"For I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc. . . . Expression has never been an inherent property of music. That is by no means the purpose of its existence. If, as is nearly always the case, music appears to express something, this is only an illusion and not a reality. It is simply an additional attribute which, by tacit and inveterate agreement, we have lent it, thrust upon it, as a label, a convention - in short, an aspect unconsciously or by force of habit, we have come to confuse with its essential being."

from "An Autobiography" by Igor Stravinsky

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"But every now and then composers cottoned on to what 19th-century publishers knew: that titles sell. In 1960 the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki wrote an intense, thoroughly abstract work for 52 strings, which he unsentimentally called '8’37.' It wasn’t until he had heard the work performed that he came up with the title by which it is known today, 'Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.'

When Mr. Penderecki told me this, over lunch about a decade ago, I was stunned. I had always heard the work, with its searing, dissonant string clusters, as a cry of anguish, a composer’s contemplation of the devastation unleashed by the atomic bomb. But when I asked Mr. Penderecki how the title came to him, he first said, 'I don’t know,' and then looked down at his paella.

'I was surrounded by propaganda against the American bomb,' he said after a moment’s silence. 'Living at that time, you know. I did it. And because of the dedication to Hiroshima, certainly, people found this interesting. Because I have other pieces for strings that are not so well known.'

That the title was an opportunistic afterthought, not an indication of Mr. Penderecki’s feelings while writing the work, apparently doesn’t matter."

from the New York Times article "Essay in D: The Critic’s Cogitation About Titles" by Allan Kozinn

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"The 'Threnody' remains the most famous piece he ever wrote, probably, even though it dates from the beginning of his long career.

His choice of title — second title — is somewhat surprising. In 2019, an interviewer, Mark Grigorian, asked Penderecki, 'When you write music, does some plot or story develop in your head, one that you would like to convey through the music?' The composer answered, 'No. For me, music is pure abstraction.'

Of course, the 'Hiroshima' title was after the fact.

A lot of people found, and find, the 'Threnody' political, which is understandable. The title steers a listener. Incidentally, what about the victims of the Nagasaki bombing? Or of countless other bombings, of countless other places by countless other forces? Anyway, 'I don’t write political music,' said Penderecki in the late 1990s. 'Political music is immediately obsolete.' The 'Threnody' endures, he said, 'because it is abstract music,' no matter what the title."

from the National Review article "A Composer Who Matters" by Jay Nordlinger