During his second summer in Hungary as the music teacher in residence at the home of Count Esterhazy, Schubert was importuned by the Count's wife to set the poem "Gebet" (Prayer) by Friedrich Fouque as a vocal quartet for four of the five singers of the house, plus their guest Baron Karl von Schonstein. According to the Schonstein, the Countess made her request at breakfast and by supper, Schubert had composed the song, which was premiered that same evening. For a work that occupies 15 pages of score and takes more than ten minutes to perform, this may seem like an amazing feat, but Schubert was an extremely hard-working composer when he was inspired—recall the days in 1814 and 1815 when he would compose seven, eight, or even nine songs in day—and apparently Fouque's "Gebet" inspired him. Schubert essentially sets the work in two large sections: a longer opening section in duple time and a shorter closing section in triple time. The opening section is in modified strophic form: the outer sections are near repetitions of the same music while the central section is different but related music. The outer sections are in serene A flat major and are set for all four voices. The central section moves through a variety of keys and moods and is successively set for all four voices. Maria, the 22-year-old daughter of the house, gets a soprano solo followed by a gentle alto solo by her mother, the Countess. After an ersatz drum roll in the pianist's left hand, the Count gets a noble bass solo followed by Schonstein's high baritone (actually a tenor with a weak upper end). After a near repletion of the opening verse (the final cadence is here a half cadence), the closing section begins in triple time. The lyrical apotheosis of the work, the closing section seems poised to end grandly when, typically, Schubert pulls back and allows the music to end in quiet rapture. Interestingly, Schubert's setting of "Gebet" includes no part for Caroline, the younger of the two Esterhazy sisters, and, according to tradition, the daughter with whom he was hopelessly in love.

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