The Silver Swan (song)

The Silver Swan is probably the most famous madrigal by Orlando Gibbons. It is scored for 5 voices (in most sources, soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T), baritone (Bar) and bass (B), although some specify SSATB instead) and presents the legend that swans sing only just before their deaths (see swan song).

History and text

The song was first published in Gibbons's First Set of Madrigals and Motets of 5 parts (1612). Gibbons dedicated this collection to his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton (1581–1619). It was normal at this time for composers to seek aristocratic patronage, and for example Hatton's brother-in-law Henry Fanshawe had a set of madrigals dedicated to him the following year by his composer in residence John Ward. By Gibbons' own account, he used Hatton's London house as a place to compose. Hatton appears to have selected the texts used in the collection:[1] the authors of only some of the songs have been identified.

The anonymous lyrics of The Silver Swan are as follows:

The silver Swan, who, living, had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
"Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
 More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise."

The last line has been taken as a comment on the demise of the English madrigal form or, more generally, on the loss of the late Elizabethan musical tradition.

Music

Commenting on the musical form, Philip Ledger notes that "in common with the lute-song, and unlike any true madrigal, it has two musical sections, the second one repeated, and new words are provided for this repeat".

Though composed as a madrigal, The Silver Swan is, in modern times, often performed as a song for chamber choir. It is also performed as a song for soprano and viol consort.

Other settings of the poem

The words to this madrigal have been set to music by the following composers and groups:

  • Gary Bachlund (1966), for a cappella SATB chorus.[2]
  • Garth Baxter, from Three Madrigals (for voice and piano, voice and guitar, or SATB).[2][3]
  • John Musto (1987), from Canzonettas for high voice or medium voice and piano.[4]
  • Ned Rorem (1949), for high voice and piano.[2]
  • Qntal (2006), on their album Qntal V: Silver Swan.[5]
  • Lori Laitman (2007), for voice and piano, or voice, flute and piano. Recordings available on Within These Spaces and Living in the Body.
  • Oliver Tarney (2018), for SSA and piano from the secular upper-voices anthology As you sing.[6]

Notes
  1. Vining, Paul. “Gibbons and His Patrons”. The Musical Times, vol. 124, no. 1689, 1983, pp. 707–709. Accessed via JSTOR 18 June 2020 (subscription required)
  2. "The Silver Swan". The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Page. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  3. http://garthbaxter.org/instruments/vocal.html
  4. "The Silver Swan". Peer Music, The Global Independent. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  5. "Qntal V: Silver Swan – Qntal". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. Ferris, Neil; Tomlinson, Joanna, eds. (10 August 2018). As you sing: 9 secular concert works for upper voices. Songbird. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780193524217.

References

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