Following the so-called �Year of Song� (1840) during which Schumann poured out almost 140 of his finest Lieder, the newly-married composer turned to weightier forms. In 1842 Schumann composed the Three String Quartets Op. 41, the Piano Quintet Op. 44 and the Piano Quartet Op. 47, a veritable �Year of Chamber Music�. Influenced by the late quartets of Beethoven and the quartets of Haydn and Mozart, Schumann�s string quartets are masterpieces in their own right, filled with musical inventiveness, youthful exuberance and intense poetic feeling.