Threnody

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Jan Kochanowski with his dead daughter in a painting by Jan Matejko inspired by the poet's Threnodies

A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word θρηνῳδία (threnoidia), from θρῆνος (threnos, "wailing") and ᾠδή (oide, "ode"),^[1][2] the latter ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂weyd- ("to sing") 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[]

• Countee Cullen's "Threnody for a Brown Girl"
• Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Threnody"^[4]
• Jan Kochanowski's "Laments"
• Anna Stanisławska's Transaction, or an Account of the Life of an Orphan Girl told through Mournful Laments in the Year 1685^[5]
• Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
• Toshio Hosokawa's Threnody: To the victims of the Tōhoku 3.11 Earthquake (2011)
• Thomas J. Bergersen's ""
• Peter H. Gilmore's "Threnody for Humanity"
• A. E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young"
• 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!^[6]
• Lou Harrison's Threnody for Carlos Chavez
• Michael Jacksons's Little Susie from the 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
• Benjamin Britten's "Threnody for Albert Herring"
• André Jolivet's "Chant de Linos" for flute and piano or flute, string trio and harp; described by the composer as "a form of threnody: a funeral lamentation interrupted by cries and dances" (1944, premiered 1 June 1945)^[7]
• Janis Crystal Lipzin's 2003–05 film Threnody
• Yusef Komunyakaa's "Sunset Threnody" in Dien Cai Dau (1988)
• Bruce Dawe's poem "Homecoming"^[8]
• "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
• "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• "" by Genesis
• "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton
• "Threnody To Earth" by
• "Threnody for Souls in Torment" by Robert Fripp
• "Threnody" by Sebastian
• "Threnody" by Two Gallants

In jazz:

• "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 Pharoah Sanders in memory of Lee Morgan. (Morgan had played on Dizzy Gillespie's recording of "I Remember Clifford".^[9])
• Moondog's "Bird's Lament", dedicated to Charlie Parker

See also[]

• Monody
• Sentimental ballad

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Marcello Sorce Keller, "Expressing, Communicating, Sharing and Representing Grief and Sorrow with Organized Sound (Musings in Eight Short Sentences)", in Stephen Wild, Di Roy, Aaron Corn, and Ruth Lee Martin (eds.), Humanities Research: One Common Thread the Musical World of Lament, Australian National University, Vol. XIX (2013), no. 3, 3–14.

External links[]

• The dictionary definition of threnody at Wiktionary