Winterreise

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Winterreise (Winter Journey) is a song cycle by Franz Schubert, on poems by Wilhelm Müller.

The cycle was written in 1827 and includes 24 songs on the subject of unrequited love:

Gute Nacht (Good Night)
Die Wetterfahne (The Weather-vane)
Gefrorne Tränen (Frozen Tears)
Erstarrung (Numbness)
Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
Wasserflut (Torrent)
Auf dem Flusse (On the Stream)
Rückblick (Backward Glance)
Irrlicht (Will o' the wisp)
Rast (Rest)
Frühlingstraum (Dream of Springtime)
Einsamkeit (Loneliness)
Die Post (The Post)
Der greise Kopf (The Grey Head)
Die Krähe (The Crow)
Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
Im Dorfe (In the Village)
Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
Täuschung (Deception)
Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
Mut (Courage)
Die Nebensonnen (The Phantom Suns)
Der Leiermann (The Organ Grinder)

Winterreise is Schubert's opus 89. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of his works, it is D. 911. It followed Schubert's earlier song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin. As with the previous cycle, Winterreise was originally written in tenor range, but is frequently transposed for other voice types.

The songs in Winterreise are linked as a sequence of reflections by the singer taking a lonely walk in winter, thinking back on his lost love. The lonely themes of cold, darkness, and the barren winter landscape predominate, with occasional encounters with other wanderers, such as a postal coach (Die Post), a crow (Die Krähe) and a will-o'-the-wisp (Irrlicht). The fifth song, Der Lindenbaum, with a lingering look at a lime tree that whispers thoughts of suicide, is a popular excerpt. The cycle ends with a sad look at a freezing hurdy-gurdy man in Der Leiermann. The parallel with the singer singing his sad songs in the ice and the slow, unresolved melody of the hurdy-gurdy concludes the cycle with an eerily unfinished feel perfectly in character with the lonely wandering of the singer.

[edit] Modern versions

December Songs is a song cycle by Maury Yeston. It is a 'retelling' of Schubert's Winterreise with a cabaret sensibility. It performed for three months in 2004 at the Theatre du Renard in Paris, and was sung by Isabelle Georges.