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154
4. songwriting prodigy: melodic gift, subtle
interactions
5. Schubertiads: private gatherings of writers,
artists, musicians
6. music: confluence of Classical and Romantic
styles
a. Lieder and piano music: Romantic, lyric
b. symphonies, chamber music: more Classical
7. output: over 600 Lieder, song cycles, nine sym-
phonies, piano and chamber music, choral music
B. Elfking (Erlkönig)
1. written age eigh teen: swift public recognition
2. first work Schubert published
3. text: ballad by Goethe
a. dramatic poem, based on Danish legend
b. four characters (one singer): narrator, father,
child, Elfking
c. Elfking: king of the elves
d. whoever is touched by Elfking must die
4. Romantic trends:
a. use of folklore
b. intense emotional expression
c. passionate and fanciful subjects
C. LG 27: Schubert: Elfking (Erlkönig) (1815)
1. through- composed Lied
2. fast, dramatic, eerie atmosphere
3. constant triplets in piano: horses hooves
4. Elfking lures child from father: suavely melodi-
ous phrases, shift to major key
5. child’s terror: dissonance, high vocal range
6. father reassures, calms fears: rounded vocal line,
low register
7. tension builds to the end
III. Schumann and the Song Cycle
A. Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
OUTLINE
I. The Lied (Plural, Lieder)
A. Romantic art song
1. German- texted solo song with piano
accompaniment
2. favored Romantic- era genre
a. emergence linked to popularity of the piano
b. amateurs and professionals, home and concert
hall
3. prominent composers: Schubert, Schumann,
Brahms, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Clara
Wieck Schumann
4. favored poets: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749–1832), Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)
a. short, personal “lyric” poems
b. tender sentiment to dramatic balladry
c. common themes: love, longing, beauty of
nature
5. unity of expression: text and music
a. music: enhanced meaning of poetry, subtle
intensity
6. song cycle: group of Lieder, unified theme
B. Types of song structure
1. strophic: same melody every stanza
2. through- composed: without repetitions of
whole sections
3. modified strophic: features of strophic and
through- composed
II. Schubert and the Lied
A. Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
1. Vienna- born composer
2. member of Vienna Boys’ Choir
3. rejected career as a schoolteacher, strug gled
financially
CHAPTERfi37 Musical Reading: Schubert, Schumann,
and the Early Romantic Lied
4. To recognize Schumann’s A Poet’s Love as representa-
tive of the nineteenth- century song cycle tradition
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Ask four volunteers from the class to act out the roles of
the Narrator, Father, Son, and Elfking while reading the
script from their textbooks. As the students perform, dis-
play Moritz von Schwind’s painting The Legend of the
Elfking, which is reproduced in the textbook on page226.
After reciting the text, ask students how the poem and
Schwind’s painting reflect the themes of Romanticism.
Before playing Schubert’s setting of the poem, ask stu-
dents to consider how the composer depicts the Roman-
tic ele ments of the story, as well as how he composed the
music to depict this miniature dramatic scene featuring
three characters.
2. Play the piano introduction from Schubert’s Elfking.
What does the piano part offer that would other wise
be missing from the musical setting of this par tic u lar
poem? What dramatic role does the piano play in this
Lied?
3. Compare per for mances of Heine’s poem In the Lovely
Month of May with and without music by having a vol-
unteer recite the poem aloud before playing Schumann’s
setting. Ask students to consider what Schumann’s music
adds to the meaning of the poem that is not readily acces-
sible in the simple recitation of the poem.
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Do through- composed structures have any narrative
advantages over strophic forms, or vice versa? Are cer-
tain narrative effects easier to achieve with through-
composed structures than with strophic forms? How
does Schubert’s Elfking reflect this?
2. Elfking illustrates the Romantic age’s fascination with
childhood, the super natural, and fantasy. To what extent
have we inherited this tradition? Do we still cultivate a
Romantic tradition in popular- media stories that mingle
childhood with the super natural? Can you think of any
examples? What social purpose or cultural relevance do
you think these tales have?
1. German composer, critic
2. studied law, then piano with Friedrich Wieck
3. turned to composition and music criticism
a. established leading music journal in Eu rope:
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (The New Journal
of Music)
4. 1830s, intense courtship with Wieck’s daughter,
Clara; married in 1840
5. gradual mental collapse, entered asylum 1854
6. music: true Romantic style
a. impassioned melodies
b. novel harmonic changes
c. driving rhythms
7. output: over 200 Lieder, several song cycles, four
symphonies, piano music
B. A Poet’s Love (Dichterliebe)
1. song cycle composed 1840, “year of song”
2. 16 poems by Heinrich Heine
3. cycle follows psychological progression
a. freshness of love to complete despair
4. In the Lovely Month of May
a. first in the cycle
b. evokes fragility of new love
c. longingly sentimental
C. LG 28: Schumann: In the Lovely Month of May,
from A Poet’s Love (Dichterliebe) (1840)
1. German Lied, strophic form, two strophes
2. piano prelude, interlude, postlude: circular shape
3. harmonic meandering between two keys
4. melancholic mood: lost or unrequited love
5. piano postlude: lack of resolution
OVERVIEW
Chapter37 begins the Romantic era with a discussion of the
early nineteenth- century German Lied. After introducing the
basic characteristics of the Lied, Schubert’s Elfking (Erlkönig)
and Schumann’s song cycle A Poet’s Love (Dichterliebe)
bring the topic into closer focus.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the Lied, the German art song for voice
and piano, as a fundamental Romantic music genre of
the nineteenth century
156 | Chapterfi37
short bridge section and a chorus. In the first verse (V1) we
hear the lead vocals, piano, guitar, keyboard synthesizer(s),
drums, maracas, and triangle. The verses are made up of two
repeated phrases. In the first bridge section (B1) the beat
changes in the drums, and the guitar, synths, and maracas
drop out. We then hear the first chorus (C1), with the same
drops out and we hear the addition of a keyboard that sounds
like a harpsichord. In the second phrase of V3, we return to
the original ensemble of V1. B3 is the same as B2 but with
the addition of a tambourine. The song ends with a fade- out
“ANOTHER HEARING” SAMPLE
MINI- ESSAY & RUBRIC
Compare/contrast per for mances of Schubert’s Erlkönig
(Quasthoff/Spencer vs. von Otter/Chamber Orchestra of
Eu rope).
It might seem unfair to compare and contrast a vocal/piano
version of Schubert’s Elfking with the Berlioz orchestration,
to differentiate between the four “characters”: the narrator,
the father, the son, and the Elfking. For the most part, Ber-
lioz’s orchestration allows the vocalist to have her fun, work-
ing instead with the piano interludes of the original. Both
Thomas Quasthoff and Sofie von Otter deliver nuanced per for-
“horse” (and other accompaniment) in each per for mance.
It is the “horse” that sets the mood for the piece. The rum-
bling of the low strings in the Berlioz orchestration has the
advantage here as the low frequency de- emphasizes the mel-
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Though mostly through- composed, Schubert’s Elfking also
incorporates a memorable musical refrain (“Mein Vater, mein
Vater”), which might trip up students who are listening for
the absence of repetitive music. When going through the lis-
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Hallmark, Rufus, ed. German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century.
2nded. London: Routledge, 2010. An expanded and revised ver-
sion of the 1996 original. Features essays on Goethe and the Lied
by Harry Seelig (“The Literary Context: Goethe as Source and
Catalyst”) and on Schubert by Susan Youens (“Franz Schubert:
The Lied Transformed”).
YOUR TURN TO EXPLORE
Consider a couple of your favorite songs. Are they strophic,
through- composed, or modified strophic? Why do you think
MODEL RESPONSE
Musical Reading: Schubert, Schumann, and the Early Romantic Lied | 157
but in some sense they are the most impor tant. As mentioned
above, the orchestra seems to intrude upon the innate trag-
edy of the conclusion, and von Otter also injects a bit too
much drama into the narration, crossing over into caricature
and placing unnecessary emphasis on the word “todt.”
Quasthoff’s more objective and intimate approach is more
effective here, evoking the quiet shock of the son’s death.
RUBRIC
— The student has answered, in an or ga nized way, the main
directions of the prompt:
— The student addresses specific methods of portrayal of
each character (narrator, father, son, Elfking) by the
singer.
— The student should speak to the dif fer ent timbres of the
orchestration as well as any differences between dou-
who asks his son, “Why do you hide your face in fear?” At
the end of the piece, however, when the father fi nally under-
stands that his son is in trou ble, the simplicity of the piano
texture better serves the narrative. We have moved out of the
realm of fantasy into one of the worst human experiences—
the death of a child. The piano allows the narrator to bring
the work to its tragic conclusion, whereas the orchestra seems
baritone is omnipresent throughout the work, so his por-
trayal of the son is less convincing.
Quasthoff does provide a dif fer ent vocal timbre for the Elf-
king, however, which is subtle but effective. For the Elf-
but she effectively changes the vocal quality of the lines of
the Elfking. Her voice almost drunkenly slides through the
lyrical melodies of the Elfking’s second stanza (2:14), emu-
lating the effects of the party wherein his daughters will “rock
and dance and sing” the son to sleep.
