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Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima Analysis

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Successful composers manipulate the musical elements to portray military conflict and emotional impact. A polish composer, Krzysztof Penderecki, composed an experimental piece titled Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in 1960. The piece is composed for 52 stringed instruments and depicts the horror and tragedy of Hiroshima. The composer is successful in its ability to manipulate the musical elements, expressive devices, pitch and timbre, to portray the military conflict and emotional impact of Hiroshima. Expressive devices is one of the musical elements which emphasise Penderecki’s purpose if evoking emotions relating to military conflict. In section 3 the violas begin playing very loud at ff. After this the other instrument groups have delayed …show more content…

Section 1 begins with instruments having delayed entries playing their highest pitch. On the graphic score the instruments are told to play the highest note on the instrument. This high pitch at the beginning of the song creates agitation. This is because high pitched stringed instruments have a screeching or screaming like sound. This is what the first section of the composition sounds like. This part of the piece creates an image of tension and horror in the audience’s mind. In section 2 of the piece, there are clusters of notes seen in the score. These clusters of notes create a dissonance sound. This is most apparent at 2:09 to 2:14, where the double bass are playing a cluster of notes. This dissonance sound evokes an image of dread of the crimes against humanity as thousands of people die. The cacophony effect assists in portraying an image of unnatural, horrid events, exactly like the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Also in section 2, it is heard that the violins play at a very high register at 3:00. This high pitched violin playing creates a screeching and screaming sound similar to the beginning of the piece. This unusually high pitch depicts images of horror and screams into the listeners mind. Penderecki’s use of pitch has effectively portrayed the emotional impact of military

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