for SATB
Duration: 3 to 5 minutes
This setting combines musical ideas that are reminiscent of Renaissance madrigals, with modern gestures, like the concluding free canon that creates a cascading effect in the upper voices.
The silver Swan, who, living, had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast upon 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.
– Orlando Gibbons
