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This article analyzes the work “The Drum of Agony” (1994) by Panamanian composer Emiliano Pardo Tristán, exploring how the 1989 US military invasion of Panama influenced its creation and its function as a vehicle for historical memory. Using a qualitative methodological approach that integrated a review of literature on music and conflict, a formal analysis of the score, and a structured interview with the composer, the narrative weight of the composition was examined. The results reveal that the work is based on the traditional Panamanian song “The Drum of Joy,” deconstructing its rhythmic and harmonic elements and transforming them into a minor key, specifically D minor. This produces a profound symbolic reinterpretation of the drum, transforming it from a festive icon of national identity into a narrative subject within the work that traverses nostalgia, anguish, and death, embodying a collective mourning. It is concluded that the piece does not seek to acoustically describe the war noise, but the psychological state left by the trauma, so that the work transcends the academic sphere to consolidate itself as an emotional device that contributes to the construction of a Panamanian collective memory.
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