While smaller symphonies and string quartets flowed easily from the pen of the youthful Franz Schubert, his ambitions in both genres increased considerably from 1820 onwards. He did not finish three symphonies, and his gripping C minor string quartet ("Quartettsatz") also remained unfinished.

Beethoven's string quartets op. 59, on the other hand, were described by contemporaries as the "patchwork of a madman". The novelty of these works lay in the expansion of form and sound. In this respect, the F major quartet is the counterpart to Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies, which were written in the same period.