A STUDY OF FRANZ LISZTS TRANSCRIPTIONS:

FRANZ SCHUBERTS

ERKLNIG

ALEX GOODHART

Franz Liszt was as much a household name in his time as he is today, and
his distinguished place in music history is rightly deserved: his innovations range
from technical mastery of the piano to harmonic invention, all poignantly
influential to generations of later composers. Another important aspect of his
contribution is the championing of other composers works and the facilitation of
their mass dissemination: his transcriptions and treatments of other works,
predominantly for piano arrangement, covers repertoire from over 100 individual
composers.
The reception of his practice is certainly mixed: some composers of his day,
such as Verdi and Wagner, did not approve of his profiting off of their works or
criticized it for unfaithful representation. Contemporarily, his transcriptions still
receive mixed receptions; for some pieces his versions have risen to authoritative
status, while others go unperformed and unlovedoften due to the density and
difficulty of their imitative textures. One of the more universally appreciated
genres of his transcriptional repertory is that of liederhis piano arrangements
of songs by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann are staples of
standard recital programming; this is no less true for those of Franz Schubert,
whose name and reputation were actually significantly bolstered, posthumously,
by Liszts distribution and performances of his work.
Liszts first setting of the music of Schubert was of the piano piece
Originaltnze, which he incorporated into the third movement of his suite
Apparitions in 1834. The following year, Liszt made his first arrangement of a
Schubert lied: Die Rose. His most successful setting of Schubert songs is 12
Lieder von Franz Schubert, which was published in 1838 and includes a hallmark
of the Schubert catalog: Erlknig.

Erlknig is a setting of poetry penned by the German writer Johann

Wolfgang von Goethe; it tells the story of a father galloping through the night
with his dying son in tow. Its title translates to Elf King, the figure of death
portrayed in the poem as the delusional fantasies vocalized by the failing son.
Schuberts composition earns its notoriety from its highly programmatic nature;
the theatrical requirements of the soloist singer, who plays the parts of father, son,
narrator, and Elf King; and the rigorous ostinati that instantly identify it (both
depicted below): fastidious triplets of repeated notes (representing the horses
gallop) and an ascending/descending motif played every few measures in
between the vocalists part.

S C H U B E R T S E R L K N I G: m e a s u r e s 1 3

By the time of the compilations publication Liszt had already produced

arrangements of over ten Schubert works. His work on Erlknig began in or
earlier than 1837, when its first version was completed.
In his treatment of the songs, Liszt both stays faithful to the Schuberts
originals and expands upon their musical language through advancements both
textural and harmonic. In some cases he takes more creative license than in
others, and for Erlknig he is fairly conservative. Both versions total 148
measures, and Liszt stays faithful to the pieces original harmony. The primary
mode of expansion, then, is through texture. Liszts version exacerbates the

pieces thunderous and suspenseful delivery and demands considerably greater

technical skill from the pianist.
When analyzing the transformation of song with accompaniment to piano
solo, the two main aspects to consider are the placement of the singers melody
and the translation of instrumental texture. Since, in this case, the texture is not
being transcribed to a different instrument, the process of comparison is
especially simple.
In the first strophe of Liszts version, we see that he has taken a technically
complex but conscientiously practical approach to the transformation:

LISTZS ERLKNIG: m e a s u r e s 15-19

(reproduction)

In combining voice with the piano, Liszt retains the melody (shown above
in blue) and superimposes it over the original piano texture by altering its
placement between the left and right hand. In the next strophe, which marks the
fathers first lines, Liszt enhances the gender of the melodic voice by moving it
down an octave from Schuberts original. Through the first fifty-seven measures,

Liszt leaves Der Erlknig relatively unchanged. Then, in the third strophe, enters
the Elf King.
The triplet repetitions are, now, distorted by an arpeggiating figure, but
maintain Schuberts rhythm. The singers melody, words of the Elf King, is
accentuated by smoothly arpeggiated chords, which double the melody at the
octave above. Throughout the piece, the Elf Kings lines transform into that of a
romantic aria: thriving in the dreamy textures of Liszts piano. However, the
melodic content is totally unchanged: the impression one may find of added
chromatic ornament is an illusion: it indicates, however, that the textural
development is especially effective in doing justice to the Elf Kings surrealist role
in the narrative. The third strophe begins Liszts textural departure and
development from Schuberts composition. From there, the major deviations
include an emphasized variation of the horses theme, which now embodies both
that metaphor and that of the sons dying shrieks; as well as a much more thick
and aggressive manner: the final strophe is even marked fff

in place of

Schuberts f.
A measure-by-measure comparison reveals how closely Liszt followed the
original version, and therefore provides a useful guide on the creative options one
has when practicallyrather than imaginativelytranscribing a piece of this
nature to the piano.