We’re going fishing and spinning with one of the most prolific songwriters of the 19th century—Franz Schubert. In “Die Forelle” (The Trout), Schubert set to music a poem by German writer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, which tells the story of a fisherman hunting and catching a trout. Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major, known as the “Trout Quintet,” gained its nickname for reusing the famous tune from “Die Forelle” in its fourth movement. “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel), kicked off Schubert’s lifelong love of setting the writing of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to song. Using dialogue from Goethe’s play, Faust, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” depicts Gretchen in a moment of torment as she recalls memories of Faust. We’ll end this week’s episode with another setting of Goethe, this time his frightful poem, “Erlkönig” (Elf King). Based on a Danish tale of the Elf Woman, a figure of death, “Erlkönig” tells the tale of the sinister Elf King and his relentless pursuit of an innocent child.
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