Gdzieżeście?! [Where Are You?!] for soprano and piano to words by the composer himself (1932)

Vocal-instrumental and vocal works

dedication: –

duration: ca 2’

manuscript: Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, Manuscript Department, National Library, no. IV 14313 akc. 020704

premiere: [a list of compositions made in October 1946 features a note by Mycielski: performed Paris, France, Belgium, Poland; these may have been Maria Modrakowska’s vocal recital; the song Bitter Bay combined with Where Are You?! may have been performed as Two Melodies/Deux Mélodies in Paris, 17 November 1933, Maria Modrakowska – soprano, Léon Kartun – piano]

Completed in September 1932 to words by the composer himself, Gdzieżeście?! was originally meant to be combined with another song, Gorzka zatoka [Bitter Bay], composed at more or less the same time to words by Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. The two pieces were performed as Two Songs / Two Melodies in November 1933 in Paris by Maria Modrakowska, accompanied on the piano by Léon Kartun.

Gdzieżescie?!, manuscript. Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, National Library

Zygmunt Mycielski consulted Gdzieżeście?! with both Paul Dukas, during the composition course at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, and with Karol Szymanowski, during one of Mycielski’s visits to Zakopane. Both mentors were delighted with the sound effect achieved, as the composer informed his mother:

On Monday I took [...] my things to Dukas. He really liked Gdzieżeście” (letter of 22/23 November 1932); “I saw immediately that [Szymanowski] suddenly got all the meaning of my score, with that brilliant intuition of a man ‘who knows it all.

(letter of 5 May 1934)

Gdzieżescie?!, manuscript. Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, National Library

The composer uses some bold tonal and harmonic solutions here: the soprano part, recorded without key signatures (although accidental modifications do appear in it), is juxtaposed with the accompaniment part featuring four flats.

However, the presence of key accidentals does not determine key progression – both parts are tonally ambiguous, supported as they are by centralising ostinato steps of A flat-E flat fifths in the lower register of the piano.

The flowing nature of the soprano’s rhythmic line is a direct result of the natural rhythm of the words. The narrative progresses to the climactic cry of “Gdzieżeście?!” [Where are you?!], which, like an echo, is repeated in a coda that surprisingly harmonises the two parts in an E flat major triad.