In November 1822, Schubert was commissioned by the Baroness Geymuller to compose a part-song, to the words of an anonymous poet, to celebrate the recovery of a gentleman named Ritter from a serious illness. And that is all anyone knows for certain about the origins of this deeply moving mini-cantata. It should be mentioned, however, that at least one scholar has suggested that the syphilis which was to kill Schubert six years later was first manifesting itself in late 1822, and that the recovery Schubert wrote of so movingly was his own hoped-for cure from an incurable disease. Be that as it may, Des Tages Weihe is profoundly affecting piece for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and piano. After a brief but consoling piano prelude in the tonic of A flat major, the bass sings the poem's first five lines. He is joined by the other voices for a repetition of those lines in comforting four-part harmony. After this, the soprano takes the fifth line in the tonic minor "And sorrow is forgotten" as a solo, which blossoms into the four-part harmony in C flat major of the sixth through eighth lines "Through the mist shines the immeasurable radiance/Of your greatness." The tenor gets a brief solo for the ninth and tenth lines, and is joined by the other voices for the song's climax in its final couplet. The repetition of the song's opening at mezzo voce is at once balm for the weary and gratitude from the cured.

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