Transcript Schubert and the Art Song

Franz Schubert
 One
of the few composers who made
his living entirely from composing
 Became a choir boy at age eleven in
the court chapel
 Composed while teaching at his
father’s school.
 Loved poetry, which led him to
compose art song
More Schubert
 Composed
his first great song
Gretchen am Spinnrade when he was
17
 In the next year, we wrote 143 more
songs
 When he was nineteen, he wrote 179
works, including two symphonies, an
opera, and a mass
Even more Schubert
 Associated
with a group of Viennese
poets and artists
 Turned out pieces very fast
 Spent evenings at “Schubertiads”
 Did not associate with aristocracy
 Two most important symphonies, the
Unfinished and the Great C, not
performed in his lifetime
 Died at 31 from complications from
syphilis
Schubert’s Output
 600
songs, or lied
 Nine symphonies
 Liturgical music, including six masses
 Pieces for solo piano and four-hand
piano
 Longer pieces often quote his own
pieces
What is art song?
 Music
written for voice and piano
 Piano is a partner to the voice, often
helping with interpretation
 Poetry and art song are intimately
connected
 Filled with images of love, nature,
supernatural images
 German word is lieder
Forms of art song
 Strophic-
repeats the same music for
each stanza
 Through-composed is new music for
each stanza
 Modified strophic- one or more of the
stanza is set to different music
 Song Cycle- A collection of art song
with a unified story or theme
Erlkönig by Franz Schubert
 Based
on a poem by the poet Goethe
 Written when Schubert was 18
 Tells of a father riding on horseback
with a sick child in his arms
 Child is having visions of the Erlking,
the king of the elves who symbolizes
death
 Rapid
Features of Erlkönig
triplet rhythm in the piano
evokes a horse galloping
 Each time the boys cries out “Mein
Vater” is gets higher to show the
boy’s terror
 Song is in minor, but the Erlking
sings in major to show him trying to
entice the boy to follow him
 When the father and song arrive
home, the galloping stops.