Unfinished symphony

Several (classical) composers left partitions of symphonies that for one or several reasons could be considered as incomplete or unfinished.

Related Topics:
Composer - Partition - Symphonies

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The archetypical unfinished symphony is Schubert's Symphony D. 759 (written in 1822, but not performed until 1865), featuring two fully orchestrated movements, while from some sketches it is clear Schubert originally intended to create a traditional four-movement symphony.

Related Topics:
Schubert - Symphony D. 759 - 1822 - 1865

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After the discovery of the two completed movements of this symphony (in the archives of the orchestra to which Schubert had sent them, several decades after the composer's death) 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.

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

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• Bruckner:
• 9th symphony
• Schubert (apart from the archetypical "8th"):
• The "7th": a "grand symphony" was announced by Schubert several years before starting to compose the 8th or the 9th - scholars have suggested several other compositions of Schubert as "outline" of this eluding grand symphony. See List of compositions by Schubert#Symphonies
• Yet another symphonic sketch became the "10th" or "Last" symphony
• Sibelius:
• Heroic searches for the sketches of his 8th symphony, several times announced during his life, but probably destroyed by the composer.
• Mahler:
• 10th symphony, various orchestrations of the (piano) sketches of the 3 final movements of this symphony made after his death.
• Beethoven:
• At least two reconstruction attempts of symphonies not published by Beethoven during his lifetime (one of an early work; the other of a later abandoned work; see: Symphony No. 10 (Beethoven/Cooper))
• Bizet
• 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. Nonetheless, several decades after his death one of his rejected earlier works, the unpretentious Symphony in C, was re-discovered, and needed only minor "finishing" to become an all-time favorite.
• Borodin
• 3rd Symphony

Other "unfinished" "symphonic" works, that came in the spotlight from the late Romantic era on, include:

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• Bach
• The Art of Fugue, Bach's ultimate and unfinished work left many questions, despite it had 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 had 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.

Finally PoMo composers contributed to the "genre" with deliberately "unfinished" works:

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• Boudewijn Buckinx
• In the years 1991-1992 this Belgian composer "completed" nine (!) unfinished symphonies (premiered 1993).{{ref|BB}}
 
Unfinished symphony: See also ►