Tonight, due to the sadness of a long-suffering friend, I find myself reflecting very much on the troubles of this life.
To console myself somewhat, I turn to one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, inspired by great human suffering.
This classical music video is taken from the second movement of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3. The vocals are sung with incredible passion by Dawn Upshaw.
Górecki has maintained that the overall work is about the ties between mother and child. (One might add to that the qualifier "broken by war.")
However, the second movement particularly was inspired by a prayer to the Virgin Mary scribbled by an 18-year old girl, Helena Wanda Blazusiakowna, on a Gestapo cell wall in the Polish town of Zakopane. She would later die there.
This particular piece of the symphony is often associated with Holocaust memorials, and was even performed at Auschwitz for a documentary film.
It is still one of my favorite pieces of music.
As I listen to it, I wonder what is it about suffering that draws beauty, even sometimes incredible, ethereal beauty such as this, into this world. And, why does it have to be that way?
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