1st symphony (Schubert)
The Symphony no. 1 in D major D 82 is a symphony of Schubert .
Emergence
Franz Schubert wrote the symphony in 1813 at the age of 16. When Schubert began composing is uncertain, but Schubert's note “Finis et Fine. October 28, 1813, when the work on the symphony was finished.
At this time his stay in the imperial-royal Konvikt came to an end, where he met his friend Joseph von Spaun and wrote to him in 1809 that “you lucky ones […] are now escaping prison”. In addition to the military-like school operations, his father was banned from composing because of Schubert's poor school performance.
The first performance of the symphony took place in Vienna in autumn 1813. It is uncertain whether the symphony was premiered by the orchestra of the Wiener Stadtkonvikt or by Otto Hatwig's Orchester-Verein, which emerged from the Schubert family's house quartet. The simplified scoring and the compositional simplification of a triplet of violins and viola in the 4th movement suggest that the orchestra association is the first organ of the symphony.
To the music
Orchestral line-up
One flute , two oboes , two clarinets in A, two bassoons , two French horns in D, two trumpets in D, timpani , first violin , second violin, viola , cello , double bass
First movement: Adagio - Allegro vivace
The individual parts of the movement have unusual dimensions within the framework of the symphony genre. The main theme extends to just 60 bars and the side set to 20 bars, while the third part extends to more than 80 bars.
In the solemn, slow introduction to the first movement, a triad in strings and winds runs through an octave, followed by a descending response from the violins. The last two bars of the introduction lead through a drum roll and a triad break to the Allegro vivace main theme of the movement. The main theme is similar to the theme from the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 3rd Symphony ("Eroica") both in gesture and in details of the structure.
In the recapitulation , not only the main theme but also the slow introduction is repeated. Something similar was found before Schubert's Symphony No. 1 was composed in the Posthorn Serenade KV 320 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , in Symphony No. 103 by Joseph Haydn (the "Symphony with the Drum Roll") and the Piano Sonata No. 8 by Ludwig van Beethoven (the "Pathétique").
Second movement: Andante
The movement is determined by the romance-like main theme in a 6/8 rhythm. The main part in the root key is repeated twice. While the first repetition (from bar 43) takes place in an expanded form, the second repetition (from bar 92) sounds like a recapitulation . In the second movement, Schubert's motivic processing is striking.
According to musicologist Walther Vetter, this andante has a "classicist echo, colorless, impersonal, epigonal" .
A widespread opinion assumes that Schubert based his composition on this Andante on the second movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 (the “Prague Symphony”). While both movements are in the same key and time signature and - to a limited extent - use the same themes, the other differences between the movements, according to musicologist Alfred Einstein , speak against this assumption.
Third movement: Menuetto. Allegretto
The third movement originally had the tempo designation “Allegro vivace”, which was later changed to “Allegretto” by Schubert. The movement adheres to the usual features of a minuet .
The allegretto tempo of the movement is emphasized by the striding gesture of the quarters in the bass. The 33-bar trio has the character of a country man; the cadence is characterized, among other things, by the introduction of an alternating note motif.
Fourth movement: Allegro vivace
The cheerful fourth movement follows the sonata form without a slow introduction; however, the exposure is not repeated.
The main theme has a simple structure. The side movement starts in measure 86 and is related to the main theme of the final movement in character and instrumentation and is very similar to the main theme of the first movement. After a shortened recapitulation , the coda begins in bar 336 with accelerated triplets and a chromatically descending bass line.
effect
On February 5, 1881, the work was performed again on the occasion of a performance of all Schubert symphonies at the Crystal Palace in London . The British press has been impressed by the maturity of the music, measured against the young age of its composer. For example, The Guardian wrote :
“A particularly interesting item on the program was the performance of Schubert's Symphony No. I - a really wonderful work when you consider that the composer was a 'guy' of just 16 years. It has melodic richness, is captivatingly orchestrated and shows no traces of the imbalance between content and form, which is so often the hallmark of ›early works‹. "
The symphony was published in 1884 as part of the Old Complete Edition of all Schubert symphonies, edited by Johannes Brahms , by Breitkopf & Härtel . Brahms did not attest Schubert's so-called youth symphonies a high artistic value and was of the opinion that they "should not be published, but only preserved with piety and perhaps made available to several in copies" .
In his time Antonín Dvořák was one of the few admirers of Schubert's early symphonies, in which - despite the influence of Haydn and Mozart - he recognized Schubert's individuality in the "character of the melodies", the harmonic progression and the many exquisite details of the orchestration .
The autograph of the symphony is now kept by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna .
literature
- Renate Ulm (Ed.): Franz Schubert's Symphonies. Origin - interpretation - effect. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-423-30791-9 .
- Wolfram Steinbeck : "And a romance poured out over the whole thing" - The symphonies. In: Schubert Handbook. Bärenreiter, Kassel, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7618-2041-4 , pp. 549–668.
- Hans Joachim Therstappen : The development of form in Schubert, shown in the first movements of his symphonies. (= Collection of individual musicological presentations 19), Leipzig 1931.
- Ernst Laaff : Schubert's Symphonies. (= Dissertation Frankfurt 1931) Wiesbaden 1933.
- Maurice JE Brown: Schubert Symphonies. BBC Publications, London 1970.
- René Leibowitz : Tempo and Character in Schubert's Symphonies. in: Franz Schubert. Special volume music concepts, Munich 1979.
- Brian Newbould : Schubert and the symphony - A new perspective. London 1992.
- Helmut Well: Early work and innovation - studies on Franz Schubert's »youth symphonies« (Kiel writings on musicology). Volume 42, Kassel 1995.
Web links
- 1st Symphony (Schubert) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walther Vetter : The classic Schubert. Leipzig 1953, volume 1, p. 144.
- ↑ Alfred Einstein : Schubert. A musical portrait. Zurich 1952, p. 49.
- ↑ Johannes Brahms ' letter to Breitkopf & Härtel from March 1884, in: Johannes Brahms: Briefwechsel. Volume 14, p. 353.
- ^ A b John Clapham: Antonín Dvořák. Musician and Craftsman. London 1966 (Appendix II) pp. 296–305: Franz Schubert, by Antonín Dvořák. P. 296ff.