Schubert wrote his String Quartet in C major, D. 46, between the 3rd and 7th March 1813. The first movement starts with an obvious echo of Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, with its chromatically descending Baroque motif.
An Allegro con moto follows the slow introduction, with the chromatic motif from the Adagio returning in accompaniment and more explicitly in the central development.
The G major slow movement, marked Andante con moto, returns more certainly to an earlier age, its principal theme used to frame a central section that is contrasted in key and mood.
The Menuetto, originally placed second, is in the key of B flat major, an unusual choice, although the Trio which it frames is in C major.
The quartet ends with a cheerful Allegro, its principal theme suggesting an Austrian country dance, a mood continued in secondary material. Here is this wonderful music: