Symphony, D 708A (Schubert)
7, although this number more commonly represents another symphony, D 729), is an unfinished work that survives in an incomplete eleven-page sketch written for piano solo.
He abandoned this symphony after this initial phase of work and never returned to it, although Schubert would live for another seven years.
His completed version has been subsequently performed, recorded, published, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
[1] There is thus some Beethovenian influence present, which would persist throughout his symphonic output, but in D 708A Schubert starts to create his own style and explore new territory.
He returned to writing directly into orchestral score for his seventh symphony, although piano sketches exist for the eighth.
[3] In the mid-20th century, Dr Ernst Hilmar discovered in a library in Vienna (the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus) a folio containing works by Schubert, titled "Sinfonie" and dated to May 1818.
[4] In 1951, Otto Erich Deutsch assumed in the first edition of his catalogue of Schubert's works that all the material was for one symphony, which he labelled D 615.
[4] In fact the folio was labelled "Zwei Symphonien in D" ("Two Symphonies in D"), indicating that a librarian had previously thought along similar lines around 1900.
[5][6] The sketches are written on two staves, with voice leading, and harmonies ranging from complete to partly indicated.
The spirited first movement was almost certainly intended to be in sonata form, but the sketch breaks off at the end of the exposition.
[1] The lyrical slow second movement is written in the dominant key of A major, but there is a great deal of modal mixture.
[1][3] The motive in eighth notes in its first bar was later reused in the scherzo of Schubert's ninth symphony.
[3] The second section of the scherzo focuses around the mediant key of F♯ minor before returning to the opening material.
The trio is set in the subdominant key of G major; though incomplete, only a few bars have to be reconstructed for the movement to be performable.
This means that the horns, trumpets and timpani have to remain silent despite their being conventionally present during climactic passages.
[6] Newbould states that he thought about the sketch deeply in his completion attempt, eventually memorizing it and pretending to himself to have composed it in order to be able to find natural ways to develop the material.
Despite the inconvenience of the allocation of the high melody to the clarinet in this movement and the scherzo, Newbould eventually decided to respect Schubert's marking in his completion, although this was not an easy decision.
