‘The Erlking,’ perhaps Schubert’s best known song (it is certainly one of his greatest), is a perfect example of the ballad, or condensed dramatic-narrative poem, a type which had been cultivated by Zumsteeg, but had never reached real artistic standing. It demands sharp characterization of the speaking characters, and especially some means of setting the mood of the poem as a whole, in order to keep the story within its frame and give it its artistic unity. The former Schubert supplies with his melodies; the latter with the accompaniment of triplets, with the recurring figure representing the galloping of the horse. Without interrupting the musical flow of his song he introduces the delineative detail where it is needed, as in the double dissonance at the repeated shriek of the child--a musical procedure that was revolutionary at the time it was written. And, if there were nothing else in the song to prove genius, it would be proved by the last line in which, for the first time, the triplets cease and the announcement that the child was dead is made in an abrupt recitative, carrying us back to a realization of the true nature of the ballad as a tale that is told, a legend from the olden times. It must always be a pity that Schubert did not write more ballads. He is commonly known as a lyric genius, but he could be equally a descriptive genius. Yet only ‘The Young Nun,’ among the better known of his songs, is at all narrative in quality. Schubert’s form, as we have said, ranges all the way from the simple strophe, or verse form, up to the verge of the declamatory. He was extremely fond of the strophe, and usually used it with perfect justice, as in the famous ‘Who is Sylvia,’ ‘Hark, Hark, the Lark,’ and ‘Ave Maria.’ Very often he uses the strophe form modified and developed for the last stanza, as in _Du bist die Ruh_, or the ‘Serenade.’ Again, as in _Die Allmacht_ and _Aufenthalt_, the melody, while being perfectly measured and regular, follows the text with utmost freedom. And, finally, there is _Der Doppelgänger_, which is scarcely more than expressive declamation over a delineative accompaniment. ‘The music of the future!’ exclaims Mr. Henderson. ‘Wagner’s theories a quarter of a century before he evolved them.’