Early Years (1923-1941)
Donald Swann is most known as the musical half of the comic
song writing duo Michael Flanders & Donald Swann. Donald was born
in Llanelli (Wales, UK) on 30 Sept 1923. Both parents were refugees
from the Russian Revolution and amateur singers. His upbringing
was one of Russian folk song and four-hand piano reductions of
the Russian and European Romantics.
He was largely autodidact. A friend, Michael Flanders, then a
budding schoolboy actor, wrote a school revue "Go to it"
for which Swann wrote music.
In Oxford Donald studied Russian and Modern Greek. As a student
he wrote serious settings of poets such as Pushkin, Froissart
and Ronsard (primarily love songs). A meeting with Michael Flanders,
wheelchair-bound caused by polio, led to a continuation of their
schoolboy writing partnership.
Revues
(1948 - 1956)
The first song Michael Flanders and Donald Swann wrote was 'In
the D'Oyly Cart' (1948). They contributed witty and topical songs
to Laurier Lister's revues. For soprano Rose Hill they wrote 'A
Word on My Ear' a comic song about a tone-deaf singer. Joyce Grenfell
sang Flanders & Swann's 'The Song of the Weather'. For H.M.Tennant
management Donald and Michael contributed songs to the Lyric and
the Globe Revue (1951-1952)
Early
Musicals (1948-1956)
Donald's first musical was "The bright Arcade", a Victorian
story written with actor-writer Maurice Browning. 25 years later
it was published again in a televised version as "The great
glass hive".
With Sydney Carter, Donald wrote "Lucy and the Hunter",
a children's dream-musical. Furthermore, he wrote "Wild thyme"
(1955) and "Two moods for tuba".
The
Hat Years: Flanders & Swann (1956-1967)
Donald Swann and Michael Flanders had been performing their
own songs as they would say "at the drop of a hat"; they gradually
honed their material as a double-act. John Amis invited them to
make a couple of appearances at the Summer School of Music at
Dartington. This resulted in their most famous work, "At
the drop of a hat", which opened on 31st December 1956 and
was an overnight success. It was the toast of the West End and
ran for nearly two and half years. On 8th Oct 1959 they opened
on Broadway with equal success and subsequently toured the US,
Canada, the UK provinces and Switzerland.
A sequel, "At the drop of another hat" , toured from
October 1963. The last "hat" was dropped on 9th April
1967, after giving nearly 2,000 performances. Afterwards, they
moved into a studio and recorded the show for TV.
Tolkien
songcycle (1969)
"The
Road goes ever on", a cycle of seven songs selected from
the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Elvish calligraphy by Tolkien
himself, written during the last two years of the "At the
drop of another hat" tour. It includes The Road Goes Ever
On and On, Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red, In the Willow-Meads
of Tasarinan, In Western Lands, Namarie, I Sit Beside the Fire
and Think and Errantry.
Donald often used 'I Sit beside the Fire' in the show and it can
be heard on the Broadway video. The original cycle can be heard
on commercial cassette with Donald accompanying Covent Garden
baritone William Elvin. To the second edition Donald added 'Bilbo's
Last Song' which is also available as a separate copy. An eighth
Tolkein setting, 'Lúthien Tinúviel', can be found in "The
songs of Donald Swann: Volume 1" and has now been added to
the third edition published by Harper Collins in 2002, which includes
a free CD of the Elvin recording as well as bonus tracks of 'Bilbo's
Last Song' and 'Lúthien Tinúviel'
After
The Hats (1967 - 1980)
Over the next few years Donald compiled and performed hundreds
of concerts, such as "Set by Swann" (love songs), "Soundings
by Swann", "An evening with Carter, Taylor and Swann",
"A crack in time" and "The yeast factory"
(children's musical).
The
1980s (1980-1987)
In 1979 Donald teamed up with the Reverend Frank Topping,
a radio producer , which resulted in "Swann with Topping",
- a two-man revue in a religious edge. In 1986 Donald moved into
a new musical field and collaborated with Jazz trumpeter Digby
Fairweather and singer Liz Lincoln in several very popular "Swann
in Jazz" shows.
The
Last Years (1987 -1994)
In these years, Donald developed a deep love for Victorian
poets and he began to set the poems of Tennyson, Christina Rossetti,
John Clare and Oscar Wilde to music, published in "The poetic
image". His autobiography was written by Lyn Smith: "Swann's
way" appeared in 1991. Shortly after publication Donald was
diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died at Trinity Hospice in
South London on 23rd March 1994.
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