have precluded the possibility of their
having been matured and developed in his mind before being written
down, are deservedly placed amongst the most immortal of Schubert's
works. When, too, the extraordinary length of some of the songs is
taken into account--fifty-five pages of closely-written manuscript in
one case, twenty-two pages of print in another--one marvels how the
time could have been found for the mere mechanical process of writing
them down.

To enumerate the songs included in this long list would take up too
much space, but the story of how one great song came to be written
must be told here. Mayrhofer could claim friendship with Goethe, and
it was doubtless through Mayrhofer that Schubert's attention was first
drawn to the writings of the great German poet. One afternoon in the
winter of this year 1815, the 'old Convicter' Spaun called upon
Schubert, and found him in his room intently writing music, with a
book of poems by his side. On inquiring what it was that absorbed his
attention, Schubert looked up with a face aglow with inspiration. 'Oh,
I have come across _such_ a poem!' he exclaimed. 'Have you ever read
it? It is Goethe's "Erl King."' Without giving his friend time to
reply he turned once more to his paper, and recommenced jotting down
the notes with astonishing rapidity. Spaun sat by, wondering, but not
daring to disturb him. At length Schubert threw down his pen with a
sigh. 'It is finished,' said he, 'and now let us look it through.' It
was the first sketch of the famous song of the 'Erl King,' and when
the accompaniment had been filled in, the two friends conveyed the
manuscript to the Convict. His old friends and admirers soon formed a
group around the piano, and Schubert, sitting down, sang the song
through, and then one of the school singers sang it after him. To
Schubert's surprise--and the fact comes to us with something like a
shock--the first hearing of the 'Erl King' was received by the Convict
orchestra with some coldness. The truth is the dramatic force
embodied in the music was too strong for them--it fairly took their
breath away; it was so unlike anything that Schubert had hitherto
produced, or that they had ever heard. And when he came to the
passage, 'Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst er mich an!' in which an
apparent disharmony discovered itself, one or two of the listeners
ventured to express their dissent, and it was necessary for Herr
Ruzicka, the professor of harmony