threnody

Of course, “the unspeakable horror of the literary life” — to borrow Mr. Earbrass’s phrase from Edward Gorey’s “The Unstrung Harp” — is a familiar threnody in the writing biz.

From Washington Post ● May 25, 2022

The threnody, in particular, is a much-studied example of startling emotional effects created from abstract concepts.

From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2020

A threnody for strings, rich in aching suspensions, appears twice, first to lament the deaths of millions and later to mark a more personal loss.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 1, 2016

He can still drag tears from hardened hacks with his Song for Richard Collopy, a threnody for his late guitar restorer, whose devastation lies in its affectionate detail.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 7, 2012

Then we heard the Muses sing a threnody in nine immortal voices.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

On “From Ukraine, For Ukraine,” a darkly brilliant new omnibus album by the cutting-edge Kyiv label Standard Deviation, grief and rage melt into impudently beautiful contemporary threnodies.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2022

By fusing gay rage and sorrow with familiar musical gestures—Straussian orchestral explosions, Samuel Barber-like threnodies for strings—it ennobled a portion of the population for which many orchestra subscribers might have felt disgust.

From The New Yorker ● May 30, 2019

Gazing at demagoguery, environmental ruin and intimate betrayal, Thom Yorke croons threnodies, not lullabies.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2016

The nation that was once the world's most famous optimist began to shuffle around in a bathrobe, feeling mediocre and depleted, listening to threnodies by the Club of Rome.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sometimes the strings are smitten by harsh hands Of anger, doubt, and frowning jealousies; And sometimes are drawn forth sad threnodies For dear Love dead.

From His Lady of the Sonnets by Robert W. Norwood