Des Fräuleins Liebeslauschen (A Girl's Serenade, D. 698), from September 1820, sets a poem by Schubert's friend Franz von Schlechta which is itself a "setting" of a painting by their mutual friend, Ludwig von Carolsfeld. Von Carolsfeld's painting depicts a young man in medieval dress clinging to a tree outside the open window of a beautiful young girl, and von Schlechta's poem translates that image into a short narrative poem in eight verses that give context to the painting. Schubert's song in turn gives voice to the poem and to the knight serenading the girl. A through-composed song that sprouts new melodies in every verse (even the piano postlude has a new melody), Schubert here is sweetly lyrical and tenderly expansive, offering a vocal melody of exquisite loveliness.

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