Analyzing Musical passaggi in Erlkönig by Franz Schubert: A Pilot Study

This pilot study calculates various compositional difficulty measurements for the Western classical art song Erlkönig by Franz Schubert by utilizing and adapting established musical analysis methods. The objective of this study is to adapt previously described musical analysis methods to expand on a concept presented by Nicole Pizzorni et al and develop a new, generalizable method of noting the total and percent of performance time a piece of music might require a singer to sing in their passaggi.

An established method of quantitative musical analysis using a universal rhythmic subdivision was used to describe the compositional range, musical tessitura, cycle dose, time dose, and recovery time of Erlkönig. A generalized definition of a high passaggio (Hp), middle passaggio (Mp), and low passaggio (Lp) for a generically described high voice (HV), medium voice, and low voice was created. Basic calculations on data generated through tessituragram analysis determined the total and percent of performance time in passaggi.

Results indicate that a HV treble clef range singer performing Erlkönig would spend 34.6 seconds (s) or 21.6% of time singing in the Hp, 25.5 seconds or 15.9% in the Mp, and 7.1 seconds or 4.3% in the Lp. A HV bass clef range singer would spend 0.0 seconds or 0.0% of performance time singing in the Hp, 34.6 seconds or 21.6% in the Mp, and 73.1 seconds or 21.6% in the Lp. The total musical passaggi time dose rating for a HV treble clef range singer is 67.2 seconds and the percent of singing time in their passaggi is 41.9%, and 107.8 seconds and 67.2% for a bass clef singer.

This paper offers a potentially generalizable method to analyze and compare musical pieces based on the time spent singing in passaggi by adapting data collected during tessituragram analysis.