Swan song

For other uses, see Swan song (disambiguation).

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

The swan song (ancient Greek: κύκνειον ᾆσμα; Latin: carmen cygni) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song just before their death since they have been silent (or alternatively not so musical) for most of their lifetime. The belief, whose basis has been long debated, had become proverbial in ancient Greece by the 5th to 3rd centuries BC and was reiterated many times in later Western poetry and art.

Origin and description

In Greek mythology, the swan was a bird consecrated to Apollo, and it was therefore considered a symbol of harmony and beauty and its limited capabilities as a singer were sublimated to those of songbirds.

Aesop's fable of "The Swan and the Goose" incorporates the swan song legend as saving its life when it was caught by mistake instead of the goose but was recognized by its song. There is a subsequent reference in Aeschylus' Agamemnon (verses 1444–5) from 458 BCE. In that play, Clytemnestra compares the dead Cassandra to a swan who has "sung her last final lament". Plato's Phaedo (84d) records Socrates saying that, although swans sing in early life, they do not do so as beautifully as before they die. Furthermore, Aristotle noted in his History of Animals (615b) that swans "are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death". By the third century BC the belief had become a proverb.

Ovid mentions it in "The Story of Picus and Canens" (Metamorphoses, book XIV:320–396): "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." The swan was also described as a singer in the works of the poets Virgil and Martial.

Ornithological accuracy

The most familiar European swan, the mute swan (Cygnus olor), although not actually mute, is known neither for musicality nor to vocalize as it dies. This has led some to criticize swan song beliefs since antiquity, one of the earliest being Pliny the Elder: in CE 77, Natural History (book 10, chapter xxxii: olorum morte narratur flebilis cantus, falso, ut arbitror, aliquot experimentis), states: "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false." Peterson et al. note that Cygnus olor is "not mute but lacks bugling call, merely honking, grunting, and hissing on occasion."

However, the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), a winter visitor to parts of the eastern Mediterranean, does possess a 'bugling' call, and has been noted for issuing a drawn-out series of notes as its lungs collapse upon expiry, both being a consequence of an additional tracheal loop within its sternum. This was proposed by naturalist Peter Pallas as the basis for the legend. Both mute and whooper swans appear to be represented in ancient Greek and Egyptian art.

The whooper swan's nearest relatives, the trumpeter and tundra swans, share its musical tracheal loop. Zoologist D.G. Elliot reported in 1898 that a tundra swan he had shot and wounded in flight began a long glide down whilst issuing a series of "plaintive and musical" notes that "sounded at times like the soft running of the notes of an octave".

Post-classical cultural references

Chaucer wrote of "The Ialous swan, ayens his deth that singeth." Leonardo da Vinci noted "The swan is white without spot, and it sings sweetly as it dies, that song ending its life."

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." Similarly, in Othello, the dying Emilia exclaims, "I will play the swan, / And die in music."

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

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 poet Martha Marchina in her 1662 book Musa Posthuma turned the theme of the swan song on its head in her poem criticizing Antonius Querenghus. She unfavorably compares the dying, singing swan to Querenghus who constantly sings his own laments and complains about his lot. She suggests that he grows stronger with his complaints rather than dying as the swan does.

"The Swan Song" ("Schwanengesang") is the nickname of the 1733 Baroque Concerto written by Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings and continuo. The concerto of Telemann begins with a sad part (adagio) later a glad part (allegro), the singing of the swan itself, another sad part (death), and finally a hopeful end.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English phrase "swan song" or "swan-song" borrows from the German schwanen(ge)sang or schwanenlied. The Scottish cleric John Willison, in one of his Scripture Sermons, 1747, proposes a verse from Psalm 48 as a "swan-song" for the faithful.

Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard painted Ossian synger sin Svanesang, or Ossian sings his swan song, in 1780–1782.

The last song by the titular Svante Svendsen in the Danish book Svantes Viser, written by Benny Andersen, was titled Svantes Svanesang, or Svantes Swan Song. It was later recorded for the album adaptation of the book, with vocals by the Danish folk singer, Povl Dissing. The song is sometimes performed at funerals.

Schwanengesang ("Swan song"), D 957, is a collection of songs written by Franz Schubert at the end of his life and published posthumously.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge made comic use of the legend when he quipped ironically:

Swans sing before they die— 't were no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.

Tennyson's poem "The Dying Swan" 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:

The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul
Of that waste place with joy
Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear
The warble was low, and full and clear; ...
But anon her awful jubilant voice,
With a music strange and manifold,
Flow’d forth on a carol free and bold;
As when a mighty people rejoice
With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold...

Tennyson's poem was an inspiration for the ballet The Dying Swan, created for Anna Pavlova in 1905 and danced to the music of Le cygne by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944) also wrote a poem called "The Dying Swan", starting "O silver-throated Swan / Struck, struck! A golden dart / Clean through thy breast has gone / Home to thy heart". The poet then urges the swan to sing as defiance against "him who smote", and ends by urging the swan to "even teach / O wondrous-gifted Pain, teach Thou / The God of love, let him learn how". Sturge Moore's poem is later quoted in Elizabeth Goudge's existential Christian novel, The Rosemary Tree (1956) as two men discuss their close experiences of death during World War II.

In Agatha Christie's novel, And Then There Were None, the record in the gramaphone is titled, "Swan Song."

The band Led Zeppelin's record label for the second half of their career was Swan Song Records. Their first five releases were on Atlantic records, the next five were on Swan Song Records.

Swansong is the fifth studio album by English extreme metal band Carcass. It was released on 10 June 1996 in the UK by Earache Records

In the television show Supernatural, the twenty second episode of the fifth season is given the title "Swan Song".

In the 70s American television series Columbo, the seventh episode of season 3 (with the special appearance of Johnny Cash) is given the title "Swan Song".

Swan Song is one of the last tracks on singer Lana Del Rey's album Honeymoon.

The first track of Canadian band Islands' album, Return to the Sea, is entitled Swans (Life After Death).

In the book series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, an organization called the Black Swan use the phrase "swan song" to tell group members that they have been captured or are about to die.

During the end credits of the film Alita: Battle Angel, Dua Lipa's song titled Swan Song is played.

In the fifth season of the American tv show Once Upon a Time, the eleventh episode is titled ″Swan Song″.

The Japanese anime Symphogear incorporates the concept of swan song in the series. The protagonists, also known as Wielders, are capable of enhancing their overall combat performance by singing. The "swan song" is a song used as a last resort, meant to enhance combat prowess beyond acceptable limits, at the same time fatally or mortally wounding the user. This in turn can lead to temporary or permanent incapacitation, or even death.

Swan Songs is the name of the third album of the South Korean alternative hip hop trio Epik High. The album was intended to be their last, because of the poor performance of the prior albums. Instead it became a big success and a stepping stone for the following career of the group.

By extension, "swan song" has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment. For example, an athlete that wins a championship or breaks records in their final season are sometimes said to have had a "swan song season."

Examples:

• Ray Bourque winning the Stanley Cup in 2001, his final season in the NHL.
• David Bowie's Blackstar, released just 2 days before his death from liver cancer in 2016.
• J Dilla's Donuts was produced largely in the hospital bed where he died 3 days after release.
• Kobe Bryant scoring 60 points in his final game.
• Gord Downie performing one last show with The Tragically Hip before his retirement and death from brain cancer.
• Ned Jarrett winning the 1965 NASCAR title and then surprisingly retiring.
• Derek Jeter's walk-off hit in his final game at Yankee Stadium.
• Imran Khan winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup as the captain of Pakistan at the very end of his career.
• Ray Lewis winning Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens during his final season.
• Peyton Manning winning the Super Bowl in his last season.
• Andy Pettitte throwing his first complete game in 7 years in his final start. By being credited with the win, he evened his 2013 record to 11–11, ensuring he finished his career having never recorded a losing season.
• Queen's 1991 song "The Show Must Go On" can be considered as a swan song for frontman Freddie Mercury, discussing his attitudes regarding his declining health from AIDS; Mercury would die of complications from the disease nine months after the release of the song's associated album, Innuendo.
• Nico Rosberg retiring from Formula 1 five days after winning his only World Drivers' Championship in 2016.
• Tom Searle from Architects writing Memento Mori as his final song before he died of cancer in 2016.
• Xavi winning La Liga, Copa del Rey, and UEFA Champions League during his last season for FC Barcelona.
• Arsene Wenger winning the 2017 FA Community Shield in his final season in charge at Arsenal FC having been manager since 1996.