String Quartet No. 14 in D minor
Composer: Franz Schubert
Date of Publication: 1824
Nickname: Death and the Maiden Quartet
Schubert's most famous quartet, Death and the Maiden, was composed in 1824, shortly after he learned of his fatal illness. This illness was later found out to be syphilis, contracted in fall of 1822 when Schubert was on one of his "nocturnal pleasure jaunts with his friend and partner-in-sexual-crime, Franz von Schober.” However, Schubert's health began to noticeably decline only in 1823-1824. His health deteriorated so much so, that on March 31, 1824, he wrote to one of his friends, Leopold Kupelweiser, "I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this ever makes things worse and worse, instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the felicity of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain, at best, whose enthusiasm for all things beautiful [is gone], and I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? ‘My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it never and nevermore’, I may well sing every day now, for each night, on retiring to bed, I hope I may not wake again, and each morning but recalls yesterday’s grief."
It was also at this time that Schubert was writing his 14th quartet, whose second movement's theme and variations borrowed much from his previous lied, "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (Death and the Maiden, D 531; Op. 7, No. 3), composed in 1817 when Schubert was 20. This lied was based off a poem by Matthias Claudis, where Death has come to take away a small girl who does not want to go. In the first Stanza, the girl cries out,
"Pass by, alas, pass by!
Go, you savage skeleton!
I am still young, go, oh dear!
And do not touch me."
To comfort her, Death says,
"Give me your hand, you fair and tender creature;
I am a friend and do not come to punish you.
Be of good cheer! I am not savage,
Gently you will sleep in my arms."
The lied begins with a D minor funeral march, marking the inevitable death of the girl. However, towards the end, they key switches to D major, to show the girl's acceptance of her fate and relinquishment of her fear, as she welcomes Death.
Schubert's deteriorating health, depression, and comparison of himself to the maiden clearly send the message that this piece was an autobiographical one. This quartet was regarded as a masterpiece, with an excellent conversation between dark, pressing melody, and a lyrical, soft reply. This conversation can be interpreted as the dialogue between death, dark and powerful, and the maiden, soft and afraid or as the furious resistance and terror of the maiden and the gentle, comforting words of Death. Schubert would die 4 years later, after drinking contaminated water and contracting a typhoid fever.
Fun Fact: Many of Schubert's friends blamed von Schober for Schubert's perdition.
Movements:
I. Allegro
II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo Allegro moto
IV. Presto
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