Symphony in D major D 936A (Schubert)
Schubert's drafts for a symphony in D major , D 936A, are an incomplete work that has only survived in a sketch for the piano. The composer wrote it in the last few weeks of his short life. The existence of Schubert symphony fragments in D major had been known for a long time, but it was only since the facsimile edition published by Ernst Hilmar in 1978 that it became clear that Schubert actually had three different symphonies (D 615, D 708 A and D 936 A) in that key has sketched. There are various attempts to make the existing material performable, the earliest by Peter Gülke (1982). Brian Newbould wrote a completed orchestral version of the symphony, which was eventually performed, published and recorded under the title Symphony No. 10 .
Contemporary history
The sketch is dated to the last weeks of the composer's life, i.e. October – November 1828, and is considered the composer's last symphony , which his friend Eduard von Bauernfeld mentioned in a tribute to Schubert published in the Viennese magazine for art, literature, theater and fashion on Published June 13, 1829.
To some, the music of this symphony appears to be of high research value to a certain extent and it contains unusual elements, above all the mixed form in the third movement and the contrapuntal voice leading which predominates in most of the musical material. The sketches for the third movement are mixed up with a few counterpoint exercises, which are believed to be related to the counterpoint lessons that Schubert had received from Simon Sechter a few weeks before his death in 1828.
Existing material of the individual sentences
The sketches are written on two staves and consist of a leading voice and harmonies that are fully or partially written out. The manuscript indicates a composition for over 30 instruments, reinforced by the fact that the intended orchestra was similar in size to the symphonies in B minor and major in C major and included a trio of trombones.
The manuscript contains drafts for three movements and each movement has a different time signature. Experts agree that the second set was as good as completed while the other two sets were incomplete. According to Newbould, the second and third movements are complete, with only the reprise missing in the first movement.
First sentence
Allegro maestoso in D major ,
For the first movement, which corresponds to the sonata form, Schubert wrote the entire exposition. The reason is not known, but he deleted the first subject and the transition and rewrote them on the next page; these lead to the second topic, which he had already written in the first draft. The exposition ends in several cadenzas in A major and the tempo changes from Allegro maestoso to Andante and the key changes to B flat minor . The new part has an unconventional development and sounds like a solemn, choir-like variation on the second theme and is played by the trombones. According to Newbould, the entire development is written out, but without a recapitulation. In fact, even in Schubert's completed works, the recapitulation is often missing (for example in his last piano sonata ), and mostly it is just a transposed repetition of the exposition. Finally, the coda of the movement follows in the form of a series of short elements marked as Presto.
Second sentence
Andante in B minor ,3
8
The second movement, whose lyrics are reminiscent of Schubert's Winterreise , as well as Mahler's Kindertotenlieder , is also composed in the form of a sonata movement. In his sketch, Schubert deleted the coda, despite the obvious decline in quality. A melancholy (in Newbould's words) F sharp major melody at the end of the second subject group did not appear later in the movement (it was added later on a different page, obviously after the coda was discarded).
Newbould claims that the F sharp major melody was “too beautiful” to be heard just once, and that Schubert intended to repeat it again in the recapitulation (in the tonic ), before the Coda (as one would expect in the sonata form), but he discarded this detail and continued with the third movement.
Third sentence
Scherzo ( Allegro moderato in Newbould's version) in D major ,2
4
The third movement was first referred to as the " Scherzo ", although it was notated in 2/4 time. After Schubert had written a few bars, he stopped and instead filled the page with counterpoint exercises to test the compatibility of the elements and to give the original beginning a logical continuity. On another sheet of music, the movement begins again, and this time the entire movement has been implemented and it becomes the finale of the symphony (following Newbould). The movement is unconventional, both for a scherzo and for a finale. What was intended in the first draft as the trio of a scherzo in three-part form became a rondo in a version later when the piece was reshaped . The movement is interspersed with counterpoints ( canon , inversion , fugue , augmentation ), and the two main themes (the original "Scherzo" and "Trio" themes) were copied at the end of the symphony. According to Newbould, various medium-sized parts of the sentence had to be reshaped in order to understand the sentence, and two of the parts were discarded by Schubert (although they were not explicitly deleted from the manuscript) as their material and function were taken over from elsewhere.
Attempts to complete
Newbould's completion
According to Newbould, the exposition and the continuation of the first movement were written out in full and the recapitulation was based on the exposition with the relevant transposition. Only 11 bars were based on the previous transitional material or were composed and added by Newbould. For the coda he made his reconstructions on the basis of his own guesses, but Schubert left behind a series of elements marked with Presto, which make the entire course appear clear. In his opinion, the composer left enough clues to discern the correct order of the elements.
In the second movement, Newbould repeated the F sharp major melody (this time in the tonic in B major) at the end of the recapitulation, analogous to the exposition. So he used the coda which Schubert had rejected; because he believed that it was deleted in order to rewrite it again.
For the third movement, Newbould rewrote some parts (which seemed out of order to him) and discarded two of them which, in his opinion, had been deleted by Schubert (although they had not been explicitly deleted from the manuscript), as the material and the function had been taken over by other bodies.
Bartholomées additions
Belgian conductor Pierre Bartholomée viewed Newbould's completions as too respectful and conservative. He later reharmonized parts of it to honor the idea of Schubert's later style, and referred more to the development towards the beginnings of counterpoint, which could only be recognized in the manuscript. So he added the Scherzo of the symphony fragment D 708A as an [additional] third movement and thus expanded the fragment into a four-movement form. In this aspect, Bartholomée's version is vulnerable, since the fragment of the Symphony D 936A by Schubert was evidently conceived in three-movement form, in which elements of a scherzo and a rondo are mixed in the last movement. In addition, Bartholomée disregarded the instruments available in Schubert's time, as he wrote for chromatic horns and trumpets.
Works related to the symphony
The 1989 composition Rendering by Luciano Berio is based on the drafts for this symphony.
literature
- Otto E. German: Franz Schubert. Thematic index of his works in chronological order. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0571-3 , pp. 599-600.
- Peter Gülke : New contributions to the knowledge of the symphonic composer Schubert. The fragments D 615, D 708 A and D 936 A. In: Heinz-Klaus Metzger (ed.): Franz Schubert (= music concepts. Special volume). Edition Text and Criticism, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-88377-019-1 , pp. 187-220.
- Peter Gülke: Franz Schubert. Three symphony fragments D 615, D 708 A, D 936 A. Score (= EP 9351). Edition Peters, Leipzig 1982.
- Ernst Hilmar (Ed.): Franz Schubert. Three symphony fragments. Facsimile first printing of the original manuscripts (= Documenta Musicologica. 2 / VI). Bärenreiter, Kassel 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0600-0 .
- Wolfram Steinbeck : Schubert's last symphonic attempt. Drafts for a symphony in D (D 936A). In: Walther Dürr, Andreas Krause (eds.): Schubert manual. Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01418-5 , pp. 661-668.
- Brian Newbould: Schubert and the Symphony. A New Perspective. Toccata Press, Surbiton 1992, ISBN 0-907689-26-4 .
- Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 10, realization: Brian Newbould. Faber, London 1995, ISBN 0-571-51547-9 .
- Brian Newbould: Schubert's Last Symphony . In: The Musical Times . Vol. 126, No. 1707 , 1985, pp. 272-273,275 , JSTOR : 961303 .
Web links
- Facsimile of the music manuscript at schubert-online.at
- Symphony No. 10 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian Newbould: Schubert and the Symphony. P. 298 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b c d Joseph Stevenson: Franz Schubert. Symphony No. 10 in D major (sketch), D. 936a at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Brian Newbould: Schubert's last Symphony . In: The Musical Times . Vol. 126, No. 1707 , 1985, pp. 272-273,275 , JSTOR : 961303 .
- ↑ Stephen E. Carlton: Schubert's Working Methods. Pp. 230-231, 258; Robert Winter: Paper Studies and the Future of Schubert Research. Pp. 252-253; MJE Brown: Drafting the Masterpiece. Pp. 21-28.
- ^ Brian Newbould: Schubert and the Symphony. P. 264 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Luciano Berio - Rendering at Universal Edition Vienna, accessed on July 10, 2015
- ^ Giordano Montecchi, (Translator Karel Clapshaw) Liner notes to Decca 476 2830. 2005.