The Classical Music Book

310

F

or many contemporary

listeners, Polish composer

Krzysztof Penderecki’s 1960

piece Threnody for the Victims of

Hiroshima signaled an innovative

new phase of music in communist

eastern Europe. Until then, much

of the region’s music had adhered

to a traditional, socialist-realist

style. In Penderecki’s Threnody,

however, audiences were exposed

to an unprecedented soundscape

of strings, wails, and whispers.

It is scored for a string orchestra of

52 players, each one with their own

individual line and with the string

sections also divided into groups.

The 24 violins, for example, are

split into four groups of six each, to

experiment with locations of sound.

The cenotaph in Hiroshima’s Peace

Park, Japan, commemorates those who

lost their lives in the atomic bombing

of Hiroshima, from which Threnody

takes its title.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Music behind the

Iron Curtain

BEFORE

1946 Stalin-appointed Andrei

Zhdanov imposes a policy of

“socialist realism,” championing

conventional music in eastern

Europe and shunning avant-

garde compositions.

1958 Russian composers such

as Edison Denisov and Sofia

Gubaidulina begin to emulate

western experimental music

and are dubbed dissidents

by the authorities.

AFTER

1961 Hungarian-born,

Austrian-resident György

Ligeti composes Atmosphères

for orchestra, with its sliding

and combining note clusters.

1970 Witold Lutosławski’s

Cello Concerto is premiered,

bringing him international

success in the wake of social

unrest in his native Poland.

I WAS STRUCK BY THE

EMOTIONAL CHARGE

OF THE WORK

THRENODY FOR THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA (1960),

KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI

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