Songs Op. 1, 3, 4 and without opus number
for voice and piano, Works vol. 1
The songs of Mieczysław Karłowicz appeared in the history of Polish song as a rather unusual phenomenon. In the output of this outstanding symphonist – as youthful works – they formed an anacrusis, albeit a significant one, to his fully mature and masterful output. Nearly all of them were written over the course of a single year. Composed on the margins of his academic course in composition, they appear to represent a document of deeply personal feelings and thoughts, seismographically recording his current states of mind.
Of the twenty-nine songs known to have existed, twenty-two have come down to us; the seven unpublished works, some merely sketched, were lost during the Second World War. Overlooking a couple of them, of a separate character, they form a remarkably coherent body of work. On closer inspection, it turns out that this cohesion of a distinctive character marks the whole of Karłowicz’s oeuvre. The symphonic poems of the composer of Eternal songs are set within the same space of ideas and meanings as the songs; they are marked by analogous categories of expression. And it is a space which the composer’s main biographer, Adolf Chybiński, described as ‘teeming with tragedy and boundless woe, resignation and a longing for another world’.
In terms of the style of utterance, Mieczysław Karłowicz’s songs – although deeply rooted in late Romantic style – have often been described as output standing on the threshold of a modernist phase.
Zdzisław Jachimecki wrote in 1930: ‘A warm lyrical note in many of them, a genuine inspiration manifested in the very natural way in which the melodies are drawn, unsophisticated forms of accompaniment, which are nevertheless suited to the mood of the poetry in question and organically linked to the song, and the accomplished declamation and construction of these works have earned Karłowicz’s songs deserved popularity in Polish singing circles.’
From the Preface by M. Tomaszewski
- Editor: Leszek Polony
- Introduction by: Mieczysław Tomaszewski
- Series: Karłowicz - Works
- ISMN 9790274017231
- Language of edition: eng, ger, pol
- Number of pages: 82
- Cover: hardcover
- Published: 2016
- Type: score
- Size: N4 vertical (235x305 mm)
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Czasem, gdy długo na pół sennie marzę |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Idzie na pola Op. 3/3 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Mów do mnie jeszcze Op. 3/1 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Na Anioł Pański |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Na spokojnem, ciemnem morzu Op. 3/4 |
| Adam Asnyk (tłum. F. Evers) | Najpiękniejsze piosenki (Meine schoensten Lieder) Op. 4 |
| Jan Iwański | Nie płacz nade mną Op. 3/7 |
| Jan Iwański | Nie płacz nade mną Op. 3/7 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Pamiętam ciche, jasne, złote dnie Op. 1/5 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Po szerokiem, po szerokiem morzu Op. 3/9 |
| słowa ludowe (tłum. Ella von Schultz-Adaiewsky) | Pod jaworem (Unterm Ahorn) |
| Zygmunt Krasiński | Przez nocą wieczną Op. 3/6 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Rdzawe liście strząsa z drzew |
| Juliusz Słowacki | Skąd pierwsze gwiazdy Op. 1/2 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Smutną jest dusza moja Op. 1/6 |
| Heinrich Heine (tłum. M. Konopnicka) | Śpi w blaskach nocy (Im Mondenglanze) Op. 3/5 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | W wieczorną ciszę Op. 3/8 |
| Józef Waśniewski | Z erotyków (I zamiast słońc i gwiazd) Op. 3/2 |
| Czesław Jankowski | Z nową wiosną |
| Adam Asnyk | Zaczarowana królewna Op. 3/10 |
| Kazimierz Gliński | Zasmuconej Op. 1/1 |
| Kazimierz Tetmajer | Zawód Op. 1/4 |
