String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810, ‘Death and the Maiden’ (Schubert)
Movements
i Allegro ii Andante con moto iii Scherzo: Allegro molto iv Presto
Notes
Of his fifteen string quartets, the D minor quartet subtitled “Death and the Maiden” is number fourteen. Appropriately, the title comes from a Schubert song of the same name, part of which is used as the theme for the second movement’s variations. It’s an appropriate appellation, though, for the whole piece considering its overall tragic mien: each movement is in a minor key and none veer far from the expressive turbulence of the first movement’s opening measures.
Schubert wrote the piece in 1824 and, while it’s often unwise to look too closely for autobiographical impulses in a composition, here there’s a close connection between the music’s content and Schubert’s battles with syphilis, the disease that killed him just four years later. Though there’s no real sense of resignation or defeat, there is a kind of futility that permeates this score.
