For some reason, Schubert set two poems by the Swiss poet Johann von Salis-Seewis in late March 1816 which were anything but the poetic incarnations of vernal hopefulness: Die Herbstnacht (The Autumn Evening) (D. 404) and Der Herbstabend (The Autumn Night) (D. 405). The title Die Herbstnacht was actually Schubert's; Salis-Seewis' own title was Wehmuth (Melancholy). And indeed it is a melancholy poem in the way that only a German speaking proto-Romantic like Salis-Seewis could be with its images of "dusky light glimmering on the path of destiny."

Yet Schubert's song is not itself all that melancholy or rather its melancholy is enclosed within a basically positive frame. A strophic setting of the three-verse poem, each of Schubert's strophes starts and ends in F major but this tonality encloses modulations through both minor keys and flattened major keys. It is as if the melancholy that poet addresses is contained by the F major which surrounds it. The vocal melody is one of Schubert's miraculously consoling almost folk-like tunes which sound instantly familiar at first hearing. The combination of the harmonic scheme and the vocal melody justifies Schubert's change of title.

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