A project developed with the photographer Mike Colechin.
Franz Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), D. 911, composed in 1827, is arguably the most profound and influential song cycle in the Western canon. Setting 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, it depicts the physical and psychological descent of a lone wanderer who, rejected by his beloved, flees into a frozen, desolate landscape.
The Narrative: A Journey to Nowhere
Unlike Schubert’s earlier cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, which has a clear plot, Winterreise is a monodrama of the mind.
• Part I: The wanderer leaves the town where his beloved lives (Gute Nacht). He struggles with memories of spring and warmth, his tears freezing as they fall.
• Part II: The journey turns existential. The wanderer moves from specific grief to a generalized, "frozen" despair. He seeks rest but finds only temporary shelter in charcoal burners' huts or cemeteries, eventually longing for a death that refuses to take him.
• The Finale: In the final song, Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man), he encounters a destitute street musician playing a drone-like tune. He asks to join him—a chilling image of either ultimate solidarity or a final lapse into madness.
Significance and Style
• The Equal Partner: Schubert revolutionized the Lied (art song) by making the piano an equal partner to the singer. The piano doesn't just "accompany"; it becomes the landscape. It mimics the howling wind, the barking of dogs, the staggering footsteps in the snow, and the monotonous drone of the hurdy-gurdy.
• The Psychology of Memory: Schubert masterfully uses shifts between Major and Minor keys to represent the thin line between illusion and reality. Major keys often signify painful "false" memories of spring, while the Minor reflects the bitter truth of the winter.
• Personal Context: Schubert composed this while in the final stages of syphilis. His friends were reportedly "terrified" when he first performed these "gloomy" songs for them. Schubert himself called them "a cycle of truly terrible [awe-inspiring] songs."
“I came here a stranger, a stranger I depart." — The opening line of the cycle
Impact on Music History
Winterreise transformed the song cycle from a collection of light pieces into a high-art form capable of exploring the darkest depths of the human psyche. It paved the way for the psychological song cycles
