Schubert's Undated Works: A New Chronology

Author(s): Robert Winter

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 119, No. 1624 (Jun., 1978), pp. 498-500
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/959913
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 Schubert's Undated Works: a New Chronology
Robert Winter

Musical scholars have reason to be grateful to Irene von Kiesewetter (Vienna, Stadtbibliothek
Schubert for dating some 85 % of his finished MH 37). After entering a guess of '(?)1825',
compositions and drafts. But the 15,, which Deutsch added in a postscript that 'the date
remains undated continues to provide a 1823 is written on the MS. in another hand; this
formidable challenge to students of the com- date is incorrect. If the work was not written in
poser. 1825 that date is more likely to be 1827'. In
In fact, the dimensions of the chronological fact, the watermark and staff-ruling of the
problem were somewhat concealed by Otto paper used for the quartet matches those in all
Erich Deutsch's 1946 thematic catalogue. autographs dated by Schubert between Novem-
(That catalogue, which was chronologically ber 1827 and April 1828. Hence without any
arranged, is soon to be reissued in a revised knowledge of Deutsch's method we can confirm
form.) For the author allotted only 34 of the that his last guess was his best. A less circuitous
more than a thousand of his Deutsch numbers example is offered by D829, the melodrama
to the section 'Undated Works'. It now appears Abschied von der Erde (Vienna, Gesellschaft der
that the number of works whose chronology Musikfreunde A213), with a suggested date of
demands special elucidation is considerably 1825-6. Its paper type is identical with that of
larger. the ten surviving autographs dated between
How is it possible to assign a date to such March and September 1826. Here we can
'undated' works? Recent scholarship, to the confirm and, in addition, narrow down the time
rejoicing of some Schubertians and the dismay span proposed by Deutsch.
of others, has suggested that watermarks may Other examples involve much larger works.
yield valuable clues to the types of paper that Schubert devoted more than 100 leaves of
Schubert was using at particular times. And sketches to the opera Adrast D137 (Vienna,
fuither refinements of classifications are provi- Stadtbibliothek MH4), another of those
ded by the number of staves to the page, and the dramatic projects which he abandoned after
way they are spaced. These, in fact, prove a considerable investment. Deutsch suggested a
much surer chronological guide than, for tentative date of '(?)1815', at the same time
instance, gradual changes in Schubert's hand- admitting that 'this work is supposed by some
writing over the years. And more directly to be of a later date (1818 or 1819?)'. The
musical features, such as are afforded by paper is that found in autographs which can be
stylistic development, are tempting but ulti-dated between October 1819 (just after Schu-
mately unreliable chronological guides. bert's return to Vienna from Steyr in mid-
Similar methodologies have already been September) and December 1820-'some' of
exploited profitably by Alan Tyson for Mozart Deutsch's friends, it seems, were nearer the
in 1976.1 Just previously he had offered the mark.
first comprehensive and consistent list of New datings like these can have a major
'Ground Rules for the Description of Water- impact on our view both of Schubert's develop-
marks'.2 Without pretending that either Mo- ment as a composer and of his relationship to
zart's or Beethoven's example can be equated his circle of friends. For the first time we can
with Schubert's, we can nevertheless take good make biographical sense of Schubert's remark
advantage of Tyson's guidelines. in his letter of mid-August 1819 to Johann
* Mayrhofer: 'Have you done anything yet? I
Watermarks make it possible both to confirmhope so'.3 The composer must have been
dates assigned tentatively in the Schubert referring to the libretto which was to become the
catalogue (for Deutsch was often maddeningly ill-fated Adrast (Schubert had already set
reticent about the sources of his information), Mayrhofer's Die Freunde von Salamanka
and to suggest entirely new ones. A not un- several years earlier), and which was probably
typical if roundabout example of the confir- submitted to him upon his return a few weeks
matory variety is D826, the quartet Der Tanz for later. Further evidence of Schubert's renewed
l'New Light on Mozart's "Prussian" Quartets' and '"La contact with the poet is the sudden outburst of
clemenza di Tito" and its Chronology', MT, cxvii (1976),
126, 221
five songs to Mayrhofer texts (D669, 670, 671,
2in 'The Problems of Beethoven's "First" Leonore Overture',
Journal of the American Musicological Society, xxviii (1975), 30. E. Deutsch: Schubert: a Documentary Biography (1946),
292-334 no.156

498

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672, 682), all set in the autumn of 1819 (D682 contains four waltzes from D145 (nos.5, 8) and
bears no date but shares the same watermark) D365 (nos.6, 7). The watermark is yet another
and following a two-year period, one in which example of that found in Adrast, and hence
Mayrhofer himself had been very ill, of almost these items can also be placed between October
total silence on both sides. Furthermore, 1819 and December 1820. This kind of control
Schubert's output in the year or so following the is essential if we are to make any sense of
idyllic interlude in Steyr can now be viewed as a Schubert's development as a composer of
series of intensive encounters with the problems popular music.
of dramatic music: Adrast (probably dating A smaller group includes arrangements by
from the autumn of 1819); the Easter cantata Schubert of previously composed works. Thus
Lazarus (begun in February 1820); the magic the two arias from Alfonso und Estrella (nos.8
play Die Zauberharfe (from the summer); and and 13) with piano accompaniment (Staats-
an even more extensive operatic fragment, bibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Schubert
Sakuntula (begun in October), for which almost aut. 13) date from January-December 1823, at
200 leaves survive. Though ambitious, it was least a year after the composition of the opera
not an altogether successful series of under- (and for an unknown occasion). Even larger is
takings, for only Die Zauberharfe reached the gap between the genesis of Fierabras
completion; perhaps the group of three more (May-October 1823) and the arrangement of its
Mayrhofer songs from the autumn of 1820 overture for piano duet D798 (Paris, Biblio-
(D699, 700, 707) were motivated partly by theque Nationale MS 302), which belongs
Schubert's wish to console the luckless iibrettist. properly to the period between September
At all events, the 23-year-old composer was 1826 and May 1827 (not 'c. 1824', as in Deutsch);
never to immerse himself so exclusively or for so again the exact stimulus is unknown. A similar
sustained a period in dramatic music again. situation can arise with sets of parts. For
*
example, 14 original parts for the Overture in
Bb for Orchestra D470 (Staatsbibliothek Preus-
The most interesting re-datings are doubtless sischer Kulturbesitz N. Mus. MS 50) bear a
those that flatly contradict the conventionalwatermark datable to 1816-17, and were
chronology. There are far too many to recount presumably prepared for the first performance.
here in any but summary fashion. In a category However, the duplicate set of parts also
of no little interest to keyboard players are the enclosed in the manuscript show a watermark
many sets of dances which Schubert assembled used by Schubert in the last month of his life
for publication throughout his lifetime. The and, it now becomes clear, by his friends for
Deutsch catalogue offers only limited guidance several months after his death. These were
as to their order of composition, and paperobviously copied for the performance of this
studies make possible for the first time a overture on 16 August 1829 by Schubert's
reliable chronology of these works, the majority brother Ferdinand, and suggest that he called
of which are undated. To cite just one of numer-for performing forces about twice as large as
ous examples, the Eight Landler (originally 12, those of a dozen years earlier.
but the first four have been removed) D681 Equally problematical are the numerous sets
(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale MS 308) should of varied exercises which Schubert left behind.
not be dated '(?)c.1820' as in Deutsch, but These have never been satisfactorily dated.
between September 1814 and December 1815.D598A preserves two leaves of as yet unidenti-
The watermark in this autograph, incidentally, fied figured basses (Staatsbibliothek Preus-
is found in prodigious quantities in manuscriptssischer Kulturbesitz Schubert aut. 22); their
of both Schubert and Beethoven who, after all, identification may be facilitated by knowledge
were living and working in Vienna at the same that they date not from '(?)c.1818', as stated by
time. Their simultaneous use of papers bearing Deutsch, but from the period between the
the same watermark is valuable corroborative summers of 1825 and 1826. The traditional
evidence for the chronologies of both com- date of another exercise of sorts, the Fugue in
posers.4 Other autographs help us to assign a E minor for Organ or Piano Duet D952 (Bib-
chronology to collections made up of dances liotheque Nationale MS 305), gives rise to
from disparate periods. A single leaf purchased suspicion. Deutsch accepted without question
not long ago by the Staatsbibliothek Preus- the inscription of '3 June 1828' by an unknown
sischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (N. Mus. MS54) hand on the autograph, but this autograph
shares a watermark found in 17 other manu-
4Examples of this common type manufactured by the Kiesling
firm in north-eastern Bohemia can be found in the British scripts written out by Schubert between
Library in Schubert's Wandrers Nachtlied D224 and Der
Fischer D225 (Add. 41630, ff. 42b, 42), both composed on
September 1826 and May 1827. While not
excluding the likelihood that this was indeed
5 July 1815, as well as in the Bb Mass D324 (Add. 41632) of that the
November and December; and in two leaves from the so-called
'Scheide'. work performed at Heiligenkreuz with Franz
499

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 l,achner on 4 June 1828, t(h paper suggests link suclh a genesis to that of the Notturno.
tha1 Ilc I'uguc nImay have been conposcd earlier. We can be grateful that the evidence with
Most num1Lerous are the problemls presented regard to (he G(real ' C ajor Symphloniy )944
by ulndalted vocal works, of which only a smnall ((esellschaft der Musikfreunde A 245) is
samplle can be given. The ihree songs from incalculably more weighty and conclusive.
)Don (G,iaceros ,93 (Bcrlinl, D)culsche Slaats- Many admirers of Reed's impassioned pleas
bibliothek Schubert aut. 41) date from between that the C major be equated with the symphony
February 1816 and June 1817, not ( ?))1814' as begun in Gastein during the summier of 1825
in Deutsch. The same paper is found in the have felt frustrated by the lack of any but
scene from Goethe's Faust 1o26 (Deutsche circumstantial biographical evidence to shoulder
Staatsbibliothek Schubert aut. 9); this cannot the burden of proof (the stylistic asides are
be a 'first sketch' preceding the autograph of just that). Although I must refer readers to my
12 December 1814 (Deutsch) but represents an contribution in a forthcoming volume5 for a
independent draft of at least 14 months later. fuller discussion, the following findings can now
Regardless of its origins, the autograph of the be reported tentatively: (1) the high-quality
song Dem Unendlichenl D29 C (Deutsche Staats- Kiesling paper of the first two-thirds of the
bibliothek Schubert aut. 44) dates from the C major Symphony is found in all five dated
period between September 1826 and May 1827, autographs from the summer of 1825; (2) the
not from 1815 as implied by Deutsch. The watermark of this special paper is identical
songs Hoffnung D295 and An den Mond D296 with that used by Schubert's idol Ludwig van
(both in Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kul- Beethoven in the autograph of his A minor
turbesitz Schubert aut. 32) are on the paper of String Quartet op.132, also set down in the
Adrast and cannot possibly belong to the summer of 1825; (3) the four other paper types
autumn of 1815, as conjectured by Deutsch. found in the C major autograph represent
The song Abendliedder Fiirstin D495 (Deutsche various stages of addition and revision, from
Staatsbibliothek Schubert aut. 38) bears a rare further work on the finale at Gastein to last-
watermark found in the autograph of the Arpeg- minute structural alterations in the first-
gione Sonata D821 of November 1824, and movement coda and third-movement trio
almost certainly cannot have been composed made in the autumn of 1826, presumably just
eight years earlier, as Deutsch had claimed. And before Schubert presented the symphony to the
the first version of the Offertorium D963 Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. These dis-
(Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz coveries, however immovable they may be, do
Schubert aut. 14) is on paper used parallel not, of course, resolve the longstanding con-
tradiction of Schubert's date of 'March 1828' on
with that of D291C; very probably it predates
the final version by more than a year. the first page of the autograph (a recent attempt
What light can paper studies shed on thoseto read the final '8' as an altered '5' notwith-
two perennial problems of late chronology standing), but it is now clear that it will be
expounded most recently by John Reed in his easier to discover reasons for Schubert's
stimulating 1972 study, Schubert: the Late postdating this score than to insist against all
Years? The lack of primary source material forthe evidence upon his fresh use in 1828 of five
the first of these, the Bb Piano Trio D898, paper types whose utilization is otherwise
hinders any major breakthrough, but at leastconfined exclusively to 18 to 30 months earlier.
one of Reed's hypotheses about its early origins For all these works, then, which Schubert left
will have to be abandoned. He writes (p.65):
undated (or dated problematically), it is
'Now the Notturno [D897; Vienna, National- possible to propose new dates by means of
bibliothek S.m. 4.373] has always been thought
watermark evidence. In this way we appear to
to be a rejected slow movement of the Bb have both enlarged and narrowed Deutsch's
Piano Trio. In the absence of any other evidence category of 'Undated Works'. Far from a
as to its date, it seems reasonable to suppose luxury, the evidence of paper studies forms a
that Schubert was also at work on the trio prerequisite to any rigorous chronology of
Schubert's works, one which will withstand the
during that eventful summer [of 1825], and that
the Notturno was intended as one movement of tests of time and future scholarship. Even
it'. But the paper of the undated Notturno though such evidence is bound in many cases to
autograph is identical with that of no less than
be suggestive rather than conclusive, it becomes
increasingly obvious that Schubert scholars
eight different Schubert manuscripts bearing
dates from November 1827 to April 1828.disregard it at their peril.
While an 1825 genesis for the trio cannot be
ruled out (although, as we shall see, it places
5A much more complete study of these and similar problems,
quite a strain on the production of 'that eventful
with special emphasis on the years 1823-8, can be found in my
summer'), it would no longer seem fruitful article
to in the forthcoming Schubert Studies: Problems of Style
and Chronology, ed. Eva Badllra-Skoda and Peter Branscombe.
500

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