This particular piece of music is part of a larger work (Symphony #3) which is also known a "The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs." In this very unusual symphonic treatment, the composer weaves texts for a soprano soloist within the texture of an orchestra.This movement uses as a text, an inscription on a cell wall in a Gestapo office in Zadopane, Poland during WWII:
No, Mother, do not weep,
Most chaste Queen of Heaven
Support me always.
"Zdrowas Mario." (*)
(*) "Zdrowas Mario" (Ave Maria)—the opening of the Polish prayer to the Holy Mother
Beneath this inscription is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words "18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944."
It is a beautiful, poigniant work. The whole symphony is amazing.
Henryk Gorecki – Symphony No. 3: II. Lento E Largo - Tranquillissimo
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