String Quartet No. 14 in d minor, “Death and the Maiden,” D. 810

Quick Facts

• Written in 1824; published posthumously in 1831¹
• *D minor, the saddest of all keys 😉
• Dedicated to Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the first violinist of a professional quartet that had been closely associated with performing the works of Beethoven²

About the Piece

• The title for the string quartet, “Death and the Maiden,” came from the fact that the instantly recognizable theme in the second movement was borrowed from Schubert’s earlier Lied, “Der Tod und das Mädchen.”³ The song sets poetry by Matthias Claudius.
• In the month that the quartet was written, Schubert wrote the following to his friend, offering personal insight into the emotional trajectory of the piece:

“Just imagine a man whose health will never be re-established, and who from sheer despondency makes matters worse rather than better, just imagine a man whose brightest hopes have come to nothing, to whom happiness of proffered love and friendship offers nothing but anguish, for whom enthusiasm for what is beautiful threatens to vanish altogether, and then ask yourself if such a condition does not represent a miserable and unhappy man?”

• By 1824, Schubert was coming to terms with the fact that he likely would never recover from his persistent illness (often speculated as syphilis).
• Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the work’s dedicatee, dismissed the quartet and advised Schubert to return to writing Lieder. Consequently, the composer buried the piece. It was finally published three years after his death.⁴

1. Maurice J.E. Brown, Eric Sams, and Robert Winter, “Schubert, Franz,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 28, 2023, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025109.
2. Erik Levi, “Schubert’s Death and the Maiden: A guide to Schubert’s emotional string quartet and its best recordings,” BBC Music Magazine (2022), accessed March 28, 2023, https://www.classical-music.com/features/recordings/schubert-death-and-the-maiden/.
3. Jessie Rothwell, “String Quartet No. 14 ‘Death and the Maiden,'” The Hollywood Bowl, accessed March 28, 2023, https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/musicdb/pieces/3699/string-quartet-no-14-death-and-the-maiden.
4. Erik Levi, “Schubert’s Death and the Maiden: A guide to Schubert’s emotional string quartet and its best recordings,” BBC Music Magazine.