I took music history this past semester in college along with music theory just for the benefit of being able to learn an instrument next semester. It didn't exactly pan out that way because I decided suddenly that I wanted to be a music major, so I think I was brainwashed by the professors of these two classes. Anywho, in my music history class we of course listened to a great amount of classical music of different eras, focusing on the composers who revolutionized the music industry during their respective lifetimes (even some beyond *coughBeethovencough*.)
At a certain point, we moved onto Franz Schubert. Music History was a blur and I'm not entirely sure if he was part of the Classical Era or the Romantic Era, or on the brink of both. I feel like one of those people who only acknowledges a band's most popular songs, but I had an absolute obsession with Schubert's Der Erlkönig, originally a German poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Schubert composed music to go along with this poem and it's probably one of his most noted works in the modern world. He used fantastic word painting for this piece which is meant for a solo voice. What I loved so much about this is that with knowing the story and the characters within it, I can still follow along with who is speaking just by the tone being used despite not being able to speak German. Here's a link for the translation from the original German text to the adapted English. But it's definitely one of my all time favorite compositions and I'm just mad that I've yet to download the song.
Gabriella
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