Schubert first tried to set Gruppe aus dem Tartarus (Group from Hades, D. 396) in March 1816, but abruptly broke off composition after 23 bars. It is easy to understand why: while the heroic tessitura of the vocal melody and the galloping rhythm in the accompaniment suits Schiller's text, Schubert's setting is racing through the poem so quickly that unless he repeats lines later on, he will run out of text long before he runs out of music. Schubert returned to Schiller's poem 18 months later to write an entirely new setting of Gruppe aus dem Tartarus whose breadth and depth far surpassed this fragment.

© James Leonard, All Music Guide