Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
In 1976 skryf Henryk Górecki sy derde simfonie, ook bekend as “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. Dit bestaan uit drie bewegings. Almal stadig. Die eerste en derde bewegings word geskryf uit die perspektief van ‘n moeder wat ‘n kind verloor het. Die tweede beweging verteenwoordig ‘n kind wat deur oorlog van haar moeder verwyder is, se perspektief. Hierdie beweging se woorde is ‘n gebed van Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna, ‘n 18-jarige meisie, wat sy teen die muur van die Gestapo tronksel geskryf het in 1944 toe sy deur die Nazis gevang is.
Górecki het later verduidelik hoekom juis hierdie gebed hom opgeval het:
In prison, the whole wall was covered with inscriptions screaming out loud: ‘I’m innocent’, ‘Murderers’, ‘Executioners’, ‘Free me’, ‘You have to save me’—it was all so loud, so banal. Adults were writing this, while here it is an eighteen-year-old girl, almost a child. And she is so different. She does not despair, does not cry, does not scream for revenge. She does not think about herself; whether she deserves her fate or not. Instead, she only thinks about her mother: because it is her mother who will experience true despair. This inscription was something extraordinary. And it really fascinated me.
