4th Symphony (Schubert)

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The Symphony no. 4 in C minor , D 417, called tragic Symphony , was 1816 by Franz Schubert composed.

Emergence

The symphony was written a year after the Third Symphony , in the course of April in 1816, when Schubert was just 19 years old. According to Schubert's note at the end of the score, the symphony was completed on April 27, 1816. When the symphony was written, Schubert was working as a “school assistant at his father's school in Vienna at Himmelpfortgrunde No. 10 ”and applied - despite the advocacy of his former teacher Antonio Salieri but unsuccessfully - for a position as a music teacher in Ljubljana . At the same time, Schubert was also able to record a success with his first paid commission, the now-lost Prometheus cantata , for the name day of the professor of political science Heinrich Joseph Watteroth .

With the composition, Schubert implemented his wish to write a symphony in a minor key for the first time. The external reason for the composition of the symphony was the "Hatwig'sche Orchester", for which the Symphony No. 4, the Symphony No. 5 and the Symphony No. 6 were probably composed. A performance by this orchestra - in the Schottenhof or Gundelhof - is possible, but not guaranteed.

To the music

Subsequently titled by the composer himself, the title "Tragic" refers to the troubled moments that can be found in the work. He repeatedly gave cause for discussion and criticism: Antonín Dvořák described the adjective as “deep pathos ”, and Robert Schumann criticized: “... one would make completely different demands on a tragic one”. Harry Goldschmidt stated that Schubert had faced an intellectual problem with the work that he was not even able to cope with in his youth: “He wanted to write a 'tragic' symphony, and lo and behold, it just turned out to be a 'pathetic' one . "

Schubert's decision to call the symphony “tragic” gave Schubert research the impression that Schubert was “looking for a new way of dealing with Beethoven” in order to “meet the 'ethical requirements' of Beethoven's art”. Accordingly, Schubert chose the key of C minor “not by chance, but under the impression of V. Beethoven's ” and other Beethoven works such as the string quartet op. 18.4 and the Coriolan overture .

But on June 16, 1816, shortly after the completion of Symphony No. 4, Schubert expressed himself skeptical to Antonio Salieri about Beethoven, saying that Beethoven “is almost entirely due to this bizarre, which combines the tragic with the comic , the pleasant with the adverse, the heroic with Heulerey, the most sacred with the Harlequin, confused, not differentiated [,] puts people in a frenzy [,] instead of dissolving in love [,] makes people laugh instead of raises them to God " . According to Wolfram Steinbeck, it is rather the case that both - Beethoven and Schubert - have a common starting point: tradition; As a result, both would deal with tradition in their own different ways.

Besides the “ Unfinished ”, the work is the only symphony by Schubert in a minor key. The performance of the four movements takes about 30 minutes in total.

Orchestral line-up

Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , timpani , first violin , second violin, viola , cello , double bass

1st movement: Adagio molto - Allegro vivace

The first movement differs from the usual key scheme. The subordinate movement is not, as would be the case with C minor, the basic key of the symphony, on the III. Degree in E flat major, but on the VI. Degree in A flat major. The movement as a whole is - like the final movement - characterized by a syncopated rhythm.

After a 29-bar introduction - the longest to date in a Schubert symphony - after the introduction of the main and secondary themes, their increased repetition takes place; This process is repeated in the short implementation and in the recapitulation . At 70 bars, the epilogue is unusually long compared to the main and subordinate movements. After the basic key is only reached in the recapitulation in the course of the epilogue and the major key emerges more and more clearly in the secondary movement, the movement ends, in contrast to the epithet of the symphony, in a radiant conclusion.

2nd movement: Andante

In the Andante, too, Schubert deviates from the conventional key scheme in that the movement is not in the major parallel that is usual for minor works, which would be in E flat major, but in the major counter-sound of A flat major. This approach finds its role model in Ludwig van Beethoven , namely in his Symphony No. 5 and the " Pathétique ". However, Schubert may have acted in this way out of his preference for the subdominant space. The movement, which is 270 bars long, consists of a five-part repetition with the ABAB-A'- Coda scheme .

The 52 bars of the Andante are introduced by a string section in pianissimo, followed by the solo oboe. After this the flutes and clarinets can be heard again, which, after the oboe and bassoons have been added, end the A section. The cantable Andante theme is contrasted by energetic B-flat sections, which, however, are opposed by chains of sighs from the first violin and the woodwinds.

The Andante received the sharpest criticism from the movements of Symphony No. 4, because of its length. Schubert's biographer Walther Vetter wrote that the symphony lacked "artistic unity, because the slow [sic!] Movement is not on par with the other movements". While Vetter described the sentence as "typical interior decoration" of the bourgeoisie, musicologist Alfred Einstein spoke of the "breadth and weakness" of the sentence. In the foreword to the Eulenburg score no. 507, Grabner called the movement one of the “significantly more valuable parts of the work”.

Nevertheless, the movement, along with an arrangement for piano four hands, appeared in score as early as 1871 by Peters / Leipzig.

3rd movement: Menuetto. Allegretto Vivace

With its idiosyncratic rhythm, in which the 3/4 time and the meter of the Choriambus contradict one another, and its tempo indication, the character of the minuet corresponds to what Beethoven had called "Scherzo" since his Symphony No. 2 . While the simple theme of the minuet consists of a chromatically played and chromatically descending scale, giving the minuet a “tragic” character, the trio consists of a dance melody in the usual three-quarter time and pizzicato-like violin accompaniment.

4th movement: Allegro

The finale is of an urgent character that fits the basic key of C minor, which leads to a festive end of the movement at the end. The movement alternates between five tonal levels.

The movement begins with a four-bar opening credits that look like the prelude to a song and were later supplemented by Schubert with a bassoon figure. The same four-bar figure, also added later, can be found between the end of the exposition and its repetition and in the introduction before the recapitulation . It is unclear at which of these places this four-stroke motif was entered first and which of the three places was subsequently added.

The movement ends in C major with trumpets and quadruple horns without a coda . While for Walther Vetter the “tragic [b] minor” was just a “facade”, Alfred Einstein described the phrase in C major as “not a real solution” and “conventional”.

effect

The first guaranteed performance took place on November 19, 1849 under the direction of August Ferdinand Riccius in a concert organized by the music society " Euterpe " in Leipzig , more than two decades after Schubert's death. After this concert, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik wrote :

“The symphony cannot be compared in structure or execution with the great C major symphony [it was first performed in Leipzig in 1839 and had a tremendous effect]; it is made smaller and the flow of thoughts is not so great. But it offers so much of the beautiful in its four movements; in particular the last movement in its blazing passion wants to appear to us as the most important, where the composer emancipates himself more from the influence of Haydn and Mozart. The andante is also rich in interesting harmonic combinations - in short, we are infinitely happy to have got to know a work that is significant in Schubert's development "

- New magazine for music : 31, 1849, p. 240f.

On December 2, 1860 there was a concert conducted by Johann von Herbeck in the Redoutensaal in Vienna , which consisted of the first two movements of Symphony No. 4, the third movement of Symphony No. 6 and the finale of Symphony No. 3 . Based on the first two movements of the fourth symphony that sounded at this concert, music critic Eduard Hanslick judged that the first movement was "not exactly independent or brilliant in its invention", but wise ...

“[…] But a mature musical feeling, at the same time a more precise summary of the form than the later instrumental things of the master. In Mozart's manner of expression, the andante brings Schubert's thoughts peculiarly; It is a pity that the gentle, uniform feeling of the piece (moreover by rosalia chains and the like) is unduly drawn out "

- Eduard Hanslick : From the concert hall. Reviews and descriptions from the last 20 years of Viennese musical life , Vienna 1870, pp. 206f.

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 people through copies”.

In his day Antonín Dvořák was one of the few admirers of Schubert's early symphonies, in which - despite the influence of Haydn and Mozart - he emphasized Schubert's individuality in the “character of the melodies”, the “harmonic progression” and the “many exquisite details of the orchestration” recognized.

The score, consisting of 94 upright, twelve-line sheet music, is now in the possession of 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 .
  • Henning Bey: Freedom in reflection. On the Sublime by Schiller and the Tragic Symphony in c minor by Schubert. In: M. Kube (Ed.): Schubert-Jahrbuch 2003-2005. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-1984-5 .
  • Arne Stollberg : The “most tragic fight and victory”? Schubert's 'Fourth Symphony' in the context of contemporary tragedy theory . In: Schubert: Perspectives. Volume 7, 2007, ISSN  1617-6340 , pp. 137-225.
  • Wolfram Steinbeck : "And a romance poured out over the whole" - 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, represented in the first movements of his symphonies (= collection of musicological individual representations , 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 the »youth symphonies« Franz Schubert (= Kieler Schriften zur Musikwissenschaft, Volume 42). Kassel 1995.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from: Rüdiger Heinze: IV. Symphony in C minor. In: Renate Ulm (Ed.): Franz Schubert's Symphonies. Origin - interpretation - effect. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-423-30791-9 , p. 121f.
  2. ↑ quoted from: Hans Gunter Hoke, cover text for LP Eterna 725 065 (1987)
  3. ^ A b Walther Vetter : The classic Schubert. Volume 1, Peters, Leipzig, 1953, p. 271
  4. ↑ Hans Joachim Therstappen: The development of form in Schubert, represented in the first movements of his symphonies. (= Collection of individual musicological presentations , 19). Leipzig 1931, p. 43.
  5. ↑ Otto Erich Deutsch (Ed.): Schubert. The documents of his life (= Franz Schubert: New edition of all works ). Kassel etc. 1964ff. (New Schubert edition), Kassel etc. 1964, p. 45.
  6. ↑ Wolfram Steinbeck: "And a romance poured out over the whole" - The symphonies. In: Schubert Handbook. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-7618-2041-4 , pp. 593f.
  7. ^ A b Walther Vetter : The classic Schubert . Volume 1, Peters, Leipzig 1953, pp. 270 and 272.
  8. ↑ a b c Alfred Einstein : Schubert. A musical portrait . Zurich 1952, p. 133.
  9. ^ A b Walther Vetter : The classic Schubert . Volume 1, Peters, Leipzig 1953, p. 273.
  10. ^ Eduard Hanslick : From the concert hall. Reviews and descriptions from the last 20 years of Viennese musical life. Vienna 1870, p. 206f.
  11. ↑ Johannes Brahms ' letter to Breitkopf & Härtel from March 1884, in: Johannes Brahms: Briefwechsel. Volume 14, p. 353.
  12. ^ A b John Clapham: Antonín Dvořák. Musician and Craftsman . London 1966 (Appendix II, pp. 296-305: Franz Schubert, by Antonín Dvořák , pp. 296ff).