The Erlking

I remember when I was a mere fourth-grader this one time my elementary school music teacher had to use the room of one of the school’s least favorite teachers because the music teacher’s room was being used for some activity. That classroom smelled bad – it wasn’t horrible but it was unpleasant.

Said music teacher was planning on teaching us about Franz Schubert’s Erlkönig and he did it even though he had to improvise with the new room’s equipment.

The music teacher proceeded to have us listen to “Erlkönig” while showing us an English guide/translation of the piece.

I remember everyone complaining about the bad smell of the room but still being extremely shocked (as in audible gasps) during that last line of the song where the child dies.

Therefore, I associate “Erlkönig” with the slightly off, somewhat musty, stale, and sweaty smell of that classroom and honestly that’s probably what an erlking smells like.

I also associate the piece with me and my classmates being extremely shocked so there’s that.

Originally posted March 16, 2019 on WordPress

Liszt’s Consolation

When I discovered Franz Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 (S. 172), I was very pleasantly surprised by how tenderly beautiful and generally amazing-sounding it was. I absolutely love it and it’s a refreshing change from Liszt’s usual complicated ferventness (not saying that’s bad of course). I feel like when Liszt is quieter he is very nice too, and I kind of wish that his quiet pieces like this Consolation were more well-known.

This is just the romantic in me speaking, but what made me quite emotional upon discovering the piece was the knowledge that Liszt composed it shortly after Frédéric Chopin’s death. The piece is so sweet that I couldn’t help but have my heart warmed with the thought that Liszt actually did care about Chopin – the two Romantic composers were friends at one point, sure, but their friendship was tense, characterized by a grudging admiration of each other, and by around 1845 they had fallen out. The fact that Franz Liszt composed this Consolation shortly after Chopin’s death, however, just makes me think that Liszt and Chopin’s relationship was sweeter than it seemed to be, and that thought is simply romantic.

Originally posted March 9, 2019 on WordPress