I would love to know who won the contest in the Canterbury Tales, but even though the whole work wasn’t finished, in that the frame story wasn’t complete, and there are clearly stories never composed that Chaucer intended to compose, the collection of the stories as written stands very well on its own.
Other unfinished classical pieces:
Bach - The Art of the Fugue
Mozart - Requiem
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 3
Mahler - 10th Symphony
Debussy - The Fall of the House of Usher
Pucinni - Turandot
Berg - Lulu
**Bartók **- Viola Concerto
Messiaen - Concert à Quatre
However, unlike Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, all these works were completed (sometimes several times!) and are usually performed in the “full” version i.e. with the completions. These are usually based on sketches left by the composers but they have sometimes been completely written by whoever finished the piece.
In a way, I have a feeling that it may be a bit less complicated to complete someone else’s musical work than, say, a novel, particularly if you have sketches. There are less “building blocks” in music (notes) than in novels (words). Of course, the number of possible combinations is enormous but only a much more limited number really work and if you know a composer’s style very well, you could probably fill in plausible solutions
Me neither. And although Das Schloss’ (non-)ending is frustrating, the book may be Kafka’s most haunting. I love it.
Sigh.
Puccini.
:o
I suppose you could add Beethoven’s 10th symphony to the list, though it’s even more unfinished than most.
I’m similarly conflicted about reading O’Brian’s 21, but I’m still glad it’s there to read. Otherwise we wouldn’t get the scene of Stephen telling his rival that Christine said to bugger off, and then the resulting duel.
Jane Austen’s two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons are good reads, and it’s very frustrating to come to the end of them.
[Emphasis mine]
Isn’t it? Der Prozess also is a nightmare in itself and has the bleakest ending imaginable (but it actually HAS an ending), but the indifferent bureaucratic treadmill in Das Schloss is hard to beat in being haunting. The scenes at the school and at the inn also have a dreamlike/nightmarish quality that is fascinating and frightening at once. I would give my right arm to get hold of the long lost manuscript with Kafka’s outline for the ending of Das Schloss, but on the other hand the end as we know it is fitting, cause there’s the implication that there is just no hope for a solution for the protagonist’s troubles and that it just never ends.
who’s next album came from the lifehouse project that was not finished.
Lifehouse is the one project I’d love to see finished, though I don’t have much hope for that. Judging from the Who’s Next songs (mind you, it’s my favorite Who album and one of my favorite albums ever) and the bits and pieces that were released from it later, I couldn’t derive a cohesive story and thought that it was a somewhat weird brainchild of Pete’s, who sometimes overdoes it in that regard (I love you, Pete), but I much later read an extensive outline of the story online and found it very intriguing and, well, prophetic.
Gary Jennings’ Aztec book series continues on even tho he died in 1999, under the guidance of his editor, and another writer. Supposedly, they are using his vast array of notes to stitch together the continuing saga. I stopped reading them after Jennings’ death, as I understand the recent editions are not worthy of the originals.
I understand the general sentiment is the “work” was largely finished when he died, but were popular (and lucrative) enough to continue creating.
Discworld story lines left open when Terry Pratchett passed away.
In particular, witch-in-training, Tiffany Aching. Just as she was coming into her own…
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is still very entertaining to read, even without an ending. In some ways it’s particularly fitting that a mystery should be left unfinished, so that readers have to try to solve it for themselves.
Exactly.
It’s been a while since I read it but isn’t it during the scene at the inn that he picks up the phone and hears nothing at the other end but faint, wailing voices? That was spooky :eek:.
It’s also quite funny sometimes albeit in a twisted way like when the two “assistants” that were sent to him keep on making his work more difficult with their constant blunders. Their antics are both infuriating and comical.
Yeah, great book.