It ranks as one of the most popular pieces of classical music. Franz Schubert’s Eighth Symphony is better known as his Unfinished, as it consists of only two movements instead of the classical four. The fact that he was well into the composition of a third when he left it to one side suggests that the intention was to take the music further. But Schubert had a tendency to become distracted by the novelty of another project. The score of the B minor symphony was by no means the only manuscript to get pushed to one side. The previous year another symphony was abandoned before it was fully completed although he did bring this one — now known as No 7 in E major — to a conclusion. He simply didn’t fill in all the parts. Unusually, he had begun his composition by orchestrating it in full, which was obviously very time-consuming. After 110 bars, barely a third of the way into the opening movement, he gave up on this, and carried on by noting the melody alone, mostly the first violin part, only occasionally expanding the harmonics by adding other instrumental lines. Over the years, a fascination with this unfinished symphony grew, and attempts were made to create a completed version. The original manuscript had come into the possession of George Grove, whose Dictionary of Music and Musicians is the artform’s bible. Schubert was overshadowed in his lifetime by Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart. Grove was keen to bring this neglected composer into the mainstream. In search of more of his music, Grove went to Austria with his friend Arthur Sullivan (soon to become the Irish half of Gilbert and Sullivan), and in a Viennese cupboard, they discovered what Grove described as “a bundle of music books 2ft high, carefully tied round, and black with the undisturbed dust of half a century”. They had unearthed a veritable treasure trove. What Franz Liszt had done for the popularity of Schubert’s songs, Grove would do for the other music, including the symphony that came to him incomplete. But in the case of this piece, he needed somebody to fill in the blanks. Arthur Sullivan was the obvious choice, but by this stage his partnership with William Schwenck Gilbert was flourishing. Grove, director of the Royal College of Music, turned to his newly appointed professor, John Barnett. In 1883, more than 50 years after Schubert’s death at the age of 31, Barnett’s realisation of the sketch — he was the one who gave it the title of Symphony No 7 — was presented at a concert at the exhibition centre at the Crystal Palace in south London. There have been at least two further attempts to create a full-blown version of what Schubert had in mind. The Austrian composer, pianist and conductor Felix Weingartner produced his version in 1934. In 1978, the British composer Brian Newbould commemorated the 150th anniversary of Schubert’s death with his take. This, along with three other incomplete symphonic compositions that have been imagined in their entirety by the same composer are included on a six-CD set from Decca (28947088622) – Schubert: The Ten Symphonies.

George Hamilton presents ‘The Hamilton Scores’ on RTÉ lyric fm from 10am each Saturday and Sunday