Choral & Sacred Music
Here is a list Donald's major religious choral works. Some are only now available in photocopy and sometimes photocopied manuscript from the Donald Swann Archive. For single religious songs see Songs & Song Collections.
| FESTIVAL MATINS |
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Available as 4 booklets:
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| RECORDINGS:
EP PUBLICATIONS: MUSIC |
| REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING |  |
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C. Day Lewis & Donald Swann for piano, speaker, solo mezzo-soprano or baritone,
percussion, cimbalom, and SATB choir. Duration 35 minutes. C. Day Lewis's poem was first published in THE GATE in 1962. This highly original re-interpretation of the Requiem Mass is a vivid plea for men to abolish nuclear weapons and to respect the beauty of the world, which they threaten to destroy. |
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| RECORDINGS:
LP PUBLICATIONS: MUSIC |
| SOLILOQUY FOR AUTUMN |
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word-and-music sequence for the fall of the year; a meditation in prose
by Donald Swann which links a cycle of five songs for tenor and baritone
soloists, narrator and SATB chorus. The texts used are: October Song (Aaron Kramer), Equinox (Laurie Lee), Judas Iscariot (Robert Williams Buchanan), Ruler of All (St Luke trans. Ronald Knox). |
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| PUBLICATIONS: MUSIC |
| THE FIVE SCROLLS |
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The Five Seasons of God, by Rabbi Albert Friedlander and Donald Swann. For
speaker & SATB. Biblical texts are incorporated in the seasons of the Jewish year culminating in a season of Messianic themes drawn from various sources, especially the book of Ruth. The Autumn sequence ('A Rabbinical Tale') is also incorporated into SOLILOQUY FOR AUTUMN. |
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| PUBLICATIONS: MUSIC |
| THIS IS THE STORY OF BONTZYE SHWEIG |
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on a story by Isaac Loeb Perez. Words by Leslie Paul. Music by Donald Swann.
For Narrator & SATB and piano A concert piece capable of being staged. Bontzye, a Jewish waif in anti-semetic Eastern Europe, dies saving the life of a worthless rich man and is welcomed into heaven. |
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| PUBLICATIONS: MUSIC |
| Copyright 2001-2007: The Donald Swann Estate | Archvist:Leon Berger |
