Donald Swann

Donald Ibrahím Swann ( born September 30, 1923 in Llanelli, Wales, † March 23, 1994 in London) was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He gained attention in the public primarily through the literary collaboration with Michael Flanders as a duo Flanders and Swann.

Biography

Donald Swann was born on September 30, 1923 in Llanelli, Wales. His father was a Russian doctor and his mother a Russian nurse, they fled together before the Russian Revolution. After the family had moved together to London, Donald attended the schools of Dulwich and Westminster (where he first met in Flanders ).

1941 Swann won a scholarship for Modern Languages ​​at Oxford Christchurch. In 1942 he registered as a conscientious objector and worked for the Friend's Ambulance Unit ( a unit of the peaceful Quakers) in Egypt, Greece and Palestine. After the war, Swann returned to Oxford to study Russian and Greek.

1948 gave the opportunity of a meeting with Michael Flanders, and from then on began their collaboration. They began to write songs and operas. Swann contributed the music, the words of Flanders. Her works have been played by actors such as Ian Wallace and Joyce Grenfell. Then they wrote two two-man revues: At The Drop Of A Hat and At The Drop Of Another Hat. This they performed all over the world to the end of their partnership in 1967.

At this time, Swann also claimed solely as a highly successful composer of operas and operettas. He is famous primarily through the music cycle The Road Goes Ever On, in which he gave the entire Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien as a composer and pianist William Elvin as a singer transposed into music.

After his partnership ended in Flanders, Swann continued to work as a solo artist, and also wrote works for other artists. He founded the " Swann Singers" and went with them in the 1970s on tour.

1992 was diagnosed with cancer Swann. He died at the Trinity Hospice in South London on 23 March 1994., The number of his works is estimated at around 2000.

Autobiography

• Donald Swann: Swann 's Way. A Life in Song. ISBN 0-85305-329-4