Threnody

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Threnody

threnody: In the original Greek usage, a dirge in the form of a choral ode. Today, any type of dirge.

EXAMPLES: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Threnody” (1846), written on the death of his young son; Depeche Mode’s song “Blasphemous Rumours” (1987); Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind,” originally released in 1973 to commemorate Marilyn Monroe, then rewritten in 1997 and performed at Princess Diana’s funeral. Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (1936), often referred to as a musical threnody, was performed by a number of symphony orchestras in the United States the weekend after 9/11.