Friday, March 8, 2024

THE SILVER SWAN BY ORLANDO GIBBONS

 The Silver Swan BY ORLANDO GIBBONS


The silver swan, who living had no note, 

When death approached, unlocked her silent throat; 

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, 

Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more: 

“Farewell, all joys; Oh death, come close mine eyes; 

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.”

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signature written in ink in a flowing script


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvl9cZMzi5

Orlando Gibbons (bapt. 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd,[2] but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.


     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Gibbons


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TheSilverSwanrlandoGibbons

The Silver Swan by Orlando Gibbons


The Silver Swan

BY ORLANDO GIBBONS

The silver swan, who living had no note, 

When death approached, unlocked her silent throat; 

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, 

Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more: 

“Farewell, all joys; Oh death, come close mine eyes; 

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.”


December 25, 1583 – June 5, 1625


Orlando Gibbons (born 1583, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. —died June 5, 1625, Canterbury, Kent) was an organist and composer, one of the last great figures of the English polyphonic school.


https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orlando-Gibbons


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50405/the-silver-swan


Two Performances:  

1.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8kUlKE10-E



2.

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When Life has lost its satisfying charms, I go about my life as in a trance, And wait for Death to hold me his arms. And lead me in my last ...