1/23/2024 0 Comments Franz schubert erlkingThe musical incarnations of the poem (its title derived probably from Goethe's teacher Herder, who in turn took it from the Danish) started off in a humble and undramatic way. In Schubert's lifetime it was one of the sure-fire successes of the composer's chosen interpreter Johann Michael Vogl, who nevertheless insisted that a few bars were inserted in one of the song's piano interludes to enable him to catch his breath (these bars remain, probably to the gratitude of all subsequent singers-would someone had begged the composer to add a few more bars of spinning interlude before Gretchen's final 'Meine Ruh ist hin' in his Opus 2!). The song, as Schwarzkopf also proved, can be the domain of a female singer. At the end of his life even the wary old Goethe, who had ignored Schubert's attempts to contact him when the composer was alive, was bowled over by a performance of the song by the formidable Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. He published it proudly (but not without trouble, and the intervention of his friends) as his Opus 1, and, almost more than any other work, it helped spread and solidify his reputation, in Vienna in his lifetime, and throughout the world after his death. The playing of both hands stops completely when the fate of the son is revealed.To comment upon this song is almost unnecessary as it is perhaps the best known of all Schubert Lieder. Schubert’s masterful writing gives to the right hand a continuous series of staccato chords that suggest the pounding pace of the horse and lend urgency to the narrative, and to the left he gives a repetitive, quietly sinister little run. The Erl-King’s voice, by contrast, is initially sweetly beguiling, but, as he loses his patience with the boy, it takes on an angry, menacing edge. Each time the boy speaks, for example, his growing hysteria is signaled by his rising vocal pitch, whereas the father’s voice is not only lower in pitch but also steady and even. Although only one singer is involved, Schubert gives each of the song’s four personalities-narrator, father, boy, and Erl-King-a characteristic way of singing. He heightens its horror by means of several devices. Schubert deftly underscores the action described in the poem by carefully crafting music that drops the listener in medias res. Goethe’s poem, which is reproduced below, contains a conversation that includes a father, his child, and the evil Erl-King. When the Erl-King eventually seizes the boy, the father spurs on his horse, but when he arrives home his son is dead. The boy grows increasingly terrified by what he hears from the Erl-King, but his father tells him that the things he thinks he sees and hears are only the sights and sounds of nature on a dark and stormy night. The boy’s father, however, cannot see or hear the creature and tells the boy that his imagination is playing tricks on him. He is frightened when he is courted by the Erl-King, a powerful and creepy supernatural being. Goethe’s poem tells the story of a boy riding home on horseback in his father’s arms. The poem that provides its text, like many of the supernatural tales that dominated literature in the Romantic era, has its roots in a Scandinavian folktale. “Erlkönig” is by far the best known of these. Inspired in part by his friendship with a number of talented singers, Schubert produced some 600 art songs during the course of his brief career (he died at age 31). Its effectiveness is doubly impressive because Schubert was only 18 years old when he composed it. The song was written for two performers, a singer and a pianist, and it packs a remarkable amount of tension and drama into a mere four minutes. “Erlkönig” is considered by many to be one of the greatest ballads ever penned. “Erlkönig, also called Erl-King or Elf-King, song setting by Franz Schubert, written in 1815 and based on a 1782 poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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