by composing an ascending whole-tone scale and placing the word ‘Sonne’ on the top of the scale, as the sun is in the sky. The “exotic” text is illustrated with the use of a whole-tone scale, yet the harmony and arc-like shape of the piece reflects more of an influence by the late German romantic school. The next two songs, Die einzige Arzenei (‘The only Medicine’) and Die brennenden Tulpen (‘The flaming Tulips’) share the subject which was a common poetical theme in the Young Poland group, death: the only medicine for the yearning pain of existence. A cyclical, ‘tortured, and highly chromatic progression’ opens the song, illustrating the writhing of someone who is suffering, the obfuscation of a tonal center, and the ‘exotic’ East Orient, through the descending semi-tones used as a symbolic tool by European composers of the time. This motivic element at once reveals the three elements Szymanowski's developing compositional style. One, it bears a striking resemblance to that of the opening of the third song from Debussy’s Les Chansons de Bilitis, ‘Le Tombeau des Naïades,’ or, 'the grave of the water-nymphs', symbolizing the end of Bilitis’ erotic journey through love. However, whereas Debussy, in true impressionistic style uses this motive to paint the ‘impression’ of a forest in wintertime, Szymanowski's use can be interpreted as much more specific, the protagonist writhing in pain. Two, while the tonal center is vague, as in that of an impressionist work, the melody is still broad, searching for the tonic, and thus tonality is still important, and the song indeed ends in both voice and piano in B Major. Again, the shape of the vocal line is an arc, reaching a climax this time on G#. Three, the use of descending semi-tones to depict the exotic is a European idiom that was used by both French composers, such as in Ravel’s Shéhérazade, and German, such as in Strauss’ Salome. Since Szymanowski would not travel to the East until 1914, these secondary influences were what he channeled to express his fascination with the exotic. The melody of Die brennenden Tulpen combines the use of semi-tones for color, rather than to embellish a tonal center and whole-tone scales, which avoid a tonal center for their lack of leading tones, to establish the mood of the song, a slow-burning, yet passionate, perpetual fire that continues, even in death. The harmony of the piano