Erl King Music Essay

Franz Schubert wrote a piece of music named Erlkonig. I’ll be discussing his use of piano playing techniques and how his use of triplets in the accompaniment helps move the music forward. I will also explain how these techniques reflect certain portions of the text. This piece is about a father and son on their way home on a galloping horse, when out of the darkness of the forest the spirit of the Erl King comes to take the son away.

We are introduced to Schubert’s effective piano techniques right from the start of the song. In the introduction we hear a repetitive triplet pattern in the right hand, depicting the galloping of the horse. The triplet pattern continues more or less throughout the whole song, showing continuity and resembling the horse they are riding that doesn’t stop until they reach home. The pattern is played fast and with urgency, this helps create the tension and terrifying mood while also carrying the music forward. We also hear in the song, every once in a while, there is a short ascending and descending scale in the bass. This resembles the appearance of the Erl King over the father and son and then he disappears again.

In this song there are 3 main characters, the father, the child and lastly the evil Erl King. Each of these characters have a special type of piano technique to differentiate them. The first main character we see is the father. Schubert makes the register in the piano for the father’s section in lower ranger comparing to the other characters, resembling the father’s voice. Schubert also sets the father’s section in Ab Minor, but the chords are major. Major chords are happier than minor chords, this is so the father can reassure his son that everything is going to be ok.

The next main character we are introduced to, is the son. Schubert sets a high register in the melody for the son, since he has a high voice. We see that after the son meets with the Erl King, the melody in the piano goes up and down with semi-tones. This helps to creates urgency and dissonance in his voice. Every time we are introduced to the child, Schubert moves the key up. He moved the key from C Major to D Major to Eb Major. The heightening of the key also shows panic and urgency in the son’s voice.

The last main character we are introduced to is the Erl King. Schubert sets a higher Tessitura for the Erl King, this tessitara makes us comfortable when we listen to him. This, together with setting his section in an Ab major key, helps camouflage the Erl King’s devil-like intentions by making his section joyful and exciting. The joyful music is used to lure the child towards him. Although that helps camouflage his evilness, Schubert puts small signs to set a difference between him and the other characters. His melody line has a wavelike contour. This shows us that he is very twisted, he shows the boy his happy side, while he can be very evil. His triplet pattern is different to the original accompaniment progression, this also shows us that there is something different about the Erl King.

As we can see from the points above, Schubert is very effective at using different piano playing techniques to portray different personalities and character traits of each character. And Schubert’s repetitive triplet pattern helps set the scene and moves the music forward.