Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (Unfinished), (sometimes renumbered as Symphony No. 7, in accordance with the revised Deutsch catalogue and the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe), commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony, is a musical composition that was written in 1822, but only left with two movements, though its composer lived for another six years.
It is the music that was used in "Hello, Cello" and "Mr. Penguin's Ice Cream Adventure".
Summary[]
In Season 2[]
In Hello, Cello, Symphony No. 8 was used to sing on helping the lost Baby Cello to get back to his mommy.
In Mr. Penguin's Ice Cream Adventure, Symphony No. 8 was used to sing on helping Mr. Penguin get the ice cream train to his friend's party.
Structure[]
The Symphony No. 8 has two complete movements:
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 - Unfinished[]
- Allegro moderato (in B minor - G major)
- Andante con moto (in E major - C-sharp minor - C-sharp major - E major - A minor - A flat major)
Episode Appearances[]
Season 2[]
Songs adapted from Symphony No. 8 - "Unfinished"[]
Hello Cello[]
Mr. Penguin's Ice Cream Adventure[]
Trivia[]
- Symphony No. 8 is sometimes called the first 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 development.
- A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages 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.
- 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.
- There have been modern attempts to complete the Unfinished Symphony in recent years.
- In 1928, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's death, Columbia Records held a 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 (on Columbia), but are long out of print.
- More recently, British musicologists 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 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.
- 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.
