Erlkönig Op. 1 D 328

SKU: AP.44161S

UPC: 038081505619. English.

Der Erlkönig, or The Elf King, is based on Johann Goethe's late 18th-century poem of the same name in which a father and his young son ride home on horseback one dark and eerie night. The father tries to calm the increasingly fearful son by explaining everything the boy reports as simply leaves rustling in the wind or willows moving in the fog. Nonetheless, the father rides faster and faster home only to find the boy is dead in his arms when they arrive. Goethe's dark and gothic tale is brought to spine-tingling life in this harrowing, fast-paced tone poem for band. (3:20) This title available in MakeMusic Cloud.

SKU: CA.928000

ISBN 9790007299330. Key: F minor. French. Text: Silvestre, Armand.

This setting of Fleur jetée is often called Fauré’s Erlkönig. The hammering ferocity of the piano accompaniment and the drama of the song in fact recall Schubert’s musical setting of Goethe’s ballad Erlkönig. However, in Armand Silvestre’s Fleur jetée, it is lost love to which it is dedicated. Just as a flower, carelessly plucked and thrown away, is blown by the wind and withers, so the wind carries the “madness” of the unhappy lover away and lets his heart wither. Just as a flower, carelessly plucked and thrown away, is blown by the wind and withers, so the wind carries the “madness” of the unhappy lover away and lets his heart wither.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist.

SKU: DZ.DZ-2538

ISBN 9782897374556.