Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Silver Swan + Dithyramb

Video Find of the Day

Best English song of the 17th Century!

The Silver Swan who, living, had no note,
When death approach'd, unlock'd her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, And sung no more:
"Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes.
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise."

-- Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625

You get all that, PLUS, an excerpt from Victor Paranjoti's Dravidian Dithyramb, a choral piece written to resemble a form of Hindu classical music. The composer described it as "… an expression of uninhibited festivity. An elusive but persistent pulse motivates the music, which is based on mere fragments of melody – driving onward faster and faster towards the final frenzied utterance."

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