The Unfinished symphony?!
Question: I remember learning in middle school about the unfinished symphony, that was written on the famous composers deathbed. Please give me a link to your source, and if possible a link to either download or listen to the song.
PS> the Song was sad and the composer was sick and dying during it... I truly can't remember who it was though
Answers: I remember learning in middle school about the unfinished symphony, that was written on the famous composers deathbed. Please give me a link to your source, and if possible a link to either download or listen to the song.
PS> the Song was sad and the composer was sick and dying during it... I truly can't remember who it was though
Schubert's in the most famous 'unfinished symphony'. Far from being written on his deathbed, it dates from 1822 - a whole 6 years before the composer's untimely death at 31. He completed 2 movements and almost finished sketches of the scherzo actually exist and have been edited and completed by musicologist Brian Newbould. The last movement is believed by some to be the piece that became the B minor entr'acte to Schubert's incidental music to 'Rosamunde'.
It is thought, given the Romantic nature of the two completed movements, that Schubert did not have the confidence to carry on with this radically new symphony and put it aside, probably intending to go back to it at a later date. The next symphony was the 'Great' C major symphony of 1825.
Schubert was notorious at leaving many pieces incomplete. There are at least three other 'unfinished' Schubert symphonies (including the almost non-existent 'No 7'), although none have complete movements such as 'the' Unfinished.
I wonder if you are thinking of the Mozart Requiem? Mozart had started writing this work in late 1791 and then fell terminally ill with (probably) acute rheumatic fever. He was dictating passages to friends, family and colleagues in the days before he died on 5 December 1791. Excerpts from the unfinished Requiem were played at a memorial concert five days later. The Requiem was supposedly completed by Mozart's 'pupil' Franz Süssmayer (although Mozart didn't have real pupils - he was too busy), and it is more likely that it was also partly completed by the less well-known composer Joseph Eybler, a close friend of Mozart's. Since then, others have attempted to edit together a more satisfactory version of the Mozart Requiem.
It is ironic that perhaps Mozart's best-known and best-loved work contains so much music not actually by him!
Schubert's Eighth Symphony is usually known as the "Unfinished Symphony." There is a Ninth Symphony, but as often is the case, there is some confusion about the order of the creation of many of his works.
It is an exageration to say that is was written on his death bed. There is even a theory or two floating around that he actually did finish it, but a movement was lost. Suffice to say it is the most reknowned truncated piece of work in the world of art. It is a fabulous piece and clearly hints at romanticism on the historical horizon.
Arguably the most famous unfinished symphony is the 8th in B Minor by Franz Schubert, however he didn't write it upon his deathbed, he put it to one side and instead completed his 9th Symphony, the 'great' C Major, possibly because he was unsure how to resolve it. (Audio can be found here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cuo/audio.htm... )
Other sad sounding unfinished symphonies I can think of include Bruckner's 9th (with only three movements) and Mahler's 10th, but I assume it is Schubert's that you're after.
It was in 1822.six years before his death, that Schubert began work on his B minbor Symnphony, a work which was to go down in the history of music as the “Unfinished”. It owes is nickname to the fact that, like Schubert′s other symphones, it was originally conceived as a four-movement work. In the event, however, only the first two moments were orchestrated. These have survived together with the first twenty bars of a planned third movement, and the sketch of a Scherzo and Trio. This state of affairs has prompted repeated speculation on the reasons why Shubert may not have been able to complete the work or whether he in fact regarded the “unfinished” as complete in the form in which he left it. Support for the latter hypothsis comes from the fact that on 1823 he offered it in its two-movement form to the Styrian Music Society, describing it ina la letter to the Society as “one of muy symphones in full score”. It was in this form that he subsequently handed it over to them. For many years the work languished in private hands, neglected and forgotten. Not until many years after Schubert′s death did it receive its successful first performarnce in Vienna in 1865. In his review of the firs performance, the critic Eduard Hanslick noted: “It cannot be ascertained whether Schubert continued to work on it.”
The mystery has lost none of its fascination and continues to contribute to the extraordinary popularity of the "Unfinished". Yet, quite apart from its curious genesis, this unique work is one of the most beautiful in the whole symphonic repertory, impressing first and foremost by its inner unity, in other words, by the close affinity between its two movements, which give the impressions of being variations of the same basic musical idea, while none the less developing independent characteristics.