A sorrowful figure lingers outside a warm house on a snowy night, recalling the love of the girl who remains inside with her family. Soon he will begin his cold winter journey, told through the twenty-four songs of Franz Schubert's Winterreise cycle. To his lost love he sings: "You must not hear my footsteps... as I pass by I will write on the gate, ‘Goodnight,’ so that you will know I thought of you."
Franz Schubert (1797–1828), ”Gute Nacht" ("Good Night”), from Winterreise (Winter Journey). Autograph manuscript, 1827. Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection, 1968.