''Masques'', Op. 34 is a work for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

written by

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early w ...

from 1915 to 1916. In 1914, the composer took refuge in his home village in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and remained there until the Russian Revolution. He had returned from a long stay in Europe, Sicily and North Africa, where he drew his inspiration for these years' works. Here his style approached the

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

and inaugurated a series of

program music Program music or programmatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program not ...

, a literary source, with his '' Myths for violin and piano'', contemporaries of his ''

Métopes ''Métopes'', Op. 29, is a work for piano solo by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, completed in 1915. It is a suite of three miniature tone poems drawing on Greek mythology. Each of the three movements features a female character encounter ...

'' for piano and his ''Masques''. The three pieces that compose the work offer access to three major myths of the Western imagination, whereas his ''Métopes'' focused on

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

. The ''Masques'' were written in a different chronological order from that of their publication, with ''Scheherazade'' initially completing the cycle. ''Tantris'' is a corruption of ''Tristan'', taken from the myth of

Tristan and Iseult Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Of disputed source, usually assumed to be primarily Celtic nations, Celtic, the tale is a ...

and retold in a piece by Ernst Hardt where Tristan masquerades as a jester to meet his sweetheart. Its performance lasts about twenty-five minutes. *''

Schéhérazade Scheherazade () is a major character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' derives f ...

'' *''Tantris le bouffon'' *''Sérénade de Don Juan''

External links

* * , performed by Piotr Anderszewski Compositions by Karol Szymanowski Compositions for solo piano Suites (music) 1916 compositions {{Classical-composition-stub