Frauen und Madchen die Lieben

Is it vanity, naivety, or passion to satisfy the desire to blend the unique colors of the string quartet with the singing voice? Why has relatively little been composed for this instrumentation, especially during the 18th and 19th Centuries?
I am not a music historian and will not dwell on this further. I am pleased, however, that the frequent urge to arrange compositions for alternative instrumentations originated centuries ago, and luckily this finds more audience in our time. The real conceern is to find genuine arrangers, who do not seek to fulfill their own desires in the music of others, but who give a truthful reflection of the original composition, only in a different setting.