Table of Contents:
Schubert Liszt – Erlkönig Schubert famous Lied Erlkönig S 558/4 (sheet music, Noten, partition)
Best Sheet Music download from our Library.
![noten sheet music free sheet music & scores pdf Schubert Liszt noten](https://sheetmusiclibrary.website/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Schubert-Lieder-Band-II-232x300.jpg)
Please, subscribe to our Library. Thank you!
On Erlkönig
Erlkönig, song setting by Franz Schubert, written in 1815 and based on a 1782 poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. “Erlkönig” is considered by many to be one of the greatest ballads ever penned. The song was written for two performers, a singer and a pianist, and it packs a remarkable amount of tension and drama into a mere four minutes. Its effectiveness is doubly impressive because Schubert was only 18 years old when he composed it.
Inspired in part by his friendship with a number of talented singers, Schubert produced some 600 art songs during the course of his brief career (he died at age 31). “Erlkönig” is by far the best known of these. The poem that provides its text, like many of the supernatural tales that dominated literature in the Romantic era, has its roots in a Scandinavian folktale. Goethe’s poem tells the story of a boy riding home on horseback in his father’s arms. He is frightened when he is courted by the Erl-King, a powerful and creepy supernatural being. The boy’s father, however, cannot see or hear the creature and tells the boy that his imagination is playing tricks on him. The boy grows increasingly terrified by what he hears from the Erl-King, but his father tells him that the things he thinks he sees and hears are only the sights and sounds of nature on a dark and stormy night. When the Erl-King eventually seizes the boy, the father spurs on his horse, but when he arrives home his son is dead.
Goethe’s poem, which is reproduced below, contains a conversation that includes a father, his child, and the evil Erl-King. So as to distinguish among the speakers, the father’s words are in bold and the son’s in double quotation marks, while the Erl-King’s words are in single quotes.
Wer reitet so spät, durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Er fasst ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.
Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?
“Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?”
Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif.
‘Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel ich mit dir
Manch bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand.
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.’
“Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,
Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht?”
Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.
‘Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?
Meine Töchter solln dich warten schön;
Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reihn,
Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.’
“Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort
Erlkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort?”
Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh es genau;
Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau.
‘Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt.’
“Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan!”
Dem Vater grauset’s, er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not;
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.
![noten sheet music download schubert liszt](https://sheetmusiclibrary.website/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Popular-Classics-Of-The-Great-Composers-Arr-For-Classical-Guitar-Vol-3-For-All-Levels-By-Jason-Waldron-221x300.jpg)
The following translation into English of Goethe’s poem uses the same text attributes to distinguish among the speakers.
Who’s riding so late, in the night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He grasps the boy in his arm.
He holds him securely; he keeps him warm.
My son, why do you hide your face so fearfully?
“Father, don’t you see the Erl-King there?
The Erl-King with his crown and train?”
My son, it’s a streak of mist.
‘You delightful child, come with me!
I’ll play wonderful games with you.
Colourful flowers grow on the shore.
My mother has many fine things.’
“My father, my father, don’t you hear
What the Erl-King said to me?”
Be calm, stay calm, my son;
The wind is stirring the dry leaves.
‘Fine boy, will you come with me?
My daughters will wait on you nicely.
My daughters will lead the evening dancing
And rock and dance and sing to you.’
“My father, my father, don’t you see
The Erl-King’s daughters in that gloomy place?”
My son, my son, I see it indeed;
The old willow gleaming so gray.
‘I love you, I delight in your beautiful shape;
And if you are not willing, I shall use force.’
“My father, my father, he has seized me!
Erl-King is injuring me!”
The father blanched; he rode swiftly.
He held the moaning child in his arms.
With great trouble, he reached the courtyard.
In his arms, the child was dead.
(Translation by Betsy Schwarm.)
Schubert deftly underscores the action described in the poem by carefully crafting music that drops the listener in medias res. He heightens its horror by means of several devices. Although only one singer is involved, Schubert gives each of the song’s four personalities—narrator, father, boy, and Erl-King—a characteristic way of singing. Each time the boy speaks, for example, his growing hysteria is signaled by his rising vocal pitch, whereas the father’s voice is not only lower in pitch but also steady and even.
The Erl-King’s voice, by contrast, is initially sweetly beguiling, but, as he loses his patience with the boy, it takes on an angry, menacing edge. The pianist too contributes to the mood. Schubert’s masterful writing gives to the right hand a continuous series of staccato chords that suggest the pounding pace of the horse and lend urgency to the narrative, and to the left he gives a repetitive, quietly sinister little run. The playing of both hands stops completely when the fate of the son is revealed.
Artist or Composer / Score name | Cover | List of Contents |
---|---|---|
Chopin – Opus 9 (Cortot) French |
![]() |
|
Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 1 In E Minor 1st Mov. – Allegro Maestoso (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 1 In E Minor Ii – Larghetto Romance (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin – Romance from Piano Concerto E minor Piano solo transcription |
![]() |
|
Chopin – Valse Opus 69 No. 1 (Posthumous) Waltz In A♭ Major (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin – Variations on La Ci Darem la Mano Op 2 | ||
Chopin . Préludes, Op 28 No. 15 arr. for Guitar.mscz | ||
Chopin 12 Etudes op 25 | Chopin Etudes op 25 | |
Chopin 12 Études Op. 10 (complete) Cortot Edition |
![]() |
|
Chopin 2 Polonaises Op 26 1 | ||
Chopin 51 Mazurkas (Complete) |
![]() |
|
Chopin Album of selected compositions |
![]() |
|
Chopin Balade 1 (Alfred Cortot edition) |
![]() |
|
Chopin Ballade No 1 in G Op 23 |
![]() |
|
Chopin Ballade No. 4 (Piano) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin Ballades Op 23 |
![]() |
|
Chopin Complete Etudes Schirmer Friedheim |
![]() |
|
Chopin Etudes Henle Urtext |
![]() |
|
Chopin Études Op. 10 (complete) |
![]() |
|
Chopin Etudes op.10 – Cortot French | Chopin Etudes op.10 – Cortot | |
Chopin Frédéric. The Complete Ballades, Impromptus, Scherzi & The Fantaisie Op. 49 |
![]() |
|
Chopin Impressions – Erroll Garner (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin Jazz Waltz No.7 (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin Klavierwerke Op. 10 Ed. Peters | ||
Chopin Nocturne In E Minor Op 72 No 1 (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Chopin Nocturne no 1 Op. 9 n. 1 | Chopin Nocturne no1 | |
Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor Op. Posth. | Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. Posth. | |
Chopin Nocturne op 27 2 | ||
Chopin Nocturne op. 72 n. 1 | Chopin Nocturne 72 1 | |
Chopin Nocturnes Op. 9 |
![]() |
|
Chopin Nocturnes Op 55 | Chopin Nocturnes op. 55 | |
Chopin Nocturnes Op. 48 | ||
Chopin Nocturnes – Complete Piano Scores |
![]() |
|
Chopin Nocturnes complete |
![]() |
Chopin Nocturnes complete |
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Solo Arr. |
![]() |
|
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Solo arr..mscz | ||
Chopin Preludes Op. 28 (complete) | Chopin Preludes, Op.28 | |
Chopin Sonata 3 OP 58 | Chopin Sonata 3 | |
Chopin Technic, The (1908) Book by Henry Levey |
![]() |
|
Chopin The Teacher (Book) University of North Dakota |
![]() |
|
Chopin Transcriptions For Classical Guitar Solo with TABs Volume 1 |
![]() |
Chopin Transcriptions For Classical Guitar Solo with TABs Volume 1 |
Chopin Transcriptions For Classical Guitar Solo with TABs Volume 2 |
![]() |
Chopin Transcriptions For Classical Guitar Solo with TABs Volume 2 |
Chopin Valses Edition Cortot |
![]() |
|
Chopin Valzer n. 10 (arranged by Mercuzio) | ||
Chopin Waltzes Performance Commentary by Ekier & Kaminski | Chopin Waltzes Peerformance Commentary by Ekier & Kaminski | |
Chopin_Nocturne_Op.9_No.2_for_Solo_Guitar by F. Tàrrega.mscz | ||
Chopin, Frederic Andantino Wiosna (Piano Version Of Song Op. 74 No. 2) |
![]() |
|
Chopin. 12 Etudes Op. 10 et 12 Etudes Op. 25 | Chopin. 12 Etudes Op.10 et 12 Etudes Op.25 | |
Chopin. The Man and His Music James Huneker (Book) |
![]() |
|
Chopsticks from Shadow of the Moon Simple Jazz Ver. For Piano By Kim Kwang Min |
![]() |
|
Chord And Songwriting Cheat Sheet C Dave Tran |
![]() |
|
Chord Changes and Substitutions for 100 Tunes (Professional) Jazz – by Dick Hyman |
![]() |
Chord Changes and Substitutions for 100 Tunes (Professional) Jazz – by Dick Hyman |
Chord Changes For The Best Known Songs |
![]() |
chord changes best known songs |
Chord Time Piano Hits Level 2B (Piano) |
![]() |
Chord Time Piano Hits Level 2B (Piano) |
Chord Tone Soloing For Jazz Guitar Master Arpeggio-Based Soloing For Jazz Guitar (Alexander Joseph) |
![]() |
|
Chords & Progressions for Acoustic Guitar by Artie Traum |
![]() |
|
Chords, Scales And Arpegios For The Guitarist by Al Politano |
![]() |
Chords Scales And Arpegios For The Guitarist by Al Politano |
Choro Brasileiro – O Melhor do Vol 1 Guitar |
![]() |
Choro Brasileiro – O Melhor do Vol 1 Guitar |
Choro Brasileiro – O Melhor do Vol 2 Guitar |
![]() |
Choro Brasileiro – O Melhor do Vol 2 Guitar |
Choro Chediak Vol 1 – Songbook (Guitar) |
![]() |
Choro Chediak Vol 1 – Songbook (Guitar) |
Chris Brown – Say Goodbye | ||
Chris Brown – With You | ||
Chris De Burgh – The Lady In Red | ||
Chris De Burgh Lady In Red Piano Solo |
![]() |
|
Chris DeBurgh -The Lady In Red |
![]() |
|
Chris Issak – Wicked Game |
![]() |
|
Chris Rea Anthology |
![]() |
Chris Rea Anthology |
Christina Aguilera – Beautiful | ||
Christina Aguilera – Beauty And The Beast | ||
Christina Aguilera – Fighter | ||
Christina Aguilera – Hurt | ||
Christina Aguilera – I Turn To You | ||
Christina Aguilera – Impossible | ||
Christina Aguilera – Reflection | ||
Christina Aguilera – Something Beautiful | ||
Christina Aguilera – Something There | ||
Christina Aguilera – The Voice Within | ||
Christina Aguilera – Underappreciated | ||
Christina Aguilera Back To Basics |
![]() |
Christina Aguilera Back To Basics |
Christina Aguilera Songbook | Christina Aguilera Christina Aguilera songbook | |
Christina Perri – Thousand Years (Sheet Music), A |
![]() |
|
Christina Perri A Thousand Years Theme from the Twilight Saga breaking dawn |
![]() |
|
Christmas – Angels We Have Heard On High Sheet Music |
![]() |
|
Christmas – It Came Upon The Midnight Clear Sheet Music |
![]() |
|
Christmas – We Are The Reason Sheet Music |
![]() |
|
Christmas – A Swingin’ Christmas |
![]() |
Christmas – A Swingin’ Christmas |
Christmas – Favourites collection |
![]() |
|
Christmas 36 Christmas Carols And Songs |
![]() |
36 christmas carols songs |
Christmas Bock’s S Best 25 Outstanding Christmas Piano Arrangements Vol 3 |
![]() |
Christmas Bock’s S Best 25 Outstanding Christmas Piano Arrangements Vol 3 |
Christmas Carol – Jingle Bell Rock Sheet Music |
![]() |
|
Christmas Carol – Jingle Bell Rock Sheet Music Easy Piano |
![]() |
|
Christmas Chris Rice The Living Room Sessions |
![]() |
Christmas Chris Rice The Living Room Sessions |
Christmas Classics Jazz Piano Solos Series Vol 61 |
![]() |
Christmas classics |
Christmas Easy Piano (Klimper Spass 3 Poppige Weihnachten! |
![]() |
Christmas Easy Piano (Klimper Spass 3 Poppige Weihnachten! |
Christmas Fake Book, The Ultimate – 275 Songs Sheet Music Piano Vocal Guitar |
![]() |
The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book 275 Songs Sheet Music Piano Vocal Guitar |
Christmas Jazz (Carol of the Bells, Jingle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas) (arr. by Kirby Shaw) |
![]() |
Christmas Jazz |
Christmas Jazz For Piano |
![]() |
Christmas Jazz For Piano |
Christmas Jazz It Up! – Christmas |
![]() |
Christmas Jazz It Up! |
Christmas Medley Special Kyle Landry |
![]() |
|
Christmas Mellow Seasonal Favorites for Piano, A Smooth Jazz (Roger House) |
![]() |
Christmas Mellow Seasonal Favorites for Piano, A Smooth Jazz (Roger House) |
Christmas Presence. Sound Of The Season |
![]() |
Christmas Presence. Sound Of The Season |
Christmas Professional Singers Christmas Fake Book 120 songs |
![]() |
Christmas Professional Singers Christmas Fake Book 120 songs |
Christmas Real Book |
![]() |
Christmas real book |
Christmas Recital For Piano |
![]() |
Christmas Recital For Piano |
Christmas Song For Play In First-Class Restaurant Piano Solo |
![]() |
Christmas Song For Play In First-Class Restaurant Piano Solo |
Christmas Song, The – Mel Tormé & Wells Bob Merry Christmas to You Easy Piano Solo |
![]() |
|
Christmas Song, The – Mel Tormé & Wells Bob Merry Christmas to You Easy Piano Solo.mscz | ||
Christmas Songbook The Readers Digest Merry Christmas Songbook (William L. Simon, Dan Fox) Vintage sheet music |
![]() |
Christmas Songbook The Readers Digest Merry Christmas Songbook (William L. Simon, Dan Fox) |
Christmas Standards Jazz Guitar Chord Melody Solos |
![]() |
Christmas Standards Jazz Guitar Chord Melody Solos |
CHRISTOPHE – Compilation |
![]() |
CHRISTOPHE – Compilation |
CHRISTOPHER CROSS – Songbook |
![]() |
CHRISTOPHER CROSS – Songbook |
Christopher Cross – Arthur’s theme | Christopher Cross – Arthurs Theme | |
Christopher Cross – Arthurs Theme | ||
Christopher Cross – Sailing (Piano vocal guitar chords) | Christopher-Cross-Sailing 1st page | |
Christopher Norton – MicroJazz More MicroJazz Microstyles (Full Collection – Piano) 165 pages | Christopher Norton – MicroJazz, More MicroJazz, Microstyles (Piano) | |
Christopher Norton – Microjazz for Guitar Duet |
![]() |
|
Christopher Norton – Microjazz for Guitar Solo |
![]() |
Christopher Norton – Microjazz for Guitar Solo |
Christopher Norton – MicroJazz for Starters |
![]() |
|
Christopher Norton – MicroJazz I |
![]() |
|
Christopher Norton – MicroJazz II |
![]() |