Franz Schubert's 'Death & the Maiden' D.810, 4th Movement bring performed at the C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre, Delhi.<br /><br />The Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre, the Delhi Music Society in cooperation with the India International Centre presented this concert.<br /><br />Schubert 'Death & the Maiden' D.810:<br /><br />The String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, known as Death and the Maiden, by Franz Schubert, is one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1824, after the composer suffered through a serious illness and realized that he was dying, it is Schubert's testament to death. The quartet is named for the theme of the second movement, which Schubert took from a song he wrote in 1817 of the same title; but the theme of death is palpable in all four movements of the quartet.<br /><br />The quartet was first played in 1826 in a private home, and was not published until 1831, three years after Schubert's death. Yet, passed over in his lifetime, the quartet has become a staple of the quartet repertoire. It is D. 810 in Otto Erich Deutsch's thematic catalog of Schubert's works.<br /><br />Fourth movement: Presto<br /><br />The finale of the quartet is a tarantella in rondo-sonata form, in D minor. The tarantella is a breakneck Italian dance in 6/8 time, that, according to tradition, was a treatment for madness and convulsions brought on by the bite of a tarantula spider. Appropriately, Cobbett calls this movement "a dance of death."<br /><br />The movement is built of sections. The first, main section recurs between each of the subsequent sections.<br /><br />The movement opens with the main section of the rondo in unison, with a theme based on a dotted figure. The theme is traditionally bowed in the reverse direction from the usual bowing of dotted passages. This has the effect of moving the accent onto the off-beat, giving the entire passage the character of a limping dance. <br /><br />The theme develops characteristically, with sudden lurches from loud to soft and running triplets, leading to the second section of the rondo: a broad, chorale-like theme. Cobbett identifies this theme as a quote from another song of Schubert's, Der Erlkönig, about a child who dies at the hands of king of the forest. The terrified child turns to his father for protection, but his father does not see the spirit, and ignores the child's pleas until the child is dead in his arms. "There is deep meaning in the appearance of this phrase," writes Cobbett. The chorale motif continues, with a flowing triplet accompaniment in the first violin that recalls the fourth variation of the Andante movement. This leads to a restatement of the main theme. <br /><br />Here the triplet motif of the opening of the quartet also reappears, in disguised form. Then the chorale theme recurs, leading to the second statement of the main section.<br /><br />The third section of the rondo begins. This is a complex, involuted section with chromatic swirls of triplets and hemiolas that cause the listener to lose all sense of downbeat. This leads into a recapitulation of the second section, and then a return of the main section of the rondo.<br /> <br />A crescendo leads to the Prestissimo coda of the movement and of the piece. The coda begins in D major, suggesting a triumphant end - a device common in classical and romantic quartets. But in this case, the coda suddenly returns to D minor, for a tumultuous and tragic conclusion.<br /><br />Source : Wikipedia<br /><br />This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang @ gmail . com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.
