This is one the earliest successful sound mass pieces that comes to mind. I consider the piece successful for several reasons:
1) Complete chaos is achieved. Imagine an atomic bomb going off and try to conceive of the terror that would course through a person's body who was in the vicinity. This is a musical encapsulation of that emotion.
2) Penderecki was trying to create a dissonance more striking than standard western tunings were/are able to create. His use of quarter tone pitches allow for a denser tone cloud, and the sense of instability and unease to be greatly heightened.
3) The distribution of sound back and forth creates the illusion of mass panic.
I doubt it possible to hear this piece for a first time and not have an increased heart rate!
Listening to this piece 5o years after it was written isn't the same as it must of been hearing it for the first time in 1960. So many of the then new-ish extended techniques Penderecki was using have long been over used these past 5 decades. Many of the sounds even come off as a little cliche and perhaps taken from a 1970's horror movie.
If you're looking for a catastrophic piece that sounds like Armageddon might sound, look no further. Also, I think it important for musicians to be acquainted with the piece from a purely historical-importance perspective.
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