„My body, charmed and blended into the pageant of life…”: on seeking words for Mieczysław Karłowicz’s eternal song without words

The present article looks at the music of Mieczysław Karłowicz from the perspective of Bolesław Leśmian’s philosophical poetry. The aim of the discussion, however, is not to seek parallel themes or musical transpositions but to capture certain traits of ideological attitude, which is founded on the question about the meaning of human existence. Leśmian’s poetry is characterized by profound meditation on the mystery of existence, by the search for truth about man, and by familiarization with death through discovering its diverse manifestations in art, nature, and in life. His poems show a strong presence of mystical experience, the so-called "oceanic feeling" or "pantheistic experience of unity", which was one of the leading motifs of Young Poland poetry. It was readily utilized by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Jan Kasprowicz, or Antoni Lange. In the symphonic music of Mieczysław Karłowicz we can recognize a similar type of sensitivity and emotional mood that perfectly harmonizes with the spiritual and artistic atmosphere of the period. His works reflect the tendency, characteristic of modernism, to cross boundaries and penetrate the mystery of being. Listening to this "song without words" is at the same time an encouragement to enter the world of values and human experiences, which is usually omitted by scholars in musicological analyses.