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{{Short description|1822 incomplete symphony by Franz Schubert}}
{{For|the Great C major Symphony, sometimes listed as No. 8|Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)}}
{{redirect|Unfinished Symphony}}
{{Infobox musical composition
|name=Symphony No. 8
|composer=[[Franz Schubert]]
|image=Symphony No. 8 in B minor.jpg
|caption=Third movement, first page, facsimile, 1885, in J. R. von Herbeck's biography
|other_name=Unfinished Symphony
|key=[[B minor]] (h-moll)
|catalogue=[[Schubert Thematic Catalogue|D.]] 759
|form=[[Symphony]]
|composed=1822
|movements=Two completed, fragments of two other movements
|scoring=[[Orchestra]]
}}
[[Franz Schubert]]'s '''Symphony No. 8''' in [[B minor]], {{D.}} 759 (sometimes renumbered as Symphony No. 7,<ref name="RobertCummings">{{Cite web | title = Franz Schubert, Complete Symphonies, Robert Cummings | url = http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/t/tdr07142b.php | publisher = [[Bamberg Symphony]], [[Jonathan Nott]] | access-date = 2013-03-24 }}</ref> in accordance with the revised [[Otto Erich Deutsch|Deutsch]] catalogue and the [[Neue Schubert-Ausgabe]]<ref>{{Cite web | title = D-Verz.: 759, Titel: Sinfonie Nr.7 in h | url = http://www.schubert-ausgabe.de/index.php?article_id=8&clang=1&FORM%5Bgenre%5D=&FORM%5Bgenre2%5D=&FORM%5Border%5D=&FORM%5Bseite%5D=83&FORM%5Bdetail%5D=933 | publisher = [[Neue Schubert-Ausgabe]], Schubert-database | access-date = 2013-03-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140103205833/http://www.schubert-ausgabe.de/index.php?article_id=8&clang=1&FORM%5Bgenre%5D=&FORM%5Bgenre2%5D=&FORM%5Border%5D=&FORM%5Bseite%5D=83&FORM%5Bdetail%5D=933 | archive-date = 2014-01-03 | url-status = dead }}</ref>), commonly known as the '''''Unfinished Symphony''''' ({{langx|de|Unvollendete|link=no}}), is a musical composition that Schubert started in 1822 but left with only two movements—though he lived for another six years. A [[scherzo]], nearly completed in [[Short score|piano score]] but with only two pages [[Orchestration|orchestrated]], also survives.
It has been theorized by some musicologists, including [[Brian Newbould]], that Schubert may have sketched a finale that instead became the big [[B minor]] ''[[entr'acte]]'' from his incidental music to ''[[Rosamunde]]'', but all evidence for this is circumstantial.<ref name="newperspective">{{harvnb|Newbould|1992|pp=189, 294–296}}</ref> One possible reason for Schubert's leaving the symphony incomplete is the predominance of the same [[meter (music)|meter]] ([[Triple metre|triple meter]]). The first movement is in {{music|time|3|4}}, the second in {{music|time|3|8}} and the third (an incomplete scherzo) again in {{music|time|3|4}}. Three consecutive movements in basically the same meter rarely occur in classical symphonies, [[sonata]]s, or [[chamber music|chamber works]].
Schubert's Eighth Symphony is sometimes called the first [[Romantic music|Romantic]] symphony due to its emphasis on the lyrical impulse within the dramatic structure of Classical [[sonata form]]. Furthermore, its orchestration is not solely tailored for functionality, but specific combinations of instrumental [[timbre]] that are prophetic of the later Romantic movement, with wide vertical spacing occurring for example at the beginning of the [[Musical development|development]].{{sfn|Newbould|1992|pp=184–186}}
To this day, musicologists still disagree as to why Schubert failed to complete the symphony. Some have speculated that he stopped work in the middle of the scherzo in the fall of 1822 because he associated it with his initial outbreak of [[syphilis]]—or that he was distracted by the inspiration for his ''[[Wanderer Fantasy]]'' for solo piano, which occupied his time and energy immediately afterward. It could have been a combination of both factors.
== Early history ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2016}}
In 1823, the Graz Music Society gave Schubert an honorary diploma. He felt obliged to dedicate a symphony to them in return, and sent his friend [[Anselm Hüttenbrenner]], a leading member of the Society, an orchestral score he had written in 1822 consisting of the two completed movements of the ''Unfinished'' plus at least the first two pages of the start of a scherzo. This much is known.
What may never be known is how much of the symphony Schubert actually wrote, and how much of what he did write he gave to Hüttenbrenner. The following exists:
* The first two movements, complete in full score
* The first two pages of a scherzo in full score
The rest of the scherzo (except for the missing second strain of the trio) exists in a separate manuscript in [[short score]] (not sent to Hüttenbrenner, but found among Schubert's copious manuscripts after his death and carefully preserved by his devoted schoolteacher brother [[Ferdinand Schubert|Ferdinand]]), along with a complete short score of the second movement and the end of the first movement, but nothing of any fourth movement.{{sfn|Newbould|1992|pp=180–181}} A fourth movement finale in the home key (B minor) would have been the norm for any symphony written at that time, but there is no direct evidence that Schubert ever started work on it. It has, however, been surmised that the most extended ''entr'acte'' from ''Rosamunde'' (also in B minor, in the same style of the first movement and with the same instrumentation as the symphony) was indeed that fourth movement, which Schubert recycled by inserting it into his ''Rosamunde'' incidental music composed in early 1823 just after the ''Wanderer Fantasy''.
The Schubert scholar Brian Newbould, who harmonized, orchestrated and conjecturally completed the piano sketch of the scherzo, believed this to be true{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}; but not all scholars agree. Pages appear to have been torn out after the beginning of the scherzo in the full score sent to Hüttenbrenner, in any event. That Hüttenbrenner neither had the work performed, nor even let the society know he had the manuscript, is curious and has spawned various theories.
Old age and approaching death seem to have influenced Hüttenbrenner to reveal the work to an important and gracious visitor at long last (in 1865, when he was 71 and had only three more years to live). This was the conductor [[Johann von Herbeck]], who premiered the extant two movements on 17 December 1865 in Vienna, adding the brilliantly busy but expressively lightweight perpetual-motion last movement of Schubert's [[Symphony No. 3 (Schubert)|3rd Symphony]] in D major, as an inadequate finale, expressively quite incompatible with the monumental first two movements of the ''Unfinished'', and not even in the correct key.{{Original research inline|date=January 2014}} The performance was nevertheless received with great enthusiasm by the audience.{{sfn|Hanslick|1988|loc=[https://archive.org/details/hanslicksmusiccr0000hans/page/102/mode/2up 102]}} The score of those two movements was not published before 1867.
The ''Unfinished'' Symphony has been called No. 7 (recently, for example, in the New Schubert Edition) instead of No. 8 as it usually is, since the other work sometimes referred to as [[Symphony No. 7 (Schubert)|Schubert's 7th]] (in E major, completed by [[Felix Weingartner]]) was also left incomplete but in a different way, with at least fragments of all four of its movements in Schubert's hand.
== The completed movements ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2025}}
The two complete movements (scored for 2 [[Western concert flute|flute]]s, 2 [[oboe]]s, 2 [[clarinet]]s, 2 [[bassoon]]s, 2 [[French horn|horn]]s, 2 [[trumpet]]s, 3 [[trombone]]s, [[timpani]] and [[String section|strings]]), which are all of the symphony as it is performed in the concert repertoire, are:
=== I. Allegro moderato ===
{{Listen|type=music
|filename = Schubert Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished' - 1- Allegro moderato in B minor.ogg
|title = I. Allegro moderato
|description = Performed by Fulda Symphonic Orchestra, recording in 2000
}}
The first movement, in [[B minor]], opens in [[sonata form]], softly in the strings, followed by a [[Subject (music)|theme]] shared by the solo oboe and clarinet. A typically laconic Schubertian [[Transition (music)|transition]] consists of just four [[Bar (music)|measure]]s for the two horns, effectively [[modulation (music)|modulating]] to [[G major]] (measures 38–41).
The second subject begins with a celebrated lyrical melody in that key, stated first by the cellos and then by the violins (sometimes drolly sung to [[Sigmund Spaeth]]'s words as "This is ... the sym-phoneee ... that Schubert wrote but never fin-ished") to a gentle [[Syncopation|syncopated]] accompaniment. This is interrupted by a dramatic closing group alternating heavy [[tutti]] ''[[Sforzando (musical direction)|sforzandi]]'' interspersed with pauses and developmental variants of the [[G major]] melody, ending the [[Exposition (music)|exposition]].
;Opening melody (celli and basses)
:<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\tempo "Allegro moderato"
\key b \minor
\time 3/4
\clef bass
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "cello"
\bar ""
b2.\pp (| cis2 d4) | b2. (| a4 fis g) | d2 (cis4 | fis2.~) | fis2.~ | fis2.
}
</score>
;First theme (oboe and clarinet)
:<score sound="1">
\relative c'' {
\key b \minor
\time 3/4
\clef treble
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "oboe"
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #13
\bar ""
fis2.( | b,4. ais8 b cis) | fis2.( | b,4. ais8 b cis) | d2. | e4( f4. e8) | d4( cis2 | d4)
}
</score>
;Second theme (celli)
:<score raw="1" sound="1">
\header {
tagline = ""
}
\score {
\relative c' {
\key b \minor
\time 3/4
\clef bass
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
\tempo 4 = 96
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "cello"
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #44
\bar ""
g4\pp( d4. g8) | fis8.( g16 a4. g8) | fis8.( g16 a8 d, e fis) | g4( d2) |\break
g4( d4. g8) | gis8.( a16 b4. a8) | gis8.( a16 b8 e, fis gis) | a4( e4. gis8) |\break
a4( d, e8 fis) | g!4
}
\layout {
ragged-last = ##t
indent = 0\cm
line-width = #150
}
\midi {}
}
</score><!-- Daniel Gregory Mason. The Art of Music: The orchestra and orchestral music. p. 217 -->
An important moment in the first movement occurs in measure 109 (and repeats in the [[recapitulation (music)|recapitulation]] in measure 327). In these measures, Schubert holds a [[Tonic (music)|tonic]] B [[Pedal tone|pedal]] in the second bassoon and first horn under the [[Dominant chord|dominant]] F{{music|sharp}} chord, that evokes the end of the development in [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's ''Eroica'' Symphony]].
Unusually for sonata form, the development section begins with a quiet restatement of the opening melody in the [[subdominant]] ([[E minor]]), a tonality usually reserved for near the end of a sonata form movement somewhere in the [[Recapitulation (music)|recapitulation]] or [[Coda (music)|coda]], and rises to a prolonged climax in the same key, starting with a dramatic variant of the opening melody in prominent trombones over a full orchestra. The expected [[Relative key|relative major]] (D) of the tonic minor first appears only at the end of that climax, and then again for the second subject of the recap (in place of the expected tonic [[B major]])—instead of much earlier, in the second subject of the exposition, as customary. The flutes and oboes then resume their melodic role at the end of that dramatic outburst, transitioning to the recapitulation.
The recapitulation consists mostly of orthodox sonata-form restatement of the themes, except that Schubert modulates early in the recapitulation first to E minor then to F{{music|sharp}} minor, restates the second theme in the relative key of [[D major]], and modulates back to the parallel mode of B major to close the recapitulation. The coda in the tonic B minor recalls the opening theme for still another, final, dramatic reworking to pave the way for the emphatic concluding chords.
=== II. Andante con moto ===
{{Listen|type=music
|filename = Schubert's 8th Symphony, 2nd movement Andante con moto in E major.ogg
|title = II. Andante con moto
|description = Performed by Fulda Symphonic Orchestra, recording in 2000
}}
;First theme
:<score sound="1">
\relative c''' {
\key e \major
\time 3/8
\clef treble
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
\tempo 8 = 96
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "violin"
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #3
\bar ""
b4. _\p cis b8( gis e) fis4
}
</score>
The second movement, in [[E major]], alternates two contrasting themes in sonatina form (sonata form without development), with a quietly dramatic, elegiac, extended coda that could be characterized as a concluding development section. The lyrical first theme is introduced by the horns, low strings, brass, and high strings playing in [[counterpoint]]. The plaintive second theme, in minor, after four simple unharmonized notes in transition spelling out the tonic chord of the relative [[C-sharp minor|C{{music|sharp}} minor]] quietly by the first violins, begins in the solo clarinet in C{{music|sharp}} minor and continues in the solo oboe in [[C-sharp major|C{{music|sharp}} major]] in an example of the major–minor juxtapositions that are a hallmark of Schubert's harmonic language.
A dramatic closing theme in the full orchestra returns to C{{music|sharp}} minor, but ends in [[D-flat major|D{{music|flat}} major]] (the [[enharmonic equivalent]] of C{{music|sharp}} major). A short transition back to the tonic E major ushers in the recapitulation—notable for how it restates the second theme in the subdominant [[A minor]] (instead of the expected tonic parallel [[E minor]]) begun by the oboe and continued by the clarinet (vice versa to their roles in the exposition).
The coda starts with a new theme that is simply an extension of the two-bar E major [[Cadence (music)|cadential]] [[Figure (music)|figure]] that opens the movement. This gives way to the laconic triadic first-violin transition [[Motif (music)|motto]], which leads to a restatement of the first theme by the woodwinds in distant [[A-flat major|A{{music|flat}} major]] followed by the motto again leading back to the tonic E major for a final extended transformation of the first theme, leading in turn to a final extended version of the opening [[cadence (music)|cadential]] figure that reappears to close.
==Third and fourth movements==
;Scherzo theme
:<score sound="1">
\relative c''' {
\key b \minor
\time 3/4
\clef treble
\tempo 2. = 64
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "violin"
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #1
\bar ""
b2. g e4( g) fis-. fis4. d8 e fis g2. e cis4( d) b-. b4.
}
</score>
The fragment of the [[scherzo]] intended as the third movement returns to the tonic B minor, with a G major trio. The first 30 measures are preserved in full score, but the entire rest of the scherzo proper (both strains) only in [[short score]]. Only the first strain of the trio exists, and that as a mere unadorned, unharmonized single melodic line. The second strain is entirely absent. The sketches of the scherzo were performed by Takashi Asahina with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra in the Minoh Civic Hall on 17 January 1972.<ref>Ludwig van Beethoven / Franz Schubert - Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Takashi Asahina – Symphony No. 5 / Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) – Kapelle CD GD174916, 1992</ref>
After Hüttenbrenner's release of the two completed movements of the ''Unfinished'' to Herbeck, some music historians and scholars took much trouble to "prove" the composition complete even in the truncated two-movement form, and indeed that abbreviated structure alone has captivated the listening public to consider it as one of Schubert's most cherished compositions. The fact that classical tradition was unlikely to accept that a symphony could end in a different key from the one it began in (with the B minor first movement and the E major finale by default incomplete), and the even more undeniable fact that Schubert had begun a third movement in B minor (leaving precisely 30 bars of fully orchestrated scherzo and 112 succeeding bars in short score), stands against the view that the two completed movements can legitimately stand alone.{{sfn|Newbould|1992|pp=180–181}}
== Reception ==
Reviewing the premiere of the symphony in 1865, the music critic [[Eduard Hanslick]] stressed that the music is among Schubert's "most beautiful":
{{blockquote|When ... clarinet and oboe in unison began their gentle cantilena above the calm murmur of the violins ... 'Schubert' was whispered in the audience. ... And when, after this nostalgic cantilena in the minor, there followed the contrasting G major theme of the violoncellos, a charming song of almost {{lang|de|[[Ländler]]}}-like intimacy, every heart rejoiced, as if, after a long separation, the composer himself were among us in person. The whole movement is a melodic stream so crystal clear, despite its force and genius, that one can see every pebble on the bottom. And everywhere the same warmth, the same bright, life-giving sunshine!<br><br>The Andante develops more broadly. A few odd hints here and there of complaint or irritation are interwoven ... their effect is that of musical thunder clouds .... As if loath to leave his own gentle song, the composer puts off too long the end ....<br><br>The tonal beauty ... is fascinating. With a few horn figurations and ... a clarinet or oboe solo, Schubert achieves ... effects which no refinement of [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] instrumentation can capture.{{sfn|Hanslick|1988|loc=[https://archive.org/details/hanslicksmusiccr0000hans/page/101/mode/2up 101–103] (in [[Henry Pleasants]]' translation from Hanslick's original German)}}}}
[[File:Göttweiger Hof Spiegelgasse2.JPG|left|thumb|Franz Schubert Memorial in [[Vienna]]. Schubert lived here in 1822–23 with his friend [[Franz von Schober]] and wrote the ''Unfinished Symphony.'']]
== Modern completions ==
In 1927–28, [[Felix Weingartner]] composed his Sixth Symphony, ''La Tragica'' (in memory of 19 November 1828, the day Schubert died), as a tribute to Schubert on the centenary of his death. The second movement of Weingartner's symphony is a realization of Schubert's incomplete sketch of the scherzo (seventy years before [[Brian Newbould|Newbould]]'s independent effort).<ref>Felix Weingartner: Symphonic works Vol. 6 - Marko Letonja / Sinfonieorchester – CPO LC8492, 2009</ref>
In 1928, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's death, [[Columbia Records]] held a [[1928 International Columbia Graphophone Competition|worldwide competition]] for the best conjectural completion of the ''Unfinished''. About 100 completions were submitted, but also a much larger number of original works. The pianist [[Frank Merrick]] won the "English Zone" of the competition; his scherzo and finale were later performed and recorded.<ref>Frank Merrick, a Recorded Legacy – Completion of the Scherzo & Finale of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony – Trevor Harvey with the St. Cecilia Orchestra – Nimbus Records NI 8820, 2018</ref>
Only some of the completions—Merrick's is not one of them—used material from Schubert's scherzo sketch. The first movement of [[Joseph Holbrooke]]'s Fourth Symphony, one of the British entries, is mostly a performing version of the sketch (the second strain of the [[trio (music)|trio]] of which, entirely missing from the sketch, had to be conjecturally completed), and a theme from the scherzo appears in his finale.<ref>Joseph Holbrooke Symphony No. 4 – George Vass; royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra – DUTTON EPOCH CDLX 7251</ref> Independent completions of the scherzo movement also were made by [[Geoffrey Bush]] in 1944 and conductor [[Denis Vaughan]].<ref>The Symphonies of Franz Schubert / The Italian Overtures – Denis Vaughan, Orchestra of Naples - RCA Victor Red Seal - LSC-6709, 1965</ref>
More recently, British [[musicologist]]s [[Gerald Abraham]] and Brian Newbould have also offered completions of the symphony (scherzo and finale) using Schubert's scherzo sketch and the extended B minor first ''entr'acte'' from his incidental music to the play ''[[Rosamunde]]'' Schubert wrote a few months later, long suspected by some musicologists as originally intended as the ''Unfinished''{{'}}s finale.<ref name="newperspective" /> (In fact, it was even played as the finale as long ago as the British premiere of the symphony on 6 April 1867.) Its first movement, the scherzo sketch and the ''entr'acte'' are all in B minor, their [[instrumentation (music)|instrumentation]] is the same, and the ''entr'acte'' (like the first movement) is in sonata form (as are all Schubert's symphonic finales) and in a very similar style and mood. If the ''entr'acte'' indeed started life as the finale of this symphony, then Schubert evidently recycled it (probably at that stage unorchestrated) from the symphony to the incidental music, presumably orchestrating it for the play and perhaps making compositional changes. The Brian Newbould’s completion has been recorded by [[Neville Marriner]] in 1983<ref>Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields – CD Philips Digital Classics 412 472-2</ref> and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 1990.<ref>Charles Mackerras with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Virgin Veritas LC 7873, 1990</ref>
British pianist and Schubert specialist [[Anthony Goldstone]] prepared a new 4-movement performing edition of the symphony for piano duet, using the transcription of the first two movements prepared by Hüttenbrenner, his own completion of Schubert's scherzo, and the ''Rosamunde entr'acte'' in a transcription by Friedrich Hermann, edited by Goldstone. The work in this completed version was given its first recording in 2015 by Goldstone and his wife/duet partner Caroline Clemmow as part of their 'Schubert: Unauthorised Piano Duos' series for Divine Art Records.<ref>Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828) - The Unauthorised Piano Duos - Volume 3 - Anthony Goldstone & Caroline Clemmow (piano) - DIVINE ART DDA25125</ref>
In 1988, the American musicologist [[William Carragan]] produced his own completion of the scherzo and finale also using Schubert's sketch of the scherzo and augmenting the ''Rosamunde'' B minor ''entr'acte'' for the finale, in particular adding a slow introduction based on the second Rosamunde entr'acte.<ref name="Carragan"/><ref>[https://carragan.com/franz-schubert/notes-om-symphony-no-8-b-minor/ William Carragan - Notes on the Symphony no. 8 in B minor, D. 759, in four movements]</ref> This version was performed and recorded by [[Gerd Schaller]] with the Philharmonie Festiva for Profil Records.<ref name="Carragan">[https://carragan.com/franz-schubert/symphony-no-8-in-b-minor/ William Carragan - Symphony no. 8 in B minor, D. 759, in four movements]</ref> Another performance of Carragan's completion – with a few small changes – by the MusicaNova Orchestra is available on YouTube.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H-nv7Ah-Ic Completion by William Carragan by Warren Cohen conducting the MusicaNova Orchestra]</ref>
Another completion has been made and recorded by the conductor [[Mario Venzago]], using the ''Ballet Music No.1'' from ''Rosamunde'' as well as the ''entr'acte'' for the Trio.<ref>[https://www.mariovenzago.com/2025/02/17/45/ Schubert „Unfinished“ Symphony No. 8, D. 75, reconstructed by Mario Venzago with the Basel Chamber Orchestra]</ref>
A completion has also been made by [[Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs]] and [[Nicola Samale]].<ref>[https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/884.html Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs: Schuberts Unvollendete: Eine Bestandsaufnahme]</ref> A first version (2004) has been performed on 24 September 2010 by Yoon Kuk Lee with the St. Gellert Academy Orchestra. In 2015, Cohrs published a new “Urtext edition” of the Symphony, which contains the Scherzo as the third movement and uses the intermediate act music No. 1 of the incidental music for "Rosamunde" as the fourth movement. This edition was performed on 28 April 2018 by Stefan Gottfried] with the Concentus Musicus Wien at the Vienna Musikverein.<ref>Schubert: Symphony No. 7 in B-Flat Major D. 759 "Unfinished" (completed Urtext Edition Cohrs (2015)); Lieder (Orchestrated by Brahms Webern) - Florian Boesch, Stefan Gottfried, Concentus Musicus Wien – CD Aparté AP189D Little Tribeca, 2018 [LC] 83780</ref>
The Russian composer {{ill|Anton Safronov|ru|Сафронов, Антон Евгеньевич}} completed the scherzo sketch and created a new finale for the symphony (some themes of the latter based on themes from several Schubert piano works), which he described as "an attempt to move into the mind of the composer".{{quote without source|date=December 2017}} His completion was performed at the [[Royal Festival Hall]] in London on 6 November 2007 with the [[Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment]],<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=11 July 2007 |last=Barnett|first=Laura|author-link=Laura Barnett|title=Arts Diary: Unfinished gets finished |page=27 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/jul/11/art}}</ref> and on 2 October 2007 with the [[Russian National Orchestra]] (followed by the American tour in the early 2008,<ref name="musicweb-international.com">{{ Cite web |title=Concert Review – Schubert, Brahms: Stephen Hough, piano; Russian National Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski, conductor. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 14.2.2008 (HS) | url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2008/Jan-Jun08/jurowski1402.htm | last = Steiman | first = Harvey |publisher=Seen And Heard International| access-date = 2013-03-24 }}</ref>) both performances conducted by [[Vladimir Jurowski]]. Due to his unusual use of material from Schubert keyboard works in the finale, Safronov's completion has been subject to criticism varying from definitely positive<ref>{{ Cite web | title = Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony is brought to a satisfying close | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3669102/Schuberts-Unfinished-Symphony-is-brought-to-a-satisfying-close.html | last = Norris | first = Geoffrey |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]| date = 2007-11-08 | access-date = 2013-03-24 }}</ref> to ambivalent<ref name="musicweb-international.com" /><ref>{{ Cite web|title=Concert Review – Weber, Schubert and Brahms: Stephen Hough (piano) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) Royal Festival Hall, 6.11. 2007 (GD) | url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2007/Jul-Dec07/oae0611.htm | last = Diggines | first = Geoff | publisher=Seen And Heard International| access-date = 2013-03-24 }}</ref> and negative.<ref>{{ Cite web | title = Stephen Hough; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Vladimir Jurowski, Weber: Freischütz Overture; Schubert: Symphony No.8 (compl. Safronov); Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1, Royal Festival Hall, 6 November 2007 | url = http://www.musicalcriticism.com/concerts/rfh-oae-jurowski.htm | last = Shirley | first = Hugo |publisher=MusicalCriticism.com| access-date = 2013-03-24 }}</ref>
[[Robin Holloway]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] professor of composition, has realized the Scherzo based on, but not bound to, the sketches; e.g., with two trios, the first from Schubert's sketch and the second entirely his own composition. It was premiered by the [[Cambridge University Musical Society]] on 18 June 2011.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
In January 2019, Chinese technology company [[Huawei]] used [[artificial intelligence]] to create hypothetical melodies for the third and fourth movements, based on which Lucas Cantor then arranged an orchestral score. The composition was performed live at [[Cadogan Hall]] in [[London]] on 4 February 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Huawei Presents 'Unfinished symphony'|url=https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/campaign/unfinishedsymphony/|author=<!--Not stated-->|access-date=23 February 2019}}</ref> However, many consider that the result is disappointing and far from Schubert's style.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2019/02/07/03004-20190207ARTFIG00169-la-symphonie-n8-de-schubert-achevee-a-coups-d-intelligence-artificielle.php|title=La Symphonie n°8 de Schubert achevée à coups d'intelligence artificielle|last=Puech|first=Benjamin|date=2019-02-07|website=[[Le Figaro]]|language=fr|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref> [[Goetz Richter]] writes, for instance: "The completed movements are trivial and achieve ultimately a loose and inauthentic family resemblance to Schubert".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/composers-are-under-no-threat-from-ai-if-huaweis-finished-schubert-symphony-is-a-guide-111630|title=Composers are under no threat from AI, if Huawei's finished Schubert symphony is a guide|last=Richter|first=Goetz|website=The Conversation|language=en|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref>
== In popular culture ==
* In the 1943 film ''[[The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp]]'', the symphony is heard at the concert in the POW camp
* In the 1944 film ''[[Double Indemnity]]'', the symphony is being performed at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] when Walter Neff takes Lola Dietrichson to the surrounding hill to distract her following her father's death.
* In the 1947 film ''[[Odd Man Out]]'', the symphony plays from a radio in a brothel parlour while the fugitives endure a situation of increasing tension.
* In the 1955 film ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'', the symphony is heard playing on the radio
* In the 1957 [[Harvey Films]] [[Casper the Friendly Ghost]] animated short ''Boo Bop'', Casper discovers the ghost of Franz Schubert struggling to "finish" the symphony at his original piano in a Museum of Music. Schubert's ghost keeps playing the second/celli theme of the first movement on the piano, but is repeatedly distracted, first by Casper and then by outside noises such as a clopping horse, a shooting gallery, construction, and traffic. Casper silences the offending noises through various means, then helps inspire Schubert's ghost to compose past the end of that theme.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147909/|title = Boo Bop|website = [[IMDb]]}}</ref>
* At the start of the 1979 comic film ''[[Being There (film)|Being There]]'', the character Chance wakes as a television remotely snaps on, showing an orchestra performing the symphony. The implied connection may be to the character's abnormally "unfinished" personality.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/|title = Being There|website = [[IMDb]]}}</ref>{{original research inline|date=October 2023}}
* In the 1981 TV series ''[[The Smurfs (1981 TV series)|The Smurfs]]'', the first theme of the first movement is often used either as the theme song of [[Gargamel]], or in scenes where the Smurfs are in danger.
* In [[The Simpsons season 2|season 2]], episode 8 of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ("Bart the Daredevil", first broadcast on December 6, 1990), the Springfield Elementary School Orchestra begins a series of Saturday Evening Concerts with the symphony, albeit with an interesting orchestration, i.e. with Lisa playing the second theme on baritone sax. Homer is initially excited to hear that the work is unfinished so he can get to the monster truck rally that night, but later bemoans "how much longer was Sherbert planning on making this piece of junk?"
* The symphony's first movement is used as a [[leitmotif]] in the 2002 film ''[[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]].''<ref>{{cite news |last1=James R. |first1=Oestreich |title=Schubertizing the Movies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/30/movies/schubertizing-the-movies.html |access-date=27 December 2021 |publisher=The New York Times Company |date=30 June 2002}}</ref>
* In [[The Flash season 4|season 4]], episode 2 of ''[[The Flash (2014 TV series)|The Flash]]'' ("Mixed Signals", first broadcast on October 17, 2017), the main antagonist Clifford DeVoe (portrayed by [[Neil Sandilands]]) supposedly completes the symphony after familiarising himself with Schubert's "600 other works".
== See also ==
{{Portal|Classical music}}
* The composer and pianist [[Leopold Godowsky]] composed a ''[[Passacaglia (Godowsky)|Passacaglia]] with 44 Variations, cadenza and fugue on the opening theme of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony'', for solo piano. Godowsky added a [[quarter-note]] F{{music|#}} to the beginning of Schubert's theme, as an [[anacrusis]].
* The composer [[Gilad Hochman]] composed a contemporary homage to Schubert's Symphony titled ''Shedun Fini'' ([[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]] of the word 'Unfinished') for a [[clarinet-cello-piano trio|clarinet–cello–piano trio]] in form of Prelude and Allegro, using different quotations and stylistic influences.
== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}
'''Sources'''
*{{cite book|last=Newbould|first=Brian|author-link=Brian Newbould|title=Schubert and the Symphony: A New Perspective|publisher=Toccata Press|year=1992}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Hanslick|1988}}|reference=[[Eduard Hanslick|Hanslick, Eduard]]. 1988. ''[https://archive.org/details/hanslicksmusiccr0000hans/ Hanslick's Music Criticisms]'', ed. and trans. [[Henry Pleasants (music critic)|Henry Pleasants]]. New York: Dover Publications. {{ISBN|978-0-486-25739-6}} (pbk).}}
== Further reading ==
* Corey Field, editor. ''The Musician's Guide to Symphonic Music: Essays from the [[Ernst Eulenburg (musical editions)|Eulenburg]] Scores''. [[Schott Music]]
== External links ==
* {{IMSLP|work=Symphony No.8, D.759 (Schubert, Franz)|cname=Symphony No. 8}}
* [http://www.stefan-neudeck.info/Musik/pdf/Schubert_D759.pdf Piano reduction] (''Note:'' the PDF shows C-naturals in measures 198 and 200 of the first movement; these should be C-sharps.)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051129122311/http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2871 About the Composition: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 ("Unfinished")], Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
* {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20140517152002/http://www.musicaclassicaonline.com/franz-schubert-sinfonia-n-8-in-si-minore-incompiuta.html 1937 – Sir Thomas Beecham – London Philharmonic Orchestra]}} OGG Recording
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[[Category:Symphonies by Franz Schubert|No. 08]]
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