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Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Henryk Górecki (1933–2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Górecki was a leading figure in the Polish avant-garde. The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is his most famous piece of music. It is a symphony in three movements. The first is a 15th-century Polish lament of Mary, mother of Jesus, the second a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II, and the third a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her son killed by the Germans in the Silesian uprisings.[3] The first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and the second movement from that of a child separated from a parent. The dominant themes of the symphony are motherhood and separation through war. The piece itself has often been considered to be theological in nature, possessing an underlying response to the terror of Auschwitz and the agony of the Jewish people.

This reflection is the 2nd movement of the album. I recommend listening in a darkened room, with good speakers (basically, not through your smart phone).