page_title: Erlkönig (Goethe)
section_title: The Franz Schubert composition
hierarchical_section_title: Erlkönig (Goethe) / Settings to music / The Franz Schubert composition
caption_attribution_description: English: This is an image of a manuscript page from Franz Schubert's Lied Der Erlkönig.
context_page_description: "Erlkönig" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking, a kind of demon or king of the fairies. It was originally written by Goethe as part of a 1782 Singspiel, Die Fischerin.
  "Erlkönig" has been called Goethe's "most famous ballad". The poem has been set to music by several composers, most notably by Franz Schubert.
context_section_description: Franz Schubert composed his Lied "Erlkönig" for solo voice and piano at the age of 17 or 18 in 1815, setting text from Goethe's poem. Schubert revised the song three times before publishing his fourth version in 1821 as his Opus 1; it was catalogued by Otto Erich Deutsch as D. 328 in his 1951 catalog of Schubert's works. The song was first performed in concert on 1 December 1820 at a private gathering in Vienna and received its public premiere on 7 March 1821 at Vienna's Theater am Kärntnertor.
  The four characters in the song – narrator, father, son, and the Erlking – are all sung by a single vocalist. Schubert places each character largely in a different vocal range, and each has his own rhythmic nuances; in addition, most singers endeavor to use a different vocal coloration for each part.
  The Narrator lies in the middle range and begins in the minor mode.
  The Father lies in the lower range and sings in both minor and major mode.
  The Son lies in a higher range, also in the minor mode.
  The Erlking's vocal line, in the major mode, provides the only break from the ostinato bass triplets in the accompaniment until the boy's death.
  A fifth character, the horse, is implied in rapid triplet figures played by the pianist throughout the work, mimicking hoof beats.
  "Erlkönig" starts with the piano playing rapid triplets to create a sense of urgency and simulate the horse's galloping. The left hand of the piano part introduces a low-register leitmotif composed of rising scale in triplets and a falling arpeggio. The moto perpetuo triplets continue throughout the entire song except for the final three bars and mostly comprise the uninterrupted repeated chords or octaves in the right hand, established at the opening. Significantly, the Erlkönig's verses differ in their accompanying figurations (providing some relief for the pianist) but are still based on triplets.
  Each of the Son's pleas becomes higher in pitch. Near the end of the piece, the music quickens and then slows as the Father spurs his horse to go faster and then arrives at his destination. The absence of the piano creates multiple effects on the text and music. The silence draws attention to the dramatic text and amplifies the immense loss and sorrow caused by the Son's death.
  The song has a tonal scheme based on rising semitones which portrays the increasingly desperate situation:
  The 'Mein Vater, mein Vater' music appears three times on a prolonged dominant seventh chord that slips chromatically into the next key. Following the tonal scheme, each cry is a semitone higher than the last, and, as in Goethe's poem, the time between the second two cries is less than the first two, increasing the urgency like a large-scale stretto.  Much of the major-key music is coloured by the flattened submediant, giving it a darker, unsettled sound.
  The piece is regarded as extremely challenging to perform due to the multiple characters the vocalist is required to portray, as well as its difficult accompaniment, involving rapidly repeated chords and octaves which contribute to the drama and urgency of the piece.
  "Erlkönig" is through-composed; although the melodic motives recur, the harmonic structure is constantly changing and the piece modulates within characters. The rhythm of the piano accompaniment also changes within the characters. The first time the Erl-king sings in measure 57, the galloping motive disappears. However, when the Erlking sings again in measure 87, the piano accompaniment plays arpeggios rather than chords.
  "Erlkönig" has been transcribed for various settings: for solo piano by Franz Liszt; for solo voice and orchestra by Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt and Max Reger; for solo violin by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst.
caption: Schubert's autograph of a simplified accompaniment to his "Erlkönig", one of several revisions
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