Written in Elisavetgrad in the spring and summer of 1918, Four Songs Op. 41 continue the Oriental current in Szymanowski's music, marked by works such as Love Songs of Hafiz Op. 26 and Songs of a Fairytale Princess Op. 31. Four Songs, dedicated to Szymanowski's sister Stanisława Szymanowska-Bartoszewicz, set Hans Effenberger's German translation of erotic poems from The Gardener cycle by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. The poems were then translated into Polish by Szymanowski's cousin and would-be major writer, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. A letter by Szymanowski explains the importance which he attached to the text:
I would strongly desire for the translation to be prosodically (metrically) faithful. Otherwise it would be difficult to sing and a number of notes would need to be changed. Furthermore, specific words (psychologically important ones) should as far as possible appear in the same places.1
The music of the Songs matches the melody and expressiveness of words and follows the poems' ardent feelings and confessions. The mood is romantic and lyrical (song No. 1 Mein Herz / My Heart), wistful (songs Nos. 2 and 3 Der junge Prinz / The Young Prince), melancholic and sad (parting with the beloved one in song No. 4 Das letzte Lied / The Last Song). The style is marked by simple sound, sophisticated harmony and an occasional splash of Oriental colour in the melody.
Four Songs Op. 41 were first published by Universal Edition in 1920. Of the several recordings, of particular note is the one by Dorothy Dorow and Rudolf Jansen from 1990 (Etcetera / Helikon) and, more recently, by Urszula Kryger and Reinild Mees (Channel Classics, 2004).
Notes:
1 Karol Szymanowski. Korespondencja / Letters, Vol. I: 1903-1919, p. 544, letter to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz of 18th August 1918, ed. Teresa Chylińska, PWM, Kraków 1982.
Author: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska, September 2007.