Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer who was extremely prolific during his time. Schubert’s “Der Erlkonig” was his first published opus, written at the age of 18. The text that the music is set to, was written by a famous German literary figure, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is a rather dark poem, in which Schubert takes advantage of the ominous nature of the text.
Schubert wanted to capture the mystery and excitement found in the poem, so he tells it in story form. The song is a solo for baritone, there are in total, four points of view in the composition. The narrator, whose description of the scene rounds off the beginning and end of the story, The Father who responds to the complaints and cries of his son, and the boy, who is reacting in fear and distress to the imposing of the fourth character, The Erl King. Schubert helps to accomplish this by writing in a medium voice range to represent the narrator, a low voice range to portray the father, and a very high range as the boy cries aloud. The voice of the Elf King is always soothing and seductive.
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It is evident how Schubert translates the story musically through his choice of various major and minor keys in order the express contrasting emotions. Also of interest are the vocal ranges and accompaniment styles used for various characters. For the introduction and throughout the piece, the piano depicts the galloping of the horse. This music is in a minor key and uses a repeated triplet figure to help create tension. Each time the Erl King sings, it is in a major key as he beckons and tries to lure the child away. Three times the boy cries out 'My father, my father' on high notes harmonized with
In the first stanza, first line; I saw two trees embracing, this means that there is a couple that is in love. In the second and third line we see that the male is weaker “one leaned on the other, as if to throw her down” and in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh line we notice that the female has the strength, willpower and is dominating. In the second stanza, line one, two and three we see that the female being dominant makes the male feel broken and intimidated. In line four “the most wind-warped, you could see”, hear we see that there is a major problem between the two.
The music makes the audience drawn to feel sympathy and pity when she is preaching her views on death. For instance, a solemn melody is played when Haemon’s corpse is brought to King Creon. Creon grieves by himself as he is overcome with devastation caused by his foolish actions; his emotions are intensified by the sorrowful and sombre background music. The music is able to complement the play, while accentuating the more significant events. The design of the set is the most essential element of the production because it serves as the backdrop for the entire play.
great control and confidence. In the last stanza it is important to realise that time has passed and so much has changed. It is also important to note the change in tone. from past to present, and that his father is now old. There is also a sense of impatience and irritation with the last phrase "will" not go away from it".
Due the time frame when Stewart was writing the play, which is during the Second World War, he effectively positions the audience to sympathize with the tragic death of the heroes in the play by reinforcing the main discourses of both personal and national sacrifices of ordinary men. Many dramatic techniques were used to enhance the audience’s awareness of the struggles that the men had been through. One of the major techniques is Stewart’ positioning of the audience involved the use of lyric verse to assist the audience to create the visual and auditory imagery and to feel the harsh atmosphere that the play has created; and also through some technical devices such as the metaphors, similes, alliteration, assonance, repetition and rhyme within the verses, as found in the texts of the Announcer. Stewart has successfully used these techniques to reflect the feelings deep inside the men’s struggle of physical difficulties against the nature of freezing snows and blizzards; emotional struggle of depression, pressure and disappointment; and Stewart symbolizes “The Fire On The Snow” as “man against snow, the spirit of man against all that conspires to defeat him”.
The seventh stanza is when the family makes a fire; “We watched the first red blaze appear”. Surrounded by snow in all directions, they make a fire witch symbolizes hope.
The Horse is represented in full profile as to show off it’s perfect proportions; it is forcefully modeled so as to give its perfect anatomy and it moves with regulated step of the riding school so as to give demonstration of perfect rhythm. The fact that a beautiful setter is running by the side of the horse completes the picture of the Christian man as known to the Late Middle Ages – the man who armed with faith and accompanied by religious zeal, symbolized by the faithful hound goes on his way along the narrow path of earthly life menaced by Death and the Devil.
The poem is mostly about a little polish boy who is surrounded at gunpoint by the Nazis. The poem also explains how the people were silent and no one did nothing in respect of the little polish boy. Later on in the poem, Fischl uses the element hyperbole. An example of hyperbole that Fischl uses is when he states, "I am not a composer / But I will write a composition / For five trillion trumpets / So it will blast the eardrums of this world" (Fischl 45-49). This example shows that poem uses the element hyperbole. He over exaggerates because he in not really get five trillion trumpets and blast the ear drums of the people around the world.that if no will do anything, he will do something to tell the world about this incident. He is over exaggerating in some quotes. This contributes to the poem because with the element hyperbole Fischl draws the readers in more and get them thinking. The quote that I really liked was "I'll make this painting so bright / That it will blind the eyes of the world / Who said nothing" (Fischl 30-32). This quote is really good example that shows that the world said nothing about the little polish boy. They did not pay much attention about the little boy who had nothing to defend himself. I would recommend this to the people in Siri. They should not stay quiet and tell the whole world what's going on.The same problem is happening to Siri, they are being
The poem states, “We played, we laughed, we were loved. We were ripped from the arms of our parents and thrown into the fire.” The quotation explains the grief that the Jewish children had experienced during the Holocaust in a few words. The reader would clearly be able to see the sudden and distressing times that the Jewish children went through, when being taken away from their parents. If the poem had been told in second or third person perspective, the piece wouldn’t have been as dramatic. With second or third person perspective, the reader can not fully focus on the emotions felt by one person. Later in the poem it says, “We were taken away in the dead of the night, like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying.” The stanza in the poem illustrates the experience of the Jewish children losing their families. In an article about the Holocaust, it would most likely state what the Jews had went through. But it wouldn’t describe or help the reader visualize the actual occurrence, such as the crying that occurred, and the deaths of mothers, fathers, or friends. The first person point of view dramatizes and vividly describes the emotions felt or the details of a particular experience. A third person point of view may describe a scene, but would not go in depth of what one person felt or thought. The author of “Holocaust”, Barbara Sonek, had chosen the narrator
Childhood experiences seem to be the ones that are recollected most vividly throughout a person's life. Almost everyone can remember some aspect of his or her childhood experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike. Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz" suggests even further that this concept could be true. The dance described in this poem illustrates an interaction between father and child that contains more than the expected joyous, loving attitude between the two characters. Roethke's tone in this work exhibits the blended, yet powerful emotions that he, as a grown man, feels when looking back on this childhood experience. The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father.
...r sister saying how she'll have to help take care of her kid and how she'll probably have twins. The sixth stanza talks about how her mother comforted her and said that her sister will take on all her chores. The seventh stanza is her sister complaining of how many chores she's already doing as is. The last stanza talks about how Leda just "takes it easy" and doesn't have to do anything.
The title has one line, representing the son’s age as one and the first stanza has two lines, representing the son’s age as two – this continues until stanza five when the child is five. At the age of five, the son “waits in [his father’s] lap” (3) and awaits a new story; this is when the father realizes that he is unable to come up with a new story and begins to fear his son’s disappointment. The following stanza has four lines, representing how the father wishes to go back to a time where he was able to entertain the son with the “alligator story” or the “angel story” (13) without the sons desire for something new. The final stanza has five lines, this is because it is the reality which the father has to face because his son will not ‘become younger’ or interested again in the stories that he has heard before. The structure of the poem expresses the complexity of the internal struggle of the father to fill his son’s desire as he reaches an age in which stories that he has already heard do not entertain him through the purposefully structured stanzas that represent the son’s growth along with the father’s wish to go back rather than
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.
The title perhaps adds richness to this parallel in that prior to watching Death and the Maiden, the audience associate the phrase with Schubert’s quartet. The act of watching the play melds the phrase inextricably with the memories of Paulina’s rape. This mirrors the fact that Schubert was Paulina’s ‘favourite composer’ before her rape, and yet afterwards she ‘prays they won’t put on Schubert’. Dorfman further emphasises this idea with the image of: ‘In the darkness, we hear Roberto’s voice overlapping with Paulina’s and the second movement of Death and the Maiden’. Dorfman’s allusion to music as a stimulant of emotions and memories is further emphasised by the use of aural leitmotifs, such as ‘the real real truth’ and ‘teensy weensy bit’.
Hester, Paul’s rocking horse and the whispering of the house represent greed, selfishness, and love. They also reveal the character’s real feelings and thoughts of neglect, detachment, greed and selfishness. These symbols convey a theme and make the characters in the short story. The Rocking-Horse Winner is a tragic story where Paul dies trying to gain his mother’s love and compassion. The mother was just interested in the money he was winning in the derbies. The story conveys a major them of materialism and shapes the characters through the symbols.
Thus the song serves as the ground theme of the play. In this respect the song seems to immediately strike the keynote of the play. Also, the song introduces the protagonist to the audience and links her up with war situation, resulting in ironic interdependence of comments and conflict. In scene-2, Eilif, the elder son of Mother Courage sings “The Song of The Fishwife and the Soldier” by the way of entertaining the Commander and accompanies it with a martial sword dance.