Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: show-tunes
Song Meaning of “Sweeney Todd: Johanna (Arr. C. O’Riley)” by Stephen Sondheim
“Johanna” is a beautiful ballad about the love and longing of an unrequited love, sung in the musical Sweeney Todd by Benjamin Barker, a.k.a. Sweeney Todd, for his daughter, Johanna. Through the use of powerful and melancholic music, Sondheim conveys the sense of despair and longing that not only is felt by Sweeney for his daughter, but also by the listener.
Sweeney’s love for his daughter is expressed in the song’s lyric, with him pleading for her to return home and be reunited with her father. He is desperate for her love and for them to be together again, but she is unable to hear him, leading him to sing, “How can you hear me cry?” and “Try to see me through these tears.”
Throughout the song, Sweeney expresses his hope that Johanna will come “home” to him, describing how his home is especially made for her and that “all the birds will surely sing” when she returns. Despite his longing and his desperation, he ultimately accepts that he will never be reunited with his daughter, singing “It will end in sweet accord.” This gives the song a bittersweet ending, as although it is hopeful and filled with love, it is tinged with the sadness and longing of unrequited love.