Alexander Zemlinsky's String Quartet No. 2, Op. 15 is one of his most turbulent works. Written in 1915, it is filled with arcane references to tragic events that had taken place during the last fifteen years. Normally, Zemlinsky produced music that reflected his pleasant nature in an art nouveau style unique to himself. This quartet is akin to the first published quartets of Schoenberg and Berg, and opaquely deals with hard memories. Zemlinsky had a thick skin but was never bitter or callous, and though many late-Romantic/modern works of this nature imply a super heroic effort of the artist to overcome adversity, the Op. 15 carries its sometimes heavy-hearted tone with admirable compassion.

The references to past trauma in Zemlinsky's second quartet are conveyed by musical ciphers and numerological allusions. Many Viennese composers, including Schoenberg and Berg, were deeply involved in numerology. The quartet, in the composer's words, "would pretend to be in F sharp minor," though it is more firmly rooted in D. The symbolism of F# is that the German word for sharp, Kreuz, is a synonym for cross. Among musicians preoccupied with numerology, the three sharps that indicate F sharp major appear together to resemble a view of the crucifixion of Christ at Golgotha. Zemlinsky's reference to the Op. 15's pretense of an F sharp tonality was found in a letter to Schoenberg. The two composers had been close friends since 1895 and they shared a very personal musical rapport, which translated into a reference system that may seem unlikely and bizarre to many readers.

The quartet's Golgothic key signature refers to a tragedy from 1908, which was alluded to in a musical premonition by Schoenberg from 1899. That year, Schoenberg was courting Zemlinsky's sister, Mathilde. Inspired by this romance, he composed Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4, a string sextet that depicted a musical illustration of a poem by Richard Dehmel. The poem is about a woman's confession of infidelity to her intended husband, who forgives her. In 1901, Schoenberg and Mathilde were married. Their relationship suffered from Mathilde's instinctive need for independence, and in 1905 Schoenberg wrote his first string quartet that involved a program of expressing regret for the suffering he caused loved ones. The quartet was in D minor. In 1908 Mathilde ran off with a young painter named Richard Gerstl, a close friend of the family. Schoenberg sent his colleague, the unlikely diplomat Anton Webern, to convince her to return to her family, which she did for the sake of the children. Gerstl's response to this was commit suicide after destroying his paintings. Later that year, Schoenberg wrote his Second String Quartet, Op. 10 which ends with two atonal movements but begins and, more or less, ends in F sharp. The F sharp and D keys that occupy Zemlinsky's Op. 15 refer Schoenberg's quartets. The scherzo of the quartet features the repetition of A-E flat, which translates to AS, or Arnold Schoenberg. Mathilde's cipher is also frequently heard. Zemlinsky and Schoenberg had numbers they considered their own, 14 and 13, and these numbers often determine the length of a phrase in bars.

Zemlinsky wrote his Op. 15 in Prague and regretted the physical and emotional distance between himself and his brother-in-law. Zemlinsky had regarded Schoenberg as partly responsible for Gerstl's death via Mathilde's dissatisfaction with her marriage. By really being in D, the Op. 15 turns the confession of guilt for causing suffering upon Zemlinsky himself. His second quartet is, among other things, an apology to Schoenberg, couched in a very specific code.

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