"Eternal Songs", Op.10 - Symphonic Poem

THE ETERNAL SONGS SYMPHONIC POEM, OP. 10 (Odwieczne pieśni, published in French under the title Chant éternel) is the second work in this genre in Mieczyslaw Karłowicz's oeuvre. It is a musical expression of the composer's philosophy, an apotheosis of the Nature Universe. The symphonic poem is in tripartite, in a musical form unusual for this programme genre, the individual movements being titled 'songs'. I. The Song Of Eternal Longing; Ii. The Song Of Love And Death; Iii. The Song Of Universal Existence. The composer's only additional literary notes are the epigraphs to the first and last movements, Behold, I stand before thee to mourn my fate... and Greatness, power, majesty, eternity, ruthlessness, necessity. Specific musical themes are designated as the theme of resignation and the theme of inconsolable longing. Despite its cyclical nature, the symphonic poem is unified in conception; the individual movements are linked by the motif of universal death that appears in each movement. The first part of the cycle expresses the incessant feeling of longing. Some feelings are clearly defined, but others are indescribable, characterized by frustration, searching, and nostalgia. The second movement is inspired by Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and is characterised by two main musical ideas: the love theme and the theme of death, for which the composer uses a Belarusian funeral song. The last movement is the climax of the work, the short melodic and rhythmic motifs are subjected to intense dynamic development. Compared to Karłowicz''s earlier symphonic works, in his second symphonic poem his closeness to German neo-romanticism and Tchaikovsky's symphonism takes on its own individual features.