Cocktail Party Fact: More than 40 composers have set Goethe’s famous Erlkonig to music, but no one has ever surpassed this version by the 18-year-old Franz Schubert.

Commitment Factor: About 4 minutes.

Vital Statistics: Early Romantic Period. The official start of the Romantic Period, you might almost say. A song for voice and piano. Nothing quite like this had ever been written before: a translation of early German Romanticism into music.

What to Listen For: “Who rides so late through the night and the wind?” The grimly galloping piano rhythm sets the mood. A father and his little son are riding home late at night. The son sees the Erlking (a figure from Teutonic mythology said to haunt the Black Forest), who tries to convince him to go with him, first by promises of fun and games, and finally with threats of force. “My father! My father!” cries the terrified child; but each time, his father gives him the “grown-up” explanation: it’s just the mist, it’s only the wind rustling in the leaves. Note how Schubert provides different kinds of music for the Erlking (seductively pretty at first, but ultimately nasty), the child (frightened and plaintive, in a higher key each time), the father (deep-voiced, trying hard to sound authoritative), and the narrator (the voice of the aghast storyteller). As Goethe’s nightmarish poem moves to its inexorable conclusion, Schubert’s music follows its changes of mood and perspective at every step. A musical revolution in just over four minutes.