Chapter 37 - Listening Guide Quiz 27: Schubert: Elfking

Now listen to the music as the Elfking enters the story. Which best describes the Elfking's music?

It is in major key

Listen to the following music excerpts and drag them to the correct location on the chart below.

Yellow (galloping): 1st Purple: (Du liebes Kind): 2nd Red: (Mein Veter): 3rd

At the end of the song, the rapid and repetitive part that the pianist plays slows down and then stops altogether. Which two answers describe why this happens? (Ending, 0:40)

-The Son is dead. -The Father and Son reach the courtyard.

At the beginning of this song, the pianist plays an introduction without the singer; the music conveys the image of the galloping horse. Which descriptions correctly depict the galloping music played by the pianist at the beginning of this song?

-fast tempo -rapid repeated octaves

The poem is introduced by a narrator who describes the scene. Including the narrator, how many characters speak in this poem?

4

Over the course of the Lied, the son becomes more and more agitated. He yells out to his father three times ("Mein Vater, mein Vater"). Listen to each statement of these words. How is the boy's growing fear conveyed in the music?

He sings at higher and higher pitch levels

Which character is singing in this excerpt? (0:23)

Elfking

Who is NOT one of the four characters in Elfking?

Mother

Drag and drop the appropriate words to describe Schubert's Elfking.

Schubert's Elfking is a through-composed Lied that sets a text by Goethe. The singer uses different voice registers to express four different characters (in order of appearance in the song): a narrator, the father, the son, and the Elfking. The harmony changes to a major key when the Elfking sings. Even the piano gets a "role" as the horse, with its galloping figures and rhythmic momentum.

Which of the Elfking characters is singing at this point in the Lied? (0:07)

Son

The story of the Elfking is the stuff of legend: one touch from this evil character, and you join him in death. Who can see the Elfking in this poem?

The (son) can see the Elfking.

After the narrator describes the scene, the father asks his son what's wrong. (0:12) The son tells his father that he sees the Elfking. The Father reassures his son that it's only the mist that he sees, not the Elfking. (0:09) My son, it is a streak of mist. (0:09) How are the Father's and the Son's music different?

The father sings lower pitches than the son.

When learning about vocal music, it's important to look at the lyrics first to understand why the composer made certain musical choices. This poem has eight stanzas (or individual paragraphs) of text, and it tells the story of a worried father and his dying son on a cold and windy night. Here is the first stanza:

The opening lines of the poem describe a father and his son (riding on a horse).

In this Lied, Schubert uses different combinations of range and key to distinguish among the four characters in the poem, all of whom are acted by the one vocalist singing the song. He also composed the piano's music to convey the action in the poem.

The quick, repeated notes in the piano are meant to convey the image of a (galloping horse).

Match the descriptive words or phrases with the different elements of music as found in Schubert's Elfking. Note that some targets may receive more than one label.

accompaniment rhythm: triplets expression: urgent mood vocal register: low (for the father), high (for the son) form: through-composed

Put the following in the correct order in which they first appear in Schubert's Elfking. Note that clicking on the card will select it as an answer; do not click on the card unless you are ready to select it as an answer.

narrator, father, son, Elfking

Elfking is a Lied (German for "song"). Which best describes Elfking?

one singer and piano accompaniment

Which of the following statements does NOT describe Schubert's Elfking?

there are four separate singers for each role