William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

D 911, Op. 89 ; Year: 1827~1828; Genre: Romantic Period/classical I'm once again picking another song that has a publish date that coincides with my pick number; this piece, one of my favourites from Franz Schubert, was published in 1827~1828. Actually 1827 had another, greater event that totally overshadowed everything else that happened in music that year: the death of Ludwig van Beethoven . I suppose it would've been more apropos to pick one of his pieces of music today, but I've already picked quite a few of his song and have, surprisingly, only picked one other from Schubert. Interestingly enough just a year later Franz Schubert would follow Beethoven and pass away at the young age of 32; another factoid to note is that Franz Schubert took part in Beethoven's funeral procession. Anyway, this rather remarkable song cycle, Die Winterreise ( The Winter Journey ), is set to 24 poems written by Wilhelm Müller, who also passed in 1827. The composition consists ...

For song 28 of my list, I decided on Der Erlkönig ( The ErlKing ) by Franz Schubert. This is what is called a Lieder, which basically is a small operatic piece written for the piano and voice where one vocalist plays all of the parts of the story. This one is based on the poem written in the late 1700s by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe of the same name. This piece was written during the Romance Period of music from about 1850 to 1910. During this period of music either everything was sugary sweet and happy or everything was horrific and everyone died. This can be noted in the opera La Bohème, which is centered around the death side of the Romantic Period. In this piece, Der Erlkönig, it also goes toward the death side. In this Lieder there are three characters: the Father, the Son, and the Erlking. The setting is a horse ride through the spooky woods with the father holding on to his son and the Erlking (who is a villainous elf) tempting the child to come with him, needless to say it ...