Michigan 1980, Revised Edition, pp. 140, form. 16 x 23.5, hardcover with wrapper, wrapper scuffed at edges, author's 1982 dedication on title page.
Lyrical drama dedicated to Anna and Stanislaw Oswiecim. ''A Polish travesty of Romeo and Juliet,'' Karlowicz called his fourth symphonic poem in a letter to Adolf Chybinski dated April 2, 1907, concealing the title of the new work from his musicologist friend at first. ''I was prompted to choose this theme by the tragic beauty of the legend of a brother's unhappy love for his sister,'' he later wrote in another letter. It is very possible that the composer's personal experiences played an important role in inspiring Stanislaw and Anna Oswiecim: his passionate youthful love for his cousin Ludka Sniadecka. Such a suggestion was made in his memoirs about Karlowicz by the composer's friend Stanislaw Szumowski. In any case, the thought of this legend had been carried around by the composer for many years, more or less since 1892, when he saw Stanislaw Bergmann in Krakow Stanislaw Oświecim by Anna's corpse. In a brief synopsis of the legend, given to Viennese listeners of the work, the composer wrote these words: '' The two ignited a passionate love for each other, but realizing this sinful feeling they fought against it, but in vain. (...) The chapel in Krosno hides the corpse of a loving couple who did not know happiness on earth and who were reunited only by death''.