Winterreise

Winterreise An experiment in peripatetic video.
A winter's walk is chronicled through multiple images to the accompaniment of one verse, Der Wegweiser, of Schubert's Winterreise.





Team: Joseph Adler Franz Schubert Wilhelm Muller

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Scenario with an existentialist flavor
Struck down by arthritis I was unable to join my family skiing so I took a long lonely walk and photographed it. I noted that I avoided paths where others went and I walked in the direction away from town and civilization. That's why the Wegweiser stanza seemed to fit so well.

A solitary figure juxtaposed against the vast winter landscape. The journey marked by his own footprints, which will inevitably evanesce, as will he.

Verse
Why do I avoid the routes
Which the other travelers take,
To search out hidden paths
Through snowy cliff tops?
I have truly done no wrong
That I should shun mankind.
What foolish desire
Drives me into the wastelands?
Signposts stand along the roads,
Signposts leading to the towns;
And I wander on and on,
Restlessly in search of rest.
One signpost stands before me,
Remains fixed before my gaze.
One road I must take,
From which no one has ever returned.
Was vermeid' ich denn die Wege,
Wo die ander'n Wand'rer gehn,
Suche mir versteckte Stege
Durch verschneite Felsenhöh'n?
Habe ja doch nichts begangen,
Daß ich Menschen sollte scheu'n, -
Welch ein törichtes Verlangen
Treibt mich in die Wüstenei'n?
Weiser stehen auf den [Strassen]1,
Weisen auf die Städte zu,
Und ich wand're sonder Maßen
Ohne Ruh' und suche Ruh'.
Einen Weiser seh' ich stehen
Unverrückt vor meinem Blick;
Eine Straße muß ich gehen,
Die noch keiner ging zurück.

Design
29 images are combined to create 2 mins 34 second video. Photographed in 2/04. Produced in 2/05


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like to work at the intersection of music and art -- art in any medium. Needless to say, your video is very impressive and deeply touching.