An emotional provoking song

Krzysztof Penderecki- Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

When I think of moments when music profoundly changed my emotional state, I think of one song in particular; Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki. Many of you will not know this song since this piece is a bit unusual. To me, it is one of the most unnerving and most uncomfortable songs I have ever listened to. By far, the emotional provocation this song had on me was one of the most memorable I have experienced. Whats brilliant about Krzysztof Penderecki is he created this piece using only 52 stringed instruments, nothing else. Therefore all the sounds you hear in this come from only stringed instruments. First, lets start with the frame of where i listened to this. Junior year in high school our choir director Karl Thompsen showed us this song to make a point that emotions can be provoked using solely instruments. To paint the picture, we were in a large square room with choir risers on one half of the room and Mr. Thompsen's computer desk on the other. When he showed us this song, he gave us directions to sit down on the risers and close our eyes, turned off the lights and played the song. When the song started (a sign), there was a very sharp and scary noise made by the violins. The sound made think of people dying which is the object that the sign represented. This image of dead people made me feel extremely paranoid and literally sent chills down my spine (interpretant). The noise perpetuated in the room and persisted for several minutes, switching up tempo, tuning and volume. at this point, everyone in the room had their eyes open and showed levels of discomfort. The song sounded like a myriad of shrills and screams coming from the victims (the icon associated with this song). As the song still played in the back drop, my mind wondered off to scary thoughts. I thought of a time in my life where i had a similar distressing feeling which was when i watched a television series about war called "The Pacific". Although "The Pacific" was an enjoyable WWII show, some of the images in it made me have a distressed feeling. Long story short, this instrumental piece serves an index to the time where I felt distressed while watching a gruesome show. So now when I listen to this song, it reminds me of war and the torment that comes with it. Even though this musical piece doesn't have any lyrics, certain words act as symbols to this song. As the song was nearing end, I thought about words like freedom, death, pain, and sorrow (all of which are symbols that this song represents). By analyzing the semiotics of this song, the reason because clear as to howPenderecki was able to evoke so much emotion and discomfort in me.