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The full ability of the man may be seen in one of the most 
powerful and difficult of his songs, “ The Erl-king.” It is 
interesting to notice how many stages there are in the form- 
ation of a great song like this. First there is the underlying 
idea of the Erl-king — the dread spirit of the dark forests, 
seductive and attractive, yet rising at last to be the awful 
symbol of death itself. Then comes the legend story making 
the idea concrete for simple minds. After this comes the 
play of the poetic fancy upon it seeking to give to the story 
an imperishable form of beauty that shall make the legend 
dramatically effective and easily remembered, and lastly 
there is the musician who, commencing with the poem, supplies 
the “ atmosphere ” of the tale, suggests or recalls details of 
the sound that would accompany the action, and so arouses 
the emotions of the audience. In this song we have deep 
tones suggestive of darkness and dread. The soughing of 
the wind and the fierce galloping of the horse are unmis- 
takably detected ; and many other artistic embellishments 
corresponding to fluctuations of the theme are easily recog- 
nised by the discerning, but even those unable to pick out 
this parallel between music and theme cannot fail to be moved 
by the various emotions of this song when they hear it. All 
must feel that the music gives to the story an impressiveness 
and a power that no mere reading of the poem could approach. 
The wonder with which all must regard these songs is 
increased when it is remembered how thoroughly spontaneous 
much of Schubert’s composing was ; the song, “ Hark, hark 
the lark,” came like an inspiration on first reading the poem 
and was written down complete on the back of a menu-card 
in an open-air restaurant. It is at first sight surprising that 
Schubert did not gain a wider fame during his lifetime, but 
his shy and sensitive nature constantly hindered him from 
” getting on ” in a worldly sense. He enjoyed however 
many noted friendships in the world of letters and music, 
all of which form a part of his short life-story. Towards 
the close of his career Schubert became acquainted with 
Beethoven who said as he perused his music “ Surely the 
Divine Spark is in Schubert.” His songs number over five 
hundred and many of them will always live in the affections 
of music lovers. So slowly did recognition come and so 
little did he possess the art of selling his productions that 
when he died, all his worldly effects were officially valued at 
fifty shillings ! 
Like Goethe’s " Wanderer,” which he so beautifully set 
to music, Schubert was a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, 
but he lived in a world of heavenly melody ; and whilst some 
