Winterreise (excerpt)
Winterreise performed by Joanna Halszka Sokołowska is the saddest and most disheartening song on DE PROFUNDIS. The eponymous winter journey is an exercise in unrequited love, in feeling rejected, lonely, and depressed. Spurned by his beloved and deeply hurt, a young man trudges through an empty landscape covered in snow. He passes by several settlements which seem off-limits to him. All he can hear is barking dogs and cawing crows. Finally he comes upon a travelling folk singer. Alone amidst the fields, his fingers numb from the cold, the old man is playing a tender tune on his lyre. No one is listening but he keeps on playing nonetheless.
O strange old man, may I come with you?
Will you play my song as well?
The old man is a symbol of acceptance, of surrendering to whatever fate has in store for us.
Available in the following editions
