Psalm 130, De Profundis, expressing human distress and the hope for divine mercy, is one of the best-known and most frequently quoted of biblical texts, and the starting point for numerous compositions, notably by J. S. Bach, who used this text as a basis for several works: his cantata BWV 131, the organ prelude BWV 745, the chorale prelude BWV 687, and his two extant Passions.

His compositions were later echoed in the poems by Baudelaire, Stefan George and Georg Trakl that were set by Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg (Lyric Suite and String Quartet no. 2, respectively).

Sarah Traubel is joined by Andreas Scholl in an exploration of this theme through three centuries of music, from Baroque to the Expressionist and post-Romantic periods, thus sharing with us its universal beauty.