Threnody
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For other uses, see Threnody (disambiguation).
Jan Kochanowski with his dead daughter in a painting by Jan Matejko inspired by the poet's Threnodies.
A threnody is a song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word threnoidia, from threnos ( "wailing") + oide ("ode");[1][2] ultimately, from the Proto-Indo-European root wed- ("to speak") that is also the precursor of such words as "ode", "tragedy", "comedy", "parody", "melody" and "rhapsody".
Synonyms include "dirge", "coronach", "lament" and "elegy". The Epitaphios Threnos is the lamentation chanted in the Eastern Orthodox Church on Holy Saturday. John Dryden commemorated the death of Charles II of England in the long poem Threnodia Augustalis, and Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a "Threnody" in memory of his son.[3]
Examples of threnody
- Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
- Peter H. Gilmore's "Threnody for Humanity"
- Two "Thrénodies" from Franz Liszt's piano series Années de Pèlerinage, set at the Villa d'Este
- Marian McPartland's "Threnody", written in memory of pianist Mary Lou Williams
- Bright Sheng's Nanjing! Nanjing![4]
- Lou Harrison's Threnody for Carlos Chavez
- Benjamin Britten's "Threnody for Albert Herring"
- Janis Crystal Lipzin's 2003-5 film Threnody
- Yusef Komunyakaa's "Sunset Threnody" in Dien Cai Dau (1988)
- Bruce Dawe's poem "Homecoming"[5]
Some classic jazz threnodies are:[citation needed]
- "I Remember Clifford", written by Benny Golson to honor the memory of Clifford Brown;
- "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", written by Charles Mingus in memory of Lester Young;
- "Memories of Lee Morgan", composed by Pharaoh Sanders in memory of Lee Morgan. Morgan had played on Dizzy Gillespie's recording of I Remember Clifford
- Moondog's "Bird's Lament", dedicated to Charlie Parker.
See also
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Look up threnody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
References
- ↑ The Oxford Companion to Music (2010)
- ↑ "threnody". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ↑ Grove Music Online (2010)
- ↑ Bright Sheng: Orchestral Works. Naxos (2002).
- ↑ Pierce, Peter (2002). "Australian and American literature of the Vietnam War" in Australia's Vietnam War, p. 132. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1585441376
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