The orchestral triptych Eternal Songs [Odwieczne piesni], Op. 10 – the second symphonic poem in the Karlowicz oeuvre after Returning Waves [Powracajace fale] – was written from October 1904 to February 1906. That period was longer than originally intended: from Karlowicz’s correspondence with Adolf Chybinski, we learn that he had meant to finish the poem by the summer of 1905, but was hampered by his work at the Warsaw Music Society.

Thus Eternal Songs is the fullest manifestation of the composer’s pantheistic credo, a musical expression of his philosophy, an apotheosis of Nature-Universe. The principal element defining the expression, character and form of Eternal Songs is the titular idea of song, and so lyrical utterance, with its characteristic primacy of songful melody.

The triptych Eternal Songs proved to be Karlowicz’s last work published during his lifetime. He published it himself, through the firm of Gebethner & Co. in Cracow, and it was printed by Josef Eberle of Vienna. On 14 January 1909, and so less than a month before his tragic death, Karlowicz wrote from Zakopane to Gebethner & Co. about the price of the score and the parts fixed by the firm’s central office in Warsaw and about the conditions for the work’s performance.