threnody

plural threnodies · alternative rare threnedy

1. A song or poem of lamentation or mourning for a dead person; a dirge; an elegy.

   […] in the case of the well-circumstanced narration of the contest at Salamis and of the choral ode, which[…] is, in its panoramic marshalling of the conquests of Darius, a threnody on the ruin of his sea empire.

   1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “III. The Persians”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 84

   2 more examples

   The fifer actually knew but one tune "The Bonnie Blue Flag"—and did not know that well. But it was all that he had, and he played it with wearisome monotony for every camp call. . . . I never hated any piece of music as I came to hate that threnody of treason.

   1879, John McElroy, chapter 44, in Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons

   A strongly personal note runs through Kenneth Leighton's Improvisation (Novello, 35p), which is a threnody in memory of Maurice de Sausmārez. Gently undulating, cantabile lines of ‘mourning’ alternate with sharp, anguished note-clusters which work up to a fierce paroxysm of grief.

   1973, Ann Bond, “New Organ Music”, in The Musical Times, volume 114, number 1565, page 741

   Synonyms: dirge, elegy, lamentation