Franz Schubert wrote the Ständchen D 920 for alto voice, chorus and piano on a text by the poet Franz Grillparzer in July 1827. He composed the present version for male chorus first; but since women’s voices were available for the first performance on 11 August 1827 as a birthday serenade in a private circle, Schubert replaced the men’s with women’s voices. This second version was printed posthumously by Diabelli in Vienna in 1840. The present original version was first printed in 1891 by Breitkopf & Härtel in the framework of the Schubert Complete Edition.