The Characteristics Of Franz Schubert's 'Erlkönig'

Franz Schubert, in my opinion, is considered as one of the last Classical Era composers and one of the pioneers of the Romantic Era composers. Schubert’s is an artist who devotes himself entirely to the arts, rather than chasing money and worldly gains. He has set a movement where many other composers would follow. In his 31 years of life he had written many works. He had more that 600 works on Lieder, 7 masses, 9 symphonies, including the Unfinished (No. 8,1822) and more. His famous piece, “Erlkönig” was written when Schubert was in his teens in a small group of writers, artists, and fellow musicians who organized a series of concerts, called Schubertiads . The piece “Erlkönig” is also known as “Elfking” has few characteristics that are special to the piece.

This piece was composed to fit the poem that was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe entitled “Erlkönig”. The poem consists of 8 stanzas that have 32 lines. Each line contains 8 to 10 syllables. Sonata-allegro form, theme and variation, minuet and trio, rondo and more are the stepping-stones to a masterpiece, in the classical era. However, in this piece, Elfking, there are no signs of these forms. Schubert wrote this piece based on the fluidity of the story in the poem. Thus, the name of this form is called Through-composed. Through-composed is defined as a song form that is composed form beginning to the end without repetitions of any major sections; each verse having its own, unique