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Noon Edition

Wishin' And Hopin' Podcast

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On this week's Ether Game Weekly Music Quiz Podcast, the Brain Trust is exploring music in the subjunctive mood! We're looking at wishes, hopes, and desires in classical music, in a show we're calling "Wishin' and Hopin'." Can you name this hopeful tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, January 30th at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Franz Schubert (1797–1828): WINTERREISE: "Letzte Hoffnung"

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Jörg Demus, piano.Â

Schubert: Winterreise (Deutsche Grammophon)



Much of Schubert's song cycle Winterreise, or "Winter Journey," is about hope and desire, although it's not a particularly happy story about hope. In fact, the song cycle was so desolate that Schubert's friends were shocked and distressed when he first performed the cycle for them. It's the second song cycle that Schubert wrote using poems of Wilhelm Müller (the first being the equally depressing Die Schöne Müllerin). In the story, a young man is disappointed in love, and embarks on a solitary journey in the cold winter air, longing for his beloved the entire time. At this especially bleak point of the tale, he hangs his hopes onto a trembling leaf on a tree, saying that if the leaf falls to the ground, so will his hope. His downfall is all but inevitable, because it is winter, after all. That leaf is certain to fall.

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Music Heard On This Episode

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