
"Erlkönig" is a
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the
Erlking
In European folklore and myth, the Erlking is a sinister elf who lingers in the woods. He stalks children who stay in the woods for too long, and kills them by a single touch.
The name "Erlking" (german: Erlkönig, lit=alder-king) is a name us ...
, a king of the
fairies. It was originally written by Goethe as part of a 1782
Singspiel, .
"Erlkönig" has been called Goethe's "most famous ballad". The poem has been set to music by several composers, most notably
by Franz Schubert.
Summary
An anxious young boy is being carried at night by his father on horseback. To where is not spelled out; German ''
Hof'' has a rather broad meaning of "yard", "courtyard", "farm", or (royal) "court". The opening line tells that the time is unusually late and the weather unusually inclement for travel. As it becomes apparent that the boy is delirious, a possibility is that the father is rushing him to medical aid.
As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see and hear the "Erlkönig" (Erl-King). His father claims to not see or hear the creature, and he attempts to comfort his son, asserting natural explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows.
The Erl-King attempts to lure the child into joining him, promising amusement, rich clothes and the attentions of his daughters. Finally, the Erl-King declares that he will take the child by force. The boy shrieks that he has been attacked, spurring the father to ride faster to the . Upon reaching the destination, the child is already dead.
Text
The legend
The story of the Erlkönig derives from the traditional Danish ballad ''
Elveskud
"Elveskud" or "Elverskud" (; Danish for "Elf-shot") is the Danish, and most widely used, name for one of the most popular ballads in Scandinavia (''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad'' A 63 'Elveskud — Elf maid causes man's sicknes ...
'': Goethe's poem was inspired by
Johann Gottfried Herder's translation of a variant of the ballad (
Danmarks gamle Folkeviser 47B, from Peter Syv's 1695 edition) into German as ("The Erl-King's Daughter") in his collection of folk songs, (published 1778). Goethe's poem then took on a life of its own, inspiring the Romantic concept of the
Erlking
In European folklore and myth, the Erlking is a sinister elf who lingers in the woods. He stalks children who stay in the woods for too long, and kills them by a single touch.
The name "Erlking" (german: Erlkönig, lit=alder-king) is a name us ...
.
Niels Gade's cantata , Op. 30 (1854, text by ) was published in translation as .
In the original Scandinavian version of the tale, the antagonist was the Erlkönig's daughter rather than the Erlkönig himself.
Settings to music
The poem has often been set to music, with
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's rendition, his Opus 1 (D. 328), being the best known. Probably the next best known is that of
Carl Loewe (1818). Other notable settings are by members of Goethe's circle, including the actress
Corona Schröter
Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schröter (14 January 1751 – 23 August 1802) was a German musician best known as a singer. She also composed songs, setting texts by Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to music.Grove
Early life
Sch ...
(1782),
Andreas Romberg (1793),
Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1794) and
Carl Friedrich Zelter (1797).
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
attempted to set it to music but abandoned the effort; his sketch however was full enough to be published in a completion by Reinhold Becker (1897). A few other 19th-century versions are those by
Václav Tomášek
Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek (in German: Wenzel Johann Tomaschek; 17 April 1774, Skuteč, Bohemia – 3 April 1850, Prague) was an Austrian-Bohemian, by other accounts a Czech composer and music teacher. He was known as the Musical Pope of Pr ...
(1815) and
Louis Spohr (1856, with
obbligato violin) and
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (Polyphonic Studies for Solo Violin), though his was essentially a transcription of Schubert's version for solo violin. Twenty-first-century examples are the pianist
Marc-André Hamelin's "Etude No. 8 (after Goethe)" for solo piano, based on "Erlkönig".
Franz Schubert composition
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
composed his
Lied
In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...
"Erlkönig" for solo voice and piano at the age of 17 or 18 in 1815, setting text from Goethe's poem. The work was first performed in concert on 1 December 1820 at a private gathering in Vienna. The public premiere on 7 March 1821 at the
Theater am Kärntnertor
or ( Carinthian Gate Theatre) was a prestigious theatre in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its official title was (Imperial and Royal Court Theatre of Vienna).
History
The theatre was built in 1709 to designs by An ...
was a great success, and he quickly rose to fame among the composers in Vienna. It is one of Schubert's most famous works, with enduring popularity and acclaim since its premiere in 1821.
Carl Loewe composition
Carl Loewe's setting was published as Op. 1, No. 3 and composed in 1817–18, in the lifetime of the poem's author and also of Schubert, whose version Loewe did not then know. Collected with it were Op. 1, No. 1, "Edward" (1818; a translation of
the Scottish ballad), and No. 2, "" (1823; "The Innkeeper's Daughter"), a poem of
Ludwig Uhland. Inspired by a German translation of Scottish border ballads, Loewe set several poems with an
elvish theme; but although all three of Op. 1 are concerned with untimely death, in this set only the "Erlkönig" has the supernatural element.
Loewe's accompaniment is in semiquaver groups of six in time and marked (fast). The vocal line evokes the galloping effect by repeated figures of
crotchet and
quaver, or sometimes three quavers, overlying the binary
tremolo of the
semiquavers
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest.
Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together.
In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note ( American) or semiquaver ( British) is a note played for half the ...
in the piano. In addition to an unusual sense of motion, this creates a flexible template for the stresses in the words to fall correctly within the rhythmic structure.
Loewe's version is less melodic than Schubert's, with an insistent, repetitive harmonic structure between the opening minor key and answering phrases in the major key of the
dominant, which have a stark quality owing to their unusual relationship to the home key. The narrator's phrases are echoed by the voices of father and son, the father taking up the deeper, rising phrase, and the son a lightly undulating, answering theme around the dominant fifth. These two themes also evoke the rising and moaning of the wind.
The Erl-King, who is always heard
pianissimo, does not sing melodies, but instead delivers insubstantial rising arpeggios that outline a single major chord (that of the home key) which sounds simultaneously on the piano in ''
una corda''
tremolo. Only with his final threatening word, "Gewalt", does he depart from this chord. Loewe's implication is that the Erlking has no substance but merely exists in the child's feverish imagination. As the piece progresses, the first in the groups of three quavers is dotted to create a breathless pace, which then forms a bass figure in the piano driving through to the final crisis. The last words, , leap from the lower dominant to the sharpened third of the home key; this time not to the major but to a
diminished chord
In music theory, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered ( flattened) fifth. When using chord symbols, it may be indicated by the ...
, which settles chromatically through the home key in the major and then to the minor.
See also
*
List of works based on Erlkönig
This is a list of works based on the poem "Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was set to music by several classical composers, most notably by Franz Schubert in his 1815 composition for voice and piano, and arranged for various settings ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Translationby
Matthew LewisTranslationat ''Poems Found in Translation''
*, translation and performance by
Josh Ritter
*, orchestrated by
Max Reger;
Teddy Tahu Rhodes,
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra,
Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Sebastian Lang-Lessing (born 1966) is a German conductor. Career
Lang-Lessing received the Ferenc Fricsay Award at age 24. He started his career at the Hamburg State Opera as an assistant conductor. He subsequently became resident conductor at ...
*
*
Full score and MIDI file of Schubert's setting of "Erlkönig"from the
Mutopia Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erlkonig
Ballads
Poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1782 poems
Musical settings of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Poems about death
Songs about death
Songs about children
Songs about kings
Songs about fictional male characters