Schubert Erlkönig Violin & Cello Duet

There are lots of other arrangements in my shop, including a version of Erlkönig for two cellos! 🥳

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Erlkönig has been on my list of arrangements for quite a while, and I'm so grateful to Amanda for recording it with me! She brought such inspiring energy and enthusiasm. 🤩 And now, a little bit about the arrangement itself! When I started looking at the original, I noticed a few things that presented a fun arranging challenge. First, the piano part is mostly the same texture throughout; second, the vocal part is pretty unornamented; and third, there are four voices in the original poem (the narrator, the father, the son, and the Erlkönig), and I had only two voices to represent them. To 'stringify' it and freshen it up, I knew I wanted to ornament the melody and alter the accompaniment to add some variety in the texture without losing the sense of relentless forward motion. My inspiration came from Death and the Maiden, Schubert's amazing string quartet. I borrowed many of the ornaments and a couple textures/patterns from it, so the end result is almost a mash-up of the two! I love this. :) And in case you are wondering about the voices, the violin represents the narrator and the son, and the cello represents the father (low register) and the Erlkönig (high register). The story is pretty terrifying and creepy, so to capture a bit of that feeling, Amanda and I added some ponticello in a few places. Overall I'm really thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope you love it, too!

Thank you to Shasta Ellenbogen, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist for helping test the arrangement and giving me great advice!! 🫶

[githanjalialgama]

Superb! I love the way the 2 instruments share the voices- the Cello for the most part speaking in the father’s voice and the violin, the child. Ich liebe es! ❤

[jonathanwingmusic]

I've always loved this piece, and what a fantastic arrangement and performance! Especially loved all those sul pont effects and the tragically beautiful harmonies at the very end 👏

[christinelyman]

Amazing! This works so well for these two instruments due to the two voices in the song. ❤❤❤

[MrAtomicPig]

0:47 - Great! Reminds Vertigo a bit
(oo)