Carl Loewe - Erlkönig, Op.1 No. 3 (Complete Version)

Singer and Pianist unknown

Lyrics in English:

Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He has the boy well in his arm
He holds him safely, he keeps him warm.

My son, why do you hide your face in fear? –
Father, do you not see the Elf-king?
The Elf-king with crown and cape? –
My son, it is a streak of fog. –

"You dear child, come, go with me!
(Very) beautiful games I play with you;
Many colorful flowers are on the beach,
My mother has many a golden robe." –

My father, my father, and do you not hear
What the Elf-king quietly promises me? –
Be calm, stay calm, my child;
Through dry leaves the wind is sighing. –

"Do you, fine boy, want to go with me?
My daughters shall wait on you finely;
My daughters lead the nightly dance,
And rock and dance and sing to bring you in." –

My father, my father, and don't you see there
The Elf-king's daughters in the gloomy place? –
My son, my son, I see it clearly:
There shimmer the old willows so grey. –

"I love you, your beautiful form excites me;
And if you're not willing, then I will use force." –
My father, my father, he's touching me now!
The Elf-king has done me harm! –

It horrifies the father; he swiftly rides on,
He holds the moaning child in his arms,
Reaches the farm with great difficulty;
In his arms, the child was dead.




From Wikipedia: Loewe's version is less melodic than Schubert's, with an insistent, repetitive harmonic structure between the opening minor key and answering phrases in the major key of the dominant, which have a stark quality owing to their unusual relationship to the home key. The narrator's phrases are echoed by the voices of father and son, the father taking up the deeper, rising phrase, and the son a lightly undulating, answering theme around the dominant fifth. These two themes also evoke the rising and moaning of the wind.