My youngest son Leif was learning the piano part. We wanted tosurprise his teacher Graeme Humphrey with a private performance. Itwas during piano practise that I started thinking 'why not!' why notcompose my own swan! The idea is not a new one. There is a beautiful- and difficult! - Swan by Finnish composer Selim Palmgren (1878-1951) and a variante on Saint-Saëns' original by his student LeopoldGodowsky (1870-1938) enriched in the deliciously imaginative way sotypical of him. For my own undertaking I wanted part of the materialto associate with Saint-Saëns' Swan to be immediately recognisable.Beyond beauty and resplendence I sought no further.Two different endings hint at Saint-Saëns' original in which the lastchord of the piano part has the length of an eighth-note. A remarkableend to a piece of such dignity and grandeur possibly eccentric butit often leads to performances ending on a fermata for both players.This is unquestionably very beautiful and atmospheric and comeswith a guaranteed effect on an audience which is ready to seek reliefin a sigh. This to be weighed of course against the composer's owndesign. Your call.
