Erlkönig in G Minor

A number of composers were attracted to Goethe’s 1782 ballad Erlkönig, but none matched the visceral gothic horror of Schubert’s setting. Composed in 1815, when the composer was 18 years old, it is perhaps the first of Schubert’s truly great songs; it was instrumental in galvanising his reputation in Vienna when it was published as his Op. 1 in 1821. A boy is being carried on a night ride by his father when he hears the Erlking (an elf king of Danish folklore). His father, hiding his fear, tries to comfort the boy, but the Erlking attempts to lure the lad, first with honeyed promises, then with threats. The boy cries out that he has been attacked and his father spurs on the horse but, on arrival, he finds that his son is dead. Schubert’s portrayal of the poem’s characters and situations is masterly: the galloping of the horse, the child’s terror, his father’s breathless urgency and the sinister sweetness of Death’s alluring voice.