Erlkönig
It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking, a king of the fairies.
To where is not spelled out; German Hof has a rather broad meaning of "yard", "courtyard", "farm", or "(royal) court".
As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see and hear the "Erlkönig" (Erl-King).
The Erl-King attempts to lure the child into joining him, promising amusement, rich clothes, and the attentions of his daughters.
Dem Vater grauset's; er reitet geschwind, Er hält in den Armen das ächzende Kind, Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not; In seinen Armen, das Kind war tot.
(Very) beautiful games, I play with you; Many colourful flowers are on the beach, My mother has many a golden robe."
Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives; 'Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves.
The story of the Erlkönig derives from the traditional Danish ballad Elveskud: Goethe's poem was inspired by Johann Gottfried Herder's translation of a variant of the ballad (Danmarks gamle Folkeviser 47B, from Peter Syv's 1695 edition) into German as Erlkönigs Tochter ("The Erl-King's Daughter") in his collection of folk songs, Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (published 1778).
It has often been suggested that Erlkönig is a mistranslation from the original Danish elverkonge, which does mean "king of the elves".
Ludwig van Beethoven attempted to set it to music, but abandoned the effort; his sketch, however, was full enough to be published in a completion by Reinhold Becker (1897).
A few other 19th-century versions are those by Václav Tomášek (1815), Carl Borromäus von Miltitz (1835),[5] and Louis Spohr (1856, with obbligato violin; Op.
[6] Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein inspired their song Dalai Lama by the motifs in this poem.
Franz Schubert composed his Lied "Erlkönig" for solo voice and piano at the age of 17 or 18 in 1815, setting text from Goethe's poem.
The public premiere on 7 March 1821 at the Theater am Kärntnertor was a great success, and he quickly rose to fame among the composers in Vienna.
2, "Der Wirthin Töchterlein" (1823; "The Innkeeper's Daughter"), a poem of Ludwig Uhland.
Inspired by a German translation of Scottish border ballads, Loewe set several poems with an elvish theme; but although all three of Op.
Loewe's accompaniment is in semiquaver groups of six in 98 time and marked Geschwind (fast).
In addition to an unusual sense of motion, this creates a flexible template for the stresses in the words to fall correctly within the rhythmic structure.
[citation needed] The Erl-King, who is always heard pianissimo, does not sing melodies, but instead delivers insubstantial rising arpeggios that outline a single major chord (that of the home key) which sounds simultaneously on the piano in una corda tremolo.
Loewe's implication is that the Erlking has no substance but merely exists in the child's feverish imagination.
As the piece progresses, the first in the groups of three quavers is dotted to create a breathless pace, which then forms a bass figure in the piano driving through to the final crisis.
The last words, war tot, leap from the lower dominant to the sharpened third of the home key; this time not to the major but to a diminished chord, which settles chromatically through the home key in the major and then to the minor.
