Schubert

You might not know that (as far as I know, which is not a lot) both 'Schubert' and 'Schumann' mean 'Cobbler,' in German. It makes very little sense for me to bring that up, because very few of you younger people have had any experience with cobblers at all!

A few years ago, there was a hole in the sole of my shoe.  It was a pair of Clarks—or another make, equally good—and just on Market Street, a block and a half from my apartment, was a shoe repairman, or to call him by the traditional name of his profession, a cobbler.  To make a long story short, he said—from his point of view—the shoe was good enough to repair.  (A cheap pair would be thrown out and replaced, you see.)  It cost about $40, which I cheerfully paid.  A new pair would have been outside my budget.

By the time Schubert was born, the literal meaning of his family name would have had nothing to do with the occupation of the family, so the little anecdote is quite irrelevant.

Schubert composed lots of fabulous music, but the best known work is probably the famous  Unfinished Symphony, or Symphony no. 8 in B minor. 

The first item on my agenda is to get you listening to this symphony!  Schubert wrote lovely, melodic sonatas and songs, and piano pieces.  I'm ashamed to say that I'm not familiar at all with them!  But my parents—mostly my Dad—would put on the Unfinished, when I was in elementary school, and the tunes stuck with me. In fact, one time he participated in producing a play, about Elijah and the priests of Baal, and they used the Unfinished as incidental music.  Furthermore, our family music box was an old HMV phonograph, and the records were what are called '78s' these days; and only held about 10 minutes of music!  So Dad did a lot of changing discs.  (These were platters made of Bakelite, a very early kind of plastic.  Very soon, once LPs were invented, they (the LPs) were made out of Vinyl.)

Now, I don't know a lot about what was going on with Schubert while he was writing this Symphony; those sorts of details help many people to relate to a piece.  I'm just going to describe my own reactions to the first movement. 

It begins with the main theme played quietly—and ominously—deep in the bass.  Then some woodwinds (flutes, oboes, clarinets) enter, and things seem to be going swimmingly, until it's all Interrupted by some loud, full orchestra chords.

Don't get me wrong; the alternation of quiet passages and the loud chords is very musical; I can't describe it better than that.  In some works, it almost seems as if the loud interruptions are there solely for their shock value.  I don't think this is true ĥere.  It's almost as if Schubert had to have these loud punctuations exactly where he put them.  There's a lot of drama in the movement.  Maybe someone was teasing him about not being able to compose a dramatic Symphony!  Well, he certainly showed them.  The music sounds almost angry at times, and really serene at other times.  The serene parts are just fabulously lovely; perhaps they would not be as lovely if not for the contrast with the loud and noisy parts.  Stormy is the one word that describes this movement.  It ends with three huge crashing, angry, almost despairing chords. 

The second movement opens as though it was the sun rising after a huge thunderstorm.  (You can easily see why my dad and his friends chose this Symphony for their play!  For those not in the know, there was a weather competition, where stormy weather was involved.)  I'm going to stop there; you don't need Cliff Notes for this second movement.  This might not be good news, but: there are only two movements.  Most symphonies have four movements, this is why this work was nicknamed The Unfinished.  Lots of people agree, though, that it's perfectly fine the way it is.  So listen to it on your own, and take ownership of this wonderful, tuneful Symphony.