“Hubble bubble….why all the trouble?”
II
The rhubarb on the surface, seems to these tainted eyes, an astounding revelation neighbor: that Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (8th) lay dormant, undiscovered until Robert Schuman of Germany and husband of Clara, (a Hastings on the Hudson, USA lady musicologist, a virtuoso in her own right), gave the “Unfinished” to Felix Mendelssohn.
And thus lies the paradox..a work of genius lay dormant until the divine moment. But it bears repeating…..
Robert Schuman beheld its majesty, the fabric of triumphantoctaves, resounding into sonority that was deemed lost,overwhelmed Schuman, whose own 4th Symphony had the magic touch of his Northern neighbor from Hamburg, Johannes Brahms.
III
Thus contemporary strains of musical notation that purports a trance on the listener, himself or herself carried away , gives a metaphorical gestation to a birthright music wise, that recognizes the rhythms and harmonies of Sutter’s Gold, a dimension close to a spell in another realm.
Franz Schubert’s Unfinished.
IV
A timeless gem in “ Moments of personal discovery” that a marketable cosmos as “Wily Loman’s soul searching, ”Death of a Salesmam, Archie Bunker back pedaling his prejudices( creator Norman Lear’s own father) and biases, nine years running on Bill Paley’s CBS network…..
V
What then is the moral of Schubert’s Unfinished . Monteverdi Vespers’ not akin to the excitement about Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’.…..
Franz Schubert’s in disguise?
. VI
Did the feminine intuition play a part in the discovery? The role of Fanny, Felix’s sister. The
role of Clara, Schuman’s wife…two quality virtuosos, playing out their own identities in the
Viennese cosmos of Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Bizet, Beethoven (10th), Elgar, Franz Liszt, Meyerbeer.. (Mozart, Haydn earlier)
VIKI
Another woman, Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ soprano, played out a big role with Mendelssohn, although the passionate letters by the nicknamed Felix were never published, he seemed to seek a relationship with the ‘Swedish Nightingale,” (ala a 20th century“Anita Eckberg”)she in turn established a memorial in his name at the Leipzig conservatoryhe helped discover..
VIII
The synthesis however is Schubert’s dynamic. ‘ UnfinishedSymphony’.
INDEED!
August 10, 2015. The City that never sleeps.
