PROGRAM NOTES

as Schubert came to know that he was seriously ill with syphilis. His dark state of mind could be summed up in this excerpt from a letter to a friend: “I feel myself to be the most unfortunate, the most miserable being in the world.”

This was the setting in which Schubert called upon the voice of Death from an earlier song (a setting of Matthias Claudius’ ‘Death and the Maiden’ from 1817). While we hear in the overall quartet a sense of mortal struggle, peaked emotions, and intense drama, viscerally reflecting Schubert’s state of affairs, he chose the slow movement to feature Death’s song in a mantra-like theme and set of variations. Seven years after the original setting, the words of the song clearly took on heightened meaning in light of his struggles:

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!

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!

With tireless creativity, Schubert managed to compose some 140 or so more works before Death came far too early for the young composer, just 31.

— Nicholas Cords