Franz Schubert composed the song “Death and the Maiden” in 1817, and in 1824 used that melody in the theme-and-variations second movement of his String Quartet in d minor D. 810. The song’s popularity in the second half of the 19th century was responsible for the string quartet becoming known by the title “Death and the Maiden”. Like all of Schubert’s mature chamber music works, it captivates with its technical perfection and high intellectual demands. Very prominent here is Schubert’s desire to motivically link the movements together. Oddly enough, the work was neither performed nor published during his lifetime; the incomplete autograph score and the posthumous first edition of 1831 have thus served as the sources for our edition.
