During the years of World War I Szymanowski took a strong interest in Eastern religion and art, particularly of Islamic countries. This choral-vocal symphony is certainly a result of that interest, and is one of the finest of Szymanowski's compositions. It is a setting of a poem by a 13th-Century Persian mystic, Jalal'al Din Rumi. Its subject is the beauty of the night and the skies in the clear, dry Middle Eastern air. In the text, Rumi bids his friend not to sleep, but to contemplate the beauties and the stillness of the lovely night. In form, the work is a single extended song in rapturous slow tempi, divided into three movements, of which the fast central section is a purely orchestral interlude.

The symphony is not especially concerned with musical development. Rather, it seeks a freely flowing, stream-of-consciousness expression, and a sense of timelessness. Thus the work emerges indistinctly from a low, quiet bass note, and fades out in much the same way. The harmonic language of the music derives from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde, " and from the music of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. That is, it seeks a feeling of surging passion and ecstasy in music. It is full or voluptuous colors and unusual techniques and combinations of instruments. Sighing string and clarinet glissandi, sparkles of celesta, harp, glockenspiel, and harps contribute to the two major orchestral climaxes. The text is sung by tenor and chorus, although in large portions of the score the chorus is wordless, treated as another color resource of the orchestra. In addition, Szymanowski made effective use of the organ, both for color and for massive sonority. In many respects the nearest thing to this symphony in Western European music at the time is the choral-orchestral music of the English composer Frederick Delius. For its massive orchestral/choral requirements, this work, at under 25 minutes, is rather short as choral-orchestral symphonies go. It is quite well established as a highly respected and very special work. Its performance difficulties, extravagant requirements for tenor, chorus and orchestral players, Polish language, and generally unusual style have, however, kept it as a rather exotic, rare part of the repertory.

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