6.3: Music of Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Franz Schubert lived a short but prolific musical life. Like Joseph Haydn, he performed as a choirboy until his voice broke. He also received music lessons in violin, piano, organ, voice and musical harmony: many of his teachers remarked on the young boy’s genius. Schubert followed in his father’s footsteps for several years, teaching school through his late teens, until he shifted his attention to music composition fulltime in 1818. By that time he had already composed masterpieces for which he is still known, including the German Lied , Der Erlkönig (in English, The Erlking ), which we will discuss.Schubert spent his entire life in Vienna in the shadow of the two most famous composers of his day: Ludwig van Beethoven, whose music we have already discussed, and Gioachino Rossini, whose Italian operas were particularly popular in Vienna in the first decade.
Inspired by the music of Beethoven, Schubert wrote powerful symphonies and chamber music, which are still played today; his “Great” Symphony in C major is thought by many to be Schubert’s finest contribution to the genre. He wrote the symphony in 1825 and 1826, but it remained unpublished and indeed perhaps unperformed until Robert Schumann discovered it in 1838. Schumann famously remarked on the “heavenly length” of this composition that can take almost an hour to per- form. One reason for its length is its melodic lyricism, although the symphony also reflects the motivic developmental innovations of Beethoven.
Schubert also wrote operas and church music. His greatest legacy, however, lies in his more than 600
Lieder,
or art songs. His songs are notable for their beautiful melodies and clever use of piano accompaniment and bring together poetry and music in an exemplary fashion. Most are short, stand alone pieces of one and a half to five minutes in length, but he also wrote a couple of song cycles. These songs were published and performed in many private homes and, along with all of his compositions, provided so much entertainment in the private musical gatherings in Vienna that these events were renamed as Schubertiades (see the famous depiction of one Schubertiade by the composer’s close friend Moritz Schwind (painted years after the fact from memory in 1868). Many of Schubert’s songs are about romantic love, a perennial song top- ic. Others, such as
The Erlking
, put to music romantic responses to nature and to the supernatural.
The Erlking
is strikingly dramatic, a particular reminder that music and drama interacted in several nineteenth-century genres, even if their connections can be most fully developed in a lengthy composition, such as an opera.
Focus Composition:
Schubert, The Erlking (1815)
Schubert set the words of several poets of his day, and The Erlking (1815) is drawn from the poetry of the most famous: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Erlking tells the story of a father who is rushing on horseback with his ailing son to the doctor. Delirious from fever, the son hears the voice of the Erlking, a grim reap- er sort of king of the fairies, who appears to young children when they are about to die, luring them into the world beyond. The father tries to reassure his son that his fear is imagined, but when the father and son reach the courtyard of the doctor’s house, the child is found to be dead.
As you listen to the song, follow along with its words. You may have to listen several times in order to hear the multiple connections between the music and the text. Are the ways in which you hear the music and text interacting beyond those pointed out in the listening guide?
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Listening Guide For audio, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XP5RP6OEJI Performed by baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and pianist Gerald Moore. |
| Composer: Franz Schubert |
| Composition: The Erlkönig (in English, The Erlking ) |
| Date: 1815 |
| Genre: art song |
| Form: through-composed |
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Nature of Text: Original Text
Wer reitet so spät dur ch Nacht und Wind? Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind.
Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht? Siehst Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht!
Du liebes Kind, komm geh’ mit mir!
Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht, Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht?
Willst feiner Knabe du mit mir geh’n?
Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort Erlkönigs Töchter am düsteren Ort?
Ich lieb dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt, Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt! Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt faßt er mich an, Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan. Dem Vater grauset’s, er reitet geschwind, Er hält in den Armen das ächzende Kind, Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not, In seinen Armen das Kind war tot. Translation: Who rides there so late through the night and
wind?
“My son, why do you anxiously hide your face?” “Look, father, is it not the Erlking!
“Oh, come, dear child! oh, come with me!
unfold,
“My father, my father, and do you not hear
“Will you come with me, my child?
“My father, my father, and do you not see,
“I love you, I’m charmed by your lovely form! And if you’re unwilling, then force I’ll employ.” “My father, my father, he seizes me fast,
The father, horrified, rides quickly,
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| Performing Forces: solo voice and piano |
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What we want you to remember about this composition:
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Other things to listen for:
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| Timing | Performing Force, Melody and Texture | Text and Form |
| 0:00 |
Piano introduction
Opens with a fast tempo melody that begins low in the register, ascends through the minor scale, and then falls. Accompanied by repeat- ed triplet octaves. The ascending/ descending melody may represent the wind. The minor key suggests a serious tone. The repeated octaves using fast triplets may suggest the running horse and the urgency of the situation. |
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| 0:24 |
Voice and piano from here to the end; Performing forces are voice and piano in homophonic texture from here to the end. Melody falls in the middle of the singer’s range and is accompanied by the repeated octave triplets. |
Narrator:
Who rides so late through night and wind? |
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0:56 |
Melody drops lower in the singer’s range. |
Father:
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| 1:03 | Melody shifts to a higher range | Son: Do you see the Erlking, father? |
| 1:19 | Melody lower in range. |
Father:
It is the fog. |
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1:28 |
The key switches to major, perhaps to suggest the friendly guise assumed by the Erlking. Note also the softer dynamics and lighter arpeggios in the piano accompaniment |
The Erlking:
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1:52 |
Back in minor the melody hovers around one note high in the singer’s register; the minor mode reflects the son’s fear, as does the melody, which repeats the same note, almost as if the son is unable to sing another |
Son:
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2:03 |
Melody lower in range |
Father:
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2:13 |
Back to a major key and piano dynamics for more from the Erlking |
The Erlking:
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2:30 |
Back to a minor key and the higher-ranged melody that hovers around one pitch for the son’s retort. |
Son:
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2:41 |
Melody lower in range and return of the louder repeated triplets |
Father:
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2:58 |
Momentarily in major and then back to minor as the Erlking threatens the boy |
The Erlking:
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3:09 |
Back to a minor key and the higher-ranged melody that hovers around one pitch. |
Son:
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3:22 |
Back to a mid-range melody; the notes in the piano get faster and louder. |
Narrator: The father, filled with horror, rides fast |
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3:37 |
Piano accompaniment slows down; dissonant and minor chords pervasive; song ends with a strong cadence in the minor key; Slowing down of the piano accompaniment may echo the slowing down of the horse. The truncated chords and strong final minor chords buttress the announcement that the child is dead. |
Narrator: They arrive at the courtyard. In his father’s arms, the child was dead. |
The next generation of nineteenth-century composers—born in the first two decades of the century—included a number of talented pianists: Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Fryderyk Chopin, and Franz Liszt. They were joined by orchestra composer Hector Berlioz and a slightly younger composer who might be considered Berlioz’s alter ego, Johannes Brahms.