The Ballad

Erlkönig is a ballad penned by Johann von Goethe. Before attempting to understand the song, you should be familiar with the ballad. Schubert and Loewe were both composing music that would enhance the text and convey the story, although they came up with different ways to express the text musically. So the text is key. You can find the German and English side by side at this link.

Professor Carol discusses the ballad at length in Unit 11 of Discovering Music. You should get to know these two settings of Erlkönig with that discussion in mind. Recall the primary features of a ballad:

1. The poem must tell a story that has action in it.
2. There must be real characters, including a narrator, and the characters must speak or interact.
3. The ballad begins abruptly in media res (in the middle of the action).
4. It reserves moral judgment.

Text Painting

Schubert did much to elevate the role of the piano in Lieder. It is not simply accompaniment. It becomes an important part of conveying the text. Many times the piano will convey the shifting moods in a song, perhaps by changing tempo or rhythm, or by moving between major and minor keys. But you frequently find more specific “text painting” in the piano part, depicting things like a running brook, footsteps, a nightingale, or a howling wind.

We will look at just a few examples of character development and text painting in the settings of Erlkönig by Schubert and Loewe, but you should look for other examples as well as you get to know these works.

Loewe’s Setting

Loewe sets the mood at the beginning with an unsettling tremolo in the piano. The left hand comes in with a 6/8 (galloping) rhythm. The tremolo stops for only a few seconds (at 0:11-0:14) and then never stops again until the father reaches his destination at the end.

But the tremolo changes character. As soon as the narrator stops speaking (at 0:22), the tremolo becomes more insistent, alternating between two notes a half-step (minor second) apart. This more fearful tremolo will accompany the lines of the father and son throughout.

The tremolo changes again. As the key changes to major (at 0:43), the tremolo opens up to the wider interval of a third (at 0:45). It’s the Elf-King’s soothing and beckoning voice. The Elf-King sings a simple arpeggio, like a bugle call. Loewe comes back to this same technique for every line of the Elf-King . . . except one when he sings “or I’ll take you by force” in the minor key (at 2:18).

The mood changes back suddenly at 1:05 when the son speaks and his father answers. This pattern continues until the end.

If you want to follow the piano/vocal score, it can be found here.

Schubert’s Setting

Schubert begins not at a gallop, but in a frantic run. The piano part puts us in media res with the rapid repeated notes in groups of three (triplets). This incessant pounding conveys the running horse and also the sense of fear. Schubert uses this figure much the same way as Loewe uses the tremolo.

As the father tries to reassure his son by saying “It’s merely the mist,” the harmony shifts to the major key (at 1:21). The Elf-King enters in this major key, as with Loewe in a sing-song and beckoning voice (at 1:27). The repeated notes in the piano are replaced by a bouncing rhythm alternating left and right hand (such pretty games). The dissonance has disappeared.

The minor key and frantic repeated notes return as the son speaks (at 1:50). And the father’s answer (it’s just the blowing leaves) again leads into the major key (at 2:08). The Elf-King puts on a second soothing guise at 2:13. The piano is playing not the bouncing rhythm of the Elf-King’s first statement, but a light arpeggiated figure as he describes how his daughters will rock and sing the boy to sleep.

The Elf-King’s third statement retains the repeated notes (at 3:01), somewhat soothing at first in a major key, but then (at 3:06) melding into the fearful mood of the son as the Elf-King threatens to take him by force.

If you want to follow the piano/vocal score, it can be found here.

Further Reading

Dersnah-Fee, Experiencing Lieder