[Publius]

When I get to the symphonies, I’ll juxtapose a movement from one of the juvenile symphonies (1 thru 6, 6.1, 6.2, 7) with a movement from one of the mature symphonies (8 thru 10).

[Publius]

“The Magic Harp” was a bad play, staged badly with bad singing and bad acting. It closed after a week and was mercifully forgotten. Leonard Pinth-Garnell would have reviewed it under the title “Bad Theater.” The only thing that caught people’s attention was the incidental music that Schubert wrote for it. One reviewer understood the problem: “What a pity that Schubert’s wonderfully beautiful music had not found a worthier subject!”

Like Handel, Schubert had no problem recycling his music, and this overture later appeared with the incidental music for “Rosemunde, Princess of Cyprus,” another disastrous play by an untalented playwright, but with better music from Schubert.

It’s in sonatina format, which means that there is no development section, but repetition of the exposition with the key relationships one would expect from a sonata movement. The order is introduction (C minor), first subject (C Major), second subject (G Major), first subject (C Major), second subject (C Major), coda (C Major).

Schubert: Overture to “The Magic Harp”