swan song

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"The singing swan" (1655) by Reinier van Persijn.

The phrase "swan song" is a reference to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely mute during its lifetime until the moment just before it dies, when it sings one beautiful song.^[1]

Mute Swans are not actually mute during life – they produce snorts, shrill noises, grunts, and hisses – and they do not sing as they die. Peterson et al. note that Cygnus olor is "not mute but lacks bugling call, merely honking, grunting, and hissing on occasion."^[2] Already since antiquity this folktale has been contested. In A.D. 77. Pliny the Elder refuted it in Natural History (book 10, chapter xxxii: olorum morte narratur flebilis cantus, falso, ut arbitror, aliquot experimentis), stating: "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false".

Nevertheless, the folktale has remained so appealing that over the centuries it has continued to appear in various artistic works. Aesop's fable of "The Swan Mistaken for a Goose" alludes to it: "The swan, who had been caught by mistake instead of the goose, began to sing as a prelude to its own demise. His voice was recognized and the song saved his life."^[3] Ovid mentions it in "The Story of Picus and Canens": "There, she poured out her words of grief, tearfully, in faint tones, in harmony with sadness, just as the swan sings once, in dying, its own funeral song."^[4]

The well-known Orlando Gibbons madrigal (The Silver Swan) states the legend thus:

Chaucer wrote of "The Ialous swan, ayens his deth that singeth".^[5] In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Portia exclaims "Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music."^[6]

Tennyson's poem "The Dying Swan"^[1] is a poetic evocation of the beauty of the supposed song and so full of detail as to imply that he had actually heard it:

Idiom

By extension, "swan song" has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment. It generally carries the connotation that the performer is aware that this is the last performance of his or her lifetime, and is expending everything in one magnificent final effort.

Agatha Christie's famous mystery novel And Then There Were None includes, as a plot device, a gramophone record entitled "Swan Song." When played, it accuses the houseguests and servants of murders that, for various reasons, they were not punished for. The killer intends to punish the wicked as a final act.

Robert R. McCammon's book entitled Swan Song tells the story of a young girl in a post-apocalyptic world who will be the savior of the human race.

Anton Chekhov's first play is a one-act sketch entitled "Swan Song", which he wrote in 1887. It is about an actor and a prompter who find themselves locked into a theatre late at night, discussing the actor's past in his career.

Examples in the musical community

Good examples in recent years can be found from popular rock bands who make advance announcements of "final" farewell tours, or a final performance. Often, the band would disband for decades only to reunite, however, an excellent example of a true swan song concert would be that of The Band, who performed nearly non-stop for many of their years together, on the road, barring motorcycle accidents, legal or medical problems, from the 1960s, until 1976, when one member, Robbie Robertson, announced to the others that he could no longer continue traveling, and conceived a final performance with movie producer Martin Scorsese, to film their final concert performance together as a movie with special musical guests, on Thanksgiving night, in San Francisco, dubbed, The Last Waltz.

A posthumous collection of songs by Franz Schubert is customarily referred to as the Schwanengesang (German for swan song).

The goth rock band Cradle of Filth also makes references to a swan song in many of their songs, and Hollywood Undead's first album was called "Swan Songs".

References