Moot Thoughts & Musings

In lieu of Poetry Friday, I thought I'd do "Song" Friday. (I intend to do mostly songs, but I reserve the right to post a piece that isn't officially a song if I want to.)

This week's song will be Schubert's Erlkonig, because I'm sure there's enough of my readership that haven't heard that should. This piece is in every anthology, every survey. It sits comfortably in the "canon." I've listened to it 500 hundred bazillion times. I've analyzed it, written papers about it, probably taught more than any other piece, but I never get tired of it. I still tear up at the end! (My students must think I'm crazy, when I'm wiping my eyes, "sorry guys, it's just so sad." [yea, try teaching this when you're pregnant.])

Erlkonig is a classic lied, that is, a German song; mostly a nineteenth-century genre. It's about a boy riding with his father on a horse, through the woods on a "dark and stormy night." The boy is plagued by the king of the elves, who tries to entice him away. The boy cries out to his father, "Mein Vater, mein vater!" who reassures him that it is nothing but the wind and not to let his imagination get away with him. The story gets progressively more intense. After not getting his way, the erlkonig decides to take the boy by force; to which the boy cries frantically, "My father! He's taking me!" This is also the climax of the song. The father doesn't reply this time, rather the horse's pounding feet (portrayed by the piano) intensify as the father races home. He gets there; the horse comes to a stop (in the piano); and we are told in reverant tones that in his arms the boy lay dead, "In seine armen das kind war todt." What is a boy's nightmare? What is a real threat?

Here's the song with Ian Bostridge singing. Listen for three voices of the boy, the erlkonig, and the father. The horse is in the piano.

Erlkonig

wer reitet so spat durch nacht und wind
es ist der vater mit seinem kind
er hat den knaben wohl in den arm
er fabt ihn sicher, er halt ihn warm
mein sohn, was birgst du so bang dein gesicht?
siehst vater du den erlkonig nicht?
der erlkonig mit kron' und schweif?
mein sohn, es ist ein nebelstreif

mein liebes kind, komm spiel' mit mir!
gar schone spiele spiel' ich mit dir
manch bunte blumen sind an dem strand
meine mutter hat manch gulden gewand

mein vater, mein vater un horest du nicht
was erlenkonig mir leise verspricht?
sei ruhig, bleib' ruhig mein kind
in durren blattern sauselt der wind

willst feiner knabe du mit mir gehn?
meine tochter sollen dich warten schon
meine tochter fuhren den nachtlichen reihn
und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein

mein vater, mein vater, und siehst du nicht dort
erlkonigs tochter an dusterem ort?
mein sohn, mein, sohn, ich seh' es genau
es scheinen die alten weiden so grau

ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schone gestalt
und bist du nicht willig, so brauch' ich gewalt
mein vater, mein vater, jetzt fabt er mich an
erlkonig hat mir ein leid getan!

dem vater grauset, er reitet geschwind
er halt in den armen das achzende kind
erreicht den hof mit muhe und not
in seine armen das kind war tot