The String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810, known as Death and the Maiden, is a piece by Franz Schubert that has been called "one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire". It was composed in 1824, after the composer suffered from a serious illness and realized that he was dying. It is named for the theme of the second movement, which Schubert took from a song he wrote in 1817 of the same title. But, writes Walter Willson Cobbett, all four movements of the quartet are welded "into a unity under the pressure of a dominating idea – the dance of death."Cobbett (1923), v.2, p. 360
The quartet was first played in 1826 in a private home, and was not published until 1831, three years after Schubert's death.
Composition 1823 and 1824 were hard years for Schubert. For much of 1823 he was sick, some scholars believe with an outburst of tertiary stage syphilis, and in May had to be hospitalized. He was also without money: he had entered into a disastrous deal with Anton Diabelli to publish a batch of works, and received almost no payment; and his latest attempt at opera, Fierrabras, was a flop. In a letter to a friend, he wrote,
Yet, despite his bad health, poverty, and depression, Schubert continued to turn out the tuneful, light, and gemütlich music that made him the toast of Viennese society: the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, the octet for string quartet, contrabass, clarinet, horn and bassoon, more than 20 songs, and numerous light pieces for piano.
After 1820, Schubert returned to the string quartet form, which he had last visited as a teenager. He wrote the one-movement Quartettsatz in 1820, and the Rosamunde quartet in 1824 using a theme from the incidental music that he wrote for a play that failed. These quartets are a huge step forward from his initial attempts.See, for example, . Even Schubert recognized this fact; in July 1824, he wrote to his brother Ferdinand of his earlier quartets, "it would be better if you stuck to other quartets than mine, for there is nothing in them..."quoted in There are several qualities that set these mature quartets apart from Schubert's earlier attempts. In the early quartets, it is primarily the first violin that carries the melody, with the other instruments playing supporting roles; in the later quartets, the part writing is much more advanced, and each instrument brings its own character and presence, for a more complex and integrated texture. Also, the later quartets are structurally much more integrated, with motifs, harmonies, and textures recurring in a way that ties the entire work together.For a discussion of the differences between the early and late quartets, see , and .
But beyond these technical improvements, Schubert in these later works made the quartet medium his own. "He had now ceased to write quartets to order, for experimental study, or for the home circle", writes Walter Willson Cobbett. "To the independent artist... the string quartet had now also become a vehicle for conveying to the world his inner struggles." For Schubert, who lived a life suspended between the lyrical, romantic, charming and the dramatic, chaotic, and depressive, the string quartet offered a medium "to reconcile his essentially lyric themes with his feeling for dramatic utterance within a form that provided the possibility of extreme color contrasts", writes music historian Homer Ulrich.
Schubert wrote the D minor quartet in March 1824,Composer and editor Franz Lachner mistakenly dated the quartet to 1826, when it was first played in public. within weeks of completing the A minor Rosamunde quartet. He apparently planned to publish a three-set volume of quartets; but the Rosamunde was published within a year, while the D minor quartet was only published in 1831, three years after Schubert's death, by Diabelli. The urtext score is published by Bärenreiter. It was first played in January 1826 at the Vienna home of Karl and Franz Hacker, amateur violinists, apparently with Schubert on the viola.
Inspiration
The quartet takes its name from the lied "Der Tod und das Mädchen", D 531, a setting of the poem of the same name by Matthias Claudius, that Schubert wrote in 1817. The theme of the song forms the basis of the second movement of the quartet. The theme is a death knell that accompanies the song about the terror and comfort of death.
German EnglishDas Mädchen: Vorüber! Ach, vorüber! Geh, wilder Knochenmann! Ich bin noch jung! Geh, Lieber, Und rühre mich nicht an. Und rühre mich nicht an.
Der Tod: Gib deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebild! Bin Freund, und komme nicht, zu strafen. Sei gutes Muts! Ich bin nicht wild, Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen!The Maiden: Pass me by! Oh, pass me by! Go, fierce man of bones! I am still young! Go, dear, And do not touch me. And do not touch me.
Death: Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form! I am a friend, and come not to punish. Be of good cheer! I am not fierce, Softly shall you sleep in my arms!
But it is not only this theme of the quartet that recalls death. The quote from the song "makes explicit the overriding theme of the work, its bleak vision and almost unremitting foreboding", writes Andrew Clements. From the violent opening unison, the first movement runs a relentless race through terror, pain and resignation, ending with a dying D minor chord. "The struggle with Death is the subject of the first movement, and the andante accordingly dwells on Death's words", writes Cobbett.
After a scherzo movement, with a trio that provides the only lyrical respite from the depressing mood of the piece, the quartet ends with a tarantella – the traditional dance to ward off madness and death. "The finale is most definitely in the character of a dance of death; ghastly visions whirl past in the inexorable uniform rhythm of the tarantella", writes Cobbett.
So strong is the association of death with the quartet that some analysts consider it to be programmatic, rather than absolute music. "The first movement of Schubert's Death and the Maiden string quartet can be interpreted in a quasi-programmatic fashion, even though it is usually viewed as an abstract work", writes Deborah Kessler. Theologian Frank Ruppert sees the quartet as a musical expression of Judaeo-Christian religious beliefs. "This quartet, like so many of Schubert's works, is a kind of para-liturgy", he writes. Each movement is about a different episode in the process of death and resurrection.
Analysis The quartet throughout is characterized by sudden dramatic shifts from fortissimo to pianissimo, from the lyrical to the compelling and dramatic. A driving undercurrent of triplets is a recurring motif in all four movements.For more analyses, see , , or Death and the Maiden in the BBC Discovering Music: Listening Library.
There are four movements:
I. Allegro In the 14-measure introduction, Schubert establishes the elements that will carry through the entire movement. The quartet begins with a unison D, played fortissimo, and a triplet figure, that establishes the triplet motif. Three and a half measures of fortissimo break off into a sudden, pianissimo chorale, the first of the many violent shifts of mood that occur throughout. After the introduction, Schubert presents the first theme: a continuation of the chorale motif, but with the triplet motif rippling through the lower voices, in a restless, unremitting stream. The triplet motif is transmuted into a connecting theme of its own, leading to the second theme in F major.The second theme is repeated, with an accompaniment of sixteenth notes.The sixteenth note passage modulates through a range of keys, finally settling on A major, where it continues as an accompaniment to a restatement of the second theme in the second violin. The exposition ends with a transformation of the second theme, this time wrenched into a violent outburst in A minor.The development concentrates on the two forms of the second theme: the lilting, quiet version, and the violent inverted form. The section fluctuates between a fading relaxation and fortissimo. Toward the end of the development, Schubert reintroduces the triplet motif of the first theme, leading to the recapitulation.Here the opening themes return, with variants. The music moves to D major, for a relaxed recapitulation of the second theme, then returns to D minor. A chorale reminiscent of the introduction leads to the coda. But even in the chorale, the tension does not relax, with a sudden fortepiano interrupting the quiet. The opening theme returns, played at a rushed tempo, like a sudden resurgence of life, growing to a climax that suddenly breaks off and the triplet motif, played at the original slower tempo, dies away to the end of the movement.
II. Andante con moto The second movement is a theme and five variations, based on the theme from the Schubert Lied. The theme is like a death march in G minor, ending on a G-major chord. Throughout the movement, Schubert does not deviate from the basic harmonic and sentence structure of the 24-measure theme. But each variation expresses a profoundly different emotion.In the first variation, a lilting violin descant floats above the theme, played in pulsing triplets in the second violin and viola that recall the triplets of the first movement.In the second variation, the cello carries the theme, with the first violin playing the pulsating role – this time in sixteenth notes.After two relaxed variations, the third variation returns to the Sturm und Drang character of the overall piece: a galloping fortissimo figure breaks off suddenly into piano; the violin plays a variant of the theme in a high register, while the inner voices continue the gallop.The fourth variation is again lyrical, with the second violin and cello carrying the melody under a long violin line in triplets. This is the only variation in a major key: G major.In the fifth variation, the second violin takes up the theme, while the first violin plays a sixteenth-note arpeggiated motif, with the cello playing the triplets in the bass. The variation grows from pianissimo to fortissimo, then again fades and slows in pace, finally returning to a restatement of the theme – this time in G major.
III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
The third movement is derived from the Ländler No. 6 in G-sharp Minor composed by Schubert. Cobbett describes the third movement as the "dance of the demon fiddler". There is indeed something demonic in this fast-paced scherzo, full of syncopations and, like the other movements, dramatic leaps from fortissimo to pianissimo.
The scherzo is designed as a classical minuet: two strains in time, repeated, in D minor, followed by a contrasting trio section in D major, at a slower tempo, and ending with a recapitulation of the opening strains. The trio section is the only real respite from the compelling pace of the whole quartet: a typically Schubertesque melody, with the first violin playing a dancing descant above the melody line in the lower voices, then the viola takes the melody as the first violin plays high eighth notes.
The scherzo is a short movement, serving as an interlude leading to the frenetic last movement.
IV. Presto
The finale of the quartet is a tarantella in rondo-sonata form, in D minor. The tarantella is a breakneck Italian dance in 6/8 time, that, according to tradition, was a treatment for madness and convulsions brought on by the bite of a tarantula spider. Appropriately, Cobbett calls this movement "a dance of death".