It features Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (piano) and singer Júlia Várady. Here’s a rendition of the song the 20-year-old Schubert wrote in 1817, based on the poem. Sollst sanft in meinem Armen Schlafen! (Gently in my arms shall you sleep.) Sei gutes Muts! ich bin nicht wild. (Be of good cheer! I am not savage.) Gib deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebild! (Give me your hand, you fair and tender form.)īin Freund und komme nicht zu strafen. (I am a friend and come not to punish.) Und rühre mich nicht an. (And do not touch me.)
Ich bin noch jung, geh Lieber! (I am still young, go, dear!) Geh, wilder Knochenmann! (Go, you savage skeleton!) Vorüber, ach vorüber. (Pass by, oh pass by!) Here’s an excerpt of Claudius’ two-part poem, translated from its original German into English, and be aware that German-to-English translation is open to personal interpretation sometimes, because the Germans have a word for everything, and then some. And the poem, by Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), came before that. The song came before the string quartet, after all. Maybe you don’t know a thing about the story. But is it morbid to love a story where Death comes to visit a young woman who’s terrified by his presence and its implications? The second movement tells such a vivid story, which of course appeals to the storyteller in me, as well as the reader who loves immersing herself in stories. Much in the way Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” is merely one movement of his 1936 string quartet but vastly upstaged the rest after he arranged the movement for stringed orchestra. (Shh, don’t tell any music purists!) I knew the second movement was based on the eponymous song Schubert wrote seven years earlier, in 1817, but it’s become increasingly clear just how much it stands out from the rest of the quartet. In recent years, however, I’ve been so drawn to the second movement, I’ll listen to the first and second movements and skip the rest. I’ve enjoyed listening to “Death and the Maiden,” Schubert’s Quartet No. And, okay, Debussy’s “ Afternoon of a Faun.”) (One of them being, ironically, another Schubert piece, his Impromptu No.
I don’t consider myself to be someone easily seduced, much less by Death, but Franz Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” sears a haunting image on my psyche that has few equals in music. It’s not just the maiden that Death is after in the music. Franz Schubert composed his “Death and the Maiden” quartet-one of the most compelling, soulful, profound, irresistible pieces of classical music-while battling syphilis and depression.
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