Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
by Krzysztof Penderecki
Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, 1945
Native nameTren – ofiarom Hiroszimy
Full titlePolish: Tren – ofiarom Hiroszimy na 52 instrumenty smyczkowe (Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments)
Year1961 (1961)
PeriodContemporary, postmodernism
GenreThrenody
StyleSonorism, avant-garde
FormOrchestral piece
DedicationVictims and Hibakusha of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
PublisherPolskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne
Polskie Nagrania Warszawa
Duration8:37
Premiere
Date22 September 1961 (1961-09-22):565
LocationWarsaw Autumn Festival
ConductorAndrzej Markowski:565
PerformersKrakow Philharmonic
Symphony Orchestra
ISWC T-905.954.212-0
Awards
  4th Place:202
UNESCO Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs (1961)

  3rd Degree
Polish Ministry of Culture and Art Award (1962)

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, also translated as Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (Polish: Tren – ofiarom Hiroszimy), is a musical composition for 52 string instruments composed in 1961 by Krzysztof Penderecki. Dedicated to the residents and hibakusha who were killed or wounded in Hiroshima during the first-ever wartime usage of an atomic weapon, Penderecki's threnody won the Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs UNESCO prize in 1961.