The Silver Swan (song)


The Silver Swan is the most famous madrigal by Orlando Gibbons. It is scored for 5 voices, alto , tenor , baritone and bass and presents the legend that swans sing only just before their deaths.

History and text

The song was first published in Gibbons's First Set of Madrigals and Motets of 5 parts. Gibbons dedicated this collection to his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton. 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: the authors of only some of the songs have been identified.
The anonymous lyrics of The Silver Swan are as follows:
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: