Unfinished symphony

Several (classical) composers left fragments of symphonies that for various reasons could be considered "incomplete" or "unfinished".

The archetypal "unfinished symphony" is Schubert's "8th" (written in 1822, but not performed until 1865, several decades after the composer's death). It featured two fully orchestrated movements, while from some sketches it is clear Schubert originally intended to create a traditional four-movement symphony. After the discovery of the two completed movements of this symphony in the archives of the orchestra to which Schubert had sent them, music historians and scholars toiled to "prove" the composition was complete in this form, and indeed, in its two-movement form it proved to be one of Schubert's most cherished compositions.

The rediscovery of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony led to a flurry of interest in other lost, rejected, or unfinished works, such as those by:

*Beethoven:
**"Symphony No. 10": A hypothetical work, assembled by Barry Cooper in 1990 from fragmentary sketches left by Beethoven.
**There was also a reconstruction attempted of an early incomplete symphony.

*Bizet
**""Roma" symphony": After eleven years of tinkering (1860-1871), with a partial performance in 1869, Bizet could still not present a final version of his "Roma" symphony.
**"Symphony in C": Several decades after his death one of Bizet's rejected earlier works, the unpretentious "Symphony in C", was rediscovered and needed only minor "finishing" to become an all-time favorite.

*Borodin
**"Symphony No. 3": Borodin drafted only two movements of this work, which were completed for publication by Glazunov.

*Bruckner:
**"Symphony No. 9": Only the first three movements survive in completed form, though sketches for the fourth movement exist. There have been a number of completions made of the fourth movement, but most conductors opt to perform and record only the first three.

*Burgmüller
**"Symphony No.2": Only the first two movements were finished. The third movement, a scherzo, was finished and orchestrated by Robert Schumann.

*Elgar:
**"Symphony No. 3": Elgar left a mass of sketches for the four movements of this potentially major work, with a few passages fully scored. A highly creative performing version was achieved in 1997 by Anthony Payne.

*Mahler:
**"Symphony No. 10": Mahler left a continuous draft of this five-movement work, with the first and third movements more or less fully scored. These two movements ("Adagio" and "Purgatorio") were prepared for publication by Franz Schalk and Ernst Krenek in 1924. Various orchestrations and performing editions of the entire symphony have been made since the 1960s, the best-known being that by Deryck Cooke (1960-64), subsequently revised with input from Berthold Goldschmidt, Colin Matthews and David Matthews.

*Schubert, (apart from the archetypal 8th):
**"Symphony No. 7": This was composed in 1821 in full-score format though only the opening of the first movement is fully scored and much of the work is a single line. Completions by John Francis Barnett, Felix Weingartner and Brian Newbould exist.
**A "grand symphony" was announced by Schubert in 1824. Scholars long suggested other compositions as "outlines" of this elusive grand symphony, which was also referred to as the "Gastein Symphony". Since the 1970s it has been known that Schubert was in fact referring to starting work on his 9th Symphony.
**Yet another symphonic sketch from 1828 has been reconstructed as a three-movement work and is often referred to as his "Tenth" or "Last" symphony. (It is believed to be the work that is indicated by a reference to the 'Last Symphony' ("Letzte Symphonie") in a contemporary obituary of Schubert.)

*Sibelius:
**"Symphony No. 8": Heroic searches for the sketches of Sibelius's 8th, announced during his life several times, have been made, but any sketches were probably destroyed by the composer.

*Tchaikovsky:
**"7th symphony": What is now generally known as Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 was based on sketches for a symphonic work, that would have become his 6th symphony, if the composer had not abandoned the work and commenced a completely different symphony, the "Pathétique". Sergei Taneyev built the "Piano Concerto" version on these sketches – more faithful to the original, Semyon Bogatyrev produced the "Symphony" version, now sometimes called "Symphony No. 7".

*Tubin
**"Symphony No. 11": Tubin was working on an Eleventh Symphony at the time of his death in 1982. He had completed and partially orchestrated the first movement; the opening 10 bars of a second movement also exist. The orchestration of the first movement was completed by Kaljo Raid in 1987 and this movement has been performed and recorded several times.

Other "unfinished" "symphonic" works that came into the spotlight from the late Romantic era on, include:
*Bach
** "The Art of Fugue", Bach's ultimate and unfinished work, left many questions, despite having been published by his sons shortly after his death. Until the late Romantic era it was seldom heard: it was considered an "unplayable" theoretical exercise - there even was no certainty which instrument(s) it ought to be played on; but it was brought to public attention in the early 20th century performed by a "symphonic orchestra", the score being "completed" and "orchestrated" by Wolfgang Graeser.

Postmodern ("PoMo") composers have also contributed to the "genre" with deliberately "unfinished" works:
*Boudewijn Buckinx
**In the years 1991-1992 this Belgian composer "completed" nine (!) "unfinished symphonies" (premiered 1993). [Boudewijn Buckinx: [http://www.telefonica.net/web2/boudewijnbuckinx/index.html composers website] - [http://www.telefonica.net/web2/boudewijnbuckinx/wrk-list.htm#unfini list of compositions] ]

In a humorous note, Peter Schickele, instead of writing an unfinished symphony, wrote what has become known as the "Unbegun Symphony" [] ; he was "born too late to write the first two movements."

ee also

*Curse of the ninth
*List of symphonies by name

References