Song of the Night (Szymanowski)

Listening Guide.

Song of the Night begins with tranquil strains of the tenor solo accompanied by silvery high strings, before the terrifying magnificence of the night sky of stars and planets evoked in 13th-century mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī’s poem is expressed as thunderous waves crashing on dissonant chords, the full range of timbres sounded from rumbling bass drum to the wails of the sopranos. Aside from the emotive swells and chromatic harmony interspersed with tonal fragments (e.g. at the euphoric return of the chorus and orchestra near the end of the piece, sounding a climatic major chord), Mahler’s sound world can also be heard in the middle section comprising interwoven solo melodies.