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The Recorded History of a Madrigal: The Silver Swan (Orlando Gibbons, 1612)

2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of one of England’s best-known composers of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean age, Orlando Gibbons. Born in 1583, he passed away in Canterbury on 5 June 1625 at the age of 41, while he was in attendance with King Charles I and his fellow members of the Chapel Royal awaiting the arrival of the King’s bride, Queen Henrietta Maria, from France.

It was Gibbons’s prowess as a keyboard player that had earned him his exalted positions at church and court, yet he is known to us today as an outstanding composer of sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music. Anthems such as ‘O clap your hands’, ‘This is the record of John’ and ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ remain on the regular music lists of many church choirs in the UK to this day, although it his short madrigal ‘The Silver Swan’ that is arguably his single most enduring legacy. It is a poignant setting of a beautiful poem (anonymous, but just possibly by the composer himself) that perfectly marries the sentiments of the text – inspired by the legend that a swan only starts to sing when it is near to death – to the sweetest harmony.

As a small tribute to Gibbons, we have set up some links to recordings of the madrigal that span almost 100 years. Performance styles evolve, of course, but generations of singers have clearly been deeply moved by their encounter with musical perfection.

Recordings
The English Singers: 1928

*See below for note on The English Singers.

The St George’s Singers, dir. Rev. Dr. E. H. Fellowes: 1929

(The Columbia History of Music by Ear and Eye Volume 1, Part 16, by Percy Scholes)

The Trapp Family Singers, dir. Father Franz Wasner: 1946

Click here to listen to this recording. (Track 2, from 4’58”)

(At Home with the Trapp Family Singers; reissued as ‘Sing Along with the Trapp Family’)

Cambridge University Madrigal Society, dir. Boris Ord: 1946
New England Conservatory Chorus, dir. Lorna Cooke deVaron: 1953

(Music of the Pilgrims)

Deller Consort: 1956
Tallis Scholars, dir. Peter Phillips: 1983
Tessa Bonner, Rose Consort of Viols: 2002
The Sixteen, dir. Harry Christophers: 2013
Arrangements
Swingles II: 1974
Christian Forshaw, with Grace Davidson (soprano): 2021
Florian Ross Quintet, feat. Kristin Berardi: 2018
The English Singers

* The English Singers.

“The group habitually performed seated around a table, which Steuart Wilson initially claimed was the standard practice for singing madrigals in Elizabethan times. It was only years later, after several other madrigal ensembles had adopted the practice in the belief it was authentic, that Wilson admitted that the group’s practice simply was expediency to avoid his having to carry six music stands on public transport across London for rehearsals.”

The renowned English tenor Peter Pears joined the group in 1936.

Further information:

‘English Singers’ Early Recordings Live Again’ by Anne E. Johnson.

Compiled by Angus Smith, Choral Ambassador.

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