Henryk Górecki, "Symphony No. 3"

This work was a favorite of my late husband, Steven Vincent, a journalist killed in Iraq in 2005, a place he was in as a direct result of the 9-11 attacks. I still remember him listening to it, eyes closed, moved to an occasional tear as he responded to the deep and abiding sorrow and grief so implicit in every note, in the haunting voice of the singer. Also also known as the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs", the first movement is taken from a 15th century lament, the second uses the actual words of a teenage girl, Helena Błazusiak, which she wrote on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell, the third incorporates a Silesian folk song describing the pain of a mother searching for a son killed in war. The piece is haunting, elegiac and soaringly beautiful, a fitting tribute to the lost of 9-11.

Lisa Ramaci