I finished the course section of melody with some delays, but I really enjoyed the variety of music I looked at in the listening log, so I will continue to mix it up with pieces outside of the particular course material I’m working on. However, this is the first of a few posts to follow focused on Rounds, Descants, and Polyphony.
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)1 was a renowned English composer and organist of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His collection of works titled The First Set of Madrigals and Motets, published in 1612 and containing the famous madrigal The Silver Swan, was well regarded in its day and had wide print and distribution runs. The Silver Swan‘s lyrics are not known to have been composed by Gibbons himself, but they deal with the idea of a swan’s song, which is only heard once and just before death.
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 piece The Silver Swan was not intended by Gibbons to be sung as a musical round, however the recording below by the King’s Singers shows how the melody can be adapted for this format. This particular round has three cycles:
The harmony is in the D Aeolian or natural minor mode, with allowance for a V7 modulation away from the mode to resolve back to D minor. The cycles come in on the 8th and 16th measures, and interestingly the ending of the phrases (on the words throat, more, and wise) are generally sang in unison, but the paths to arrive at this note from the different voices is unique to their own phrase.
References: 1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orlando-Gibbons Recording: Gibbons, O., The King's Singers. 2012. "The Silver Swan" Royal Rhymes and Rounds. Middlesex: Signum Records Gibbons, O., The King's Singers. 2012. "The Silver Swan (Round)" Royal Rhymes and Rounds. Middlesex: Signum Records