There is a real extraordinary moving document – Polish film ‘Holocaust – a music memorial from Auschwitz ’ (2005).
For the first time since permission was granted for music to be heard in Auschwitz and musicians were brought there to perform music for the film.
Orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia conducted by John Axelrod played in Nazi camp Auschwitz (Oswiecim
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdaraian (Armenian heritage born in Lebanon
It’s raining, dark and cold… Music and dramatic woman’s voice overwhelms us.
This second part of Symphony uses the words of a teenage girl, Helena Blazusiak, which she wrote on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell, to invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary.
Composer took an inscription etched on the wall of a cell of a Gestapo prison in Zakopane town, which lies at the foot of the Tatra mountains in southern Poland
It read - O Mamo nie placz nie, Niebios Przeczysta Krolowo Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie
Oh Mamma do not cry, Immaculate Queen of Heaven support me always.
The composer recalled:
"I have to admit that I have always been irritated by grand words, by calls for revenge. Perhaps in the face of death I would shout out in this way. But the sentence I found is different, almost an apology or explanation for having got herself into such trouble, she is seeking comfort and support in simple, short but meaningful words. 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."
But this girl, whom fate is unknown taught me special humility.
Gorecki has said of the work and he prefers to be viewed in a wider context: "Many of my family died in concentration camps. I had a grandfather who was in Dachau , an aunt in Auschwitz . You know how it is between Poles and Germans. But Bach was a German too, and Schubert, and Strauss. Everyone has his place on this little earth. That's all behind me. So the Third Symphony is not about war; it's not a Dies Irae; it's a normal Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.”
These are beautiful and the most important words.
Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki
(born December 6, 1933 in Silesia , Poland
The Sorrowful Songs are symphony in three parts composed by Henryk Górecki in 1976.
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs released to commemorate the memory of Poles lost during the Holocaust, became a worldwide commercial and critical success, selling more than a million copies.
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 second part is a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II According to the composer, "I wanted the second movement to be of a highland character, not in the sense of pure folklore, but the climate of Podhale.
I wanted the girl's monologue as if hummed … on the one hand almost unreal, on the other towering over the orchestra."
The third part is a Silesian folk song of mother searching for son killed in the Silesian uprisings (1921).
The Sorrowful Songs was used in many films including for example - Peter Weir’s Fearless and Julian Schnabel’s - Basquiat.
