Harald Genzmer

Music of Mourning GeWV 412

Funeral music plays an important role in music history for the articulation of grief and sorrow is an essential task of music. The important German organ composer Harald Genzmer (born in 1909) wrote his 'Musik der Trauer' in 2001, deeply affected by the death of his wife. The music is full of emotion and sentiment, expressing grief, sorrow, desperation, but also fierce rebellion against the inescapability of fate. At the end, the motif 'Christ ist erstanden' can be heard as an expression of Christian hope.