Description
Quartettsatz, D 703
For the earlier Quartettsatz also by Schubert, see Quartettsatz, D 103
The Quartettsatz in C-moll (English: Quartet Movement in C minor), D 703 was composed
by Franz Schubert in December 1820. It is the first movement of a string quartet that Schubert
never completed. It was listed as his String Quartet no. 12 on publication. In addition to the
opening movement, Schubert also composed the first 40 bars of a second movement marked
“Andante.” The unfinished quartet is regarded as one of the first products of Schubert’s mature
phase of composition.
Background
Schubert began work on his twelfth string quartet in early December 1820, shortly after a
“Schubertiade” held at the home of Ignaz von Sonnleithner on the first of the month. It was his
first attempt at writing a string quartet since completing the String Quartet No. 11 in E major, D
353 in 1816.
After completing the allegro assai first movement, Schubert wrote out the 41 bar exposition of the
following andante movement before abandoning the work.
As with the later “Unfinished” Symphony, there has been much speculation on why Schubert left
the composition incomplete. One view presented by Bernard Shore is that Schubert put it aside to
follow up another musical idea and never got back to it. Javier Arrebola speculates that the work
(like several others written during the same period) was put aside because it “…did not yet
represent the great leap forward he was striving for.” It has also been speculated that the work
was abandoned because Schubert, having written a powerful first movement, was unable to
come up with an effective following movement.
Following Schubert’s death the manuscript score eventually found its way into the ownership
of Johannes Brahms. The Quartettsatz received its posthumous premiere on 1 March 1867
in Vienna, with publication of the score, edited by Brahms, following in 1870.
For a number of years it was believed that the Quartettsatz was an early work dating to around
1814 (perhaps a confusion with the Quartettsatz in C minor D 103). In 1905, Edmondstoune
Duncan wrote of the composition that it was “…fairly workman-like and effective, but is of little
further consequence, and is only mentioned by way of completeness.”[11] Later opinion, such as
Maurice Brown’s comment that the quartet was “…the only movement in Schubert’s instrumental
work, prior to the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony, which prepares us for the greatness which bursts forth
in that symphony,” established the work’s true importance as a forerunner of the late string
quartets which are among Schubert’s greatest works. Four years after the “Quartettsatz,”
Schubert returned to the genre to write the Rosamunde Quartet, D 804, which was followed by
the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet D 810 and the Fifteenth Quartet, D 887.
Structure
The composition consists of a single sonata form movement marked Allegro assai and typical
performances last around 10 minutes.
Modern completion
In 2004 the Oregon String Quartet premiered the Quartettsatz coupled with a completed version
of the Andante composed by Livingston Gearhart in 1990.
During 2012 the Brentano String Quartet performed the Quartettsatz as part of their Fragments
Project, for this concert series the composition was paired with a work entitled Fra(nz)g-
mentation by composer Bruce Adolphe that was based on Schubert’s Andante sketches.
