Monday, 7th June
Adam Tooze. Chartbook 451 What times are these? Crying fire in a Berlin lecture theatre.
(https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/what-times-are-these (6th June 2026))
Tooze writes,
“As I scan the news, the tones that form in my head are not a tune.
Even Penderecki’s Threnody would seem too orderly, too orchestrated, too clearly theatrical.”
It is interesting that when contemporary thinkers and writers of a certain age and education seek to find a musical parallel to events or conditions of the current era that they may be writing about or generally referencing, they tend towards composers and their music (typically Classical or Contemporary Classical) that may be from a past cultural period very different than that of today.
Here for example Threnody by Penderecki (Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments) was written in 1961. Few young people outside those who have studied music of that time would grasp the significance of the work in the context of the quote. The quote suggests a chaos, a disarray, a confusion inherent today that is beyond how that work sounds. Considering it was composed in a style congruous with post-war classical music aesthetics, and for a particular traumatic historical moment with horrendous repercussions, today it is possible that the work in light of the current state of the world, does feel less impactful. Like someone crying in an arena of 40000 people during a Heavy Metal concert. Any observation of that which might elicit emotion might be a solitary, incongruous commiseration.
It also seems to be a reference for those inclined toward a particular European perspective of analytical and historical thinking. It evokes the gravitas of a Western intellectual thought. Yet, the 'theatricality' is performative, not entirely affectation in that arguably it is required to achieve the sound.
Otherwise, why not a contemporary work by a Rapper or other Pop-culture artist commenting on a particular moment in the broader media culture? Probably because most of the work I those genres includes text or at least a verb commentary. Not abstract, albeit instrumental, sound alone.
