The Classical Music Minute

Franz Schubert & The Poets Of His Time

May 09, 2022 Steven Hobé, Composer & Host Season 1 Episode 54
The Classical Music Minute
Franz Schubert & The Poets Of His Time
Show Notes Transcript

Description
Franz Schubert in just eleven years (1797-1828) wrote over 600 songs. He set some of the greatest poets of his time to music. Some of them were even contemporary minor poets who were his friends. The greatest poet of Schubert’s age was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. One of the most dramatic of Schubert’s vocal works was the setting of Goethe’s poem, The Erlking, Der Erlkönig.  Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
More than 10,000 of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s letters are still in existence as are nearly 3,000 drawings. He was a literary celebrity by age 25. A recent reviewer of a new biography of Goethe noted wryly that if Goethe had lived during the age of Shakespeare, we’d be wondering if there were one Goethe or if there were many, now confused under one name.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

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Franz Schubert in just eleven years (1797-1828) wrote over 600 songs. He set some of the greatest poets of his time to music. Some of them were even his friends. 

The greatest poet of Schubert’s age was Goethe. Goethe was involved in all fields of arts, sciences, and politics—a poet in a wide variety of styles from lyric to epic.

One of the most dramatic of Schubert’s vocal work settings was Goethe’s poem, The Erlking, Der Erlkönig. 

This is a dramatic tale of a young boy carried at night by his father on horseback. The boy is being pursued by the Erl-King, a supernatural being who has declared that he will take the child by force. His father is rushing the ailing boy to medical aid, as they reach their destination, it is too late. The boy is dead.

The poem is a banter between the child, his father, and the Erlking. Schubert also ingeniously uses the piano accompaniment as another character, that of the horse desperately galloping towards help. It’s quite a thrilling piece and worth a listen!