphony seemed a fool’s errand. Why attempt to add to a genre that has already been fully realized, or so many people of the day thought. By experimenting with different key relationships, Schubert seems to be removing himself from the admittedly gargantuan shadow of Beethoven. Moreover, Schubert at this point in his life, did not see fit to publish many of his works. Though very mature and expertly constructed, his symphonies prior to the unfinished symphony have very clear and tangible ancestry in Mozart and Beethoven, notably his Symphony No. 6, as compared with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. This phenomenon would later prove to torment many other composers such as Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, though both of them had different ways of dealing with it. Brahms seems to pay homage to Beethoven pretty clearly in his first symphony, while Wagner altogether abandons the genre. Schubert merely tries to move (and rather successfully) the genre in a completely different direction with his unfinished symphony. Indeed, Schubert separates himself from Beethoven predominantly by his use of key relationships and texture.
The first two bars of the piece provide introductory material that is both textural and harmonic at the same time. Much like the ambiguity of the first few bars of the first movement, it is unclear as to what exactly the role of these two bars are, other than that they seem to act as structural markers. The E major lyrical first theme is introduced by the horns, low strings, brass, and high strings playing in counterpoint. The second theme--brought about after four simple unharmonized notes in transition, played quietly by the first violins, building the tonic chord of the relative C-sharp minor--begins in the clarinet in C-sharp minor and continues in the solo oboe in C-sharp major. This contrast of minor and major is a common technique used by Schubert in his harmonic language, notably in his String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, where he can’t seem to make up his mind on whether or not the piece is in g minor or G major. Additionally, the relationship of the C-sharp minor second theme to the E major main theme seems to be what should be the relationship of the overall keys of both movements. By using this relationship within a movement, Schubert adds a certain grandiose to a single piece of music, which helps the fact that there are only two movements of the overall symphony.
As the music progresses to a climax, Schubert utilizes much of the same textural tools as in the first movement. Fast moving notes in string middle voices to re-affirm the prominence of a theme seems to be a preferred tactic of this symphony, as he does this in both movements. In the first movement, he uses this after a tension building moment in the development section. Here we see boiling 16th note passages in the strings while the winds have the main theme above:
In the second movement, Schubert uses this trick in the re-statement of the C-Sharp minor theme in the first violins. Here, we see that the second violins and the violas seem to be fulfilling the same 16th-note textural stratification that occurred in the first movement.
Schubert closes the moment in a dramatic theme that returns to C-Sharp minor, but then, in a twist, takes the listener to D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of C-sharp major. With a brief transition, the listener then is returned to the tonic E major. Instead of stating the second theme in E Major, which would be the expected parallel, Schubert uses the subdominant key of A minor.
The coda of the movement ushers in a new theme (simply the main theme with a two bar cadential figure added on). Subsequently, Schubert then uses the famous and key-less violin transition figure to bring in a brief re-statement of the theme in A-flat major before returning once again to E Major for a final extended incarnation of the main theme. To close the symphony, Schubert uses the same textural elements (the pizzicati in the celli and basses) as the opening to seemingly bookend the movement.
