Bilbo's Last Song - music by Donald Swann, from "The Road Goes Ever On"
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- "Bilbo's Last Song" is a poem by J.R.R.Tolkien that doesn't appear in his "Lord of the Rings," but if it had, it would have appeared in the final pages of the book, at the Grey Havens.
Donald Swann was the first composer to set Tolkien's poems and songs to music with the professor's express approval, as documented in the 1967 book and record "The Road Goes Ever On." Shortly after Tolkien's death, his publishing secretary shared this poem, given to her as a parting gift by Tolkien, with Swann, and he set it to music that very day.
Many composers have gone on to set "Bilbo's Last Song" to music, but Swann's is still my favorite. Still, search CZcams and you'll find many endearing versions composed and performed by Middle Earth fans.
Donald Swann sang it at the commemoration of the life of Michael Flanders in 1975.
We also sang it at Donalds Swann's own commemoration in 1994.
The song holds a very place to all those who knew Donald.
Leon Berger (Administrator)
The Flanders & Swann Estates
I can't count the times I've played this song now. At an age (70) at which I myself am ready to seek the Havens, Tolkien's simple lyrics and Donald Swann's inspired melodies give me strength to face the next and greatest journey of my life.
If you haven't seen the print version, with Pauline Baines' wonderful illustrations, I strongly recommend you do so.
I played this song many times too, from the day I discovered it. For any Tolkien lover (and Swann's admirer too, I should say), this is certainly the most moving of all the songs he ever wrote, possibly with the exception of another masterpiece, The Song of the Ent and Entwife (but that one was never put into music by Swann).
I have instructed my family that Bilbo's Last Song should be the music they play at my funerals, when I finally receive the Gift of Ilùvatar myself and leave Middle-Earth for ever.
We played this at my mother's memorial. There was not a dry eye.
heartbreaking dude, RIP
I too have instructed my family that Bilbo's Last Song should be the music they play at my funerals, when I finally receive the Gift of Ilùvatar and leave Middle-Earth for ever.
I would like to chime in with my own personal feelings-
I significantly prefer this version of Bilbo's Last Song much more than the BBC's version. While I think the BBC version is a good rendition, this version by Donald Swann truly does feel like Bilbo himself singing a final parting song to the home he knew. Perhaps it is not as reverent or lofty sounding as the BBC version, but that's the point- this feels more personable, more coming from a common man with an uncommon life. It holds all the heartache and sadness of leaving one's home but with the same heads-up attitude moving forward that got him through his misadventures in The Hobbit. The BBC version feels a bit too... morose, too heavy-hearted. It doesn't sound like Bilbo, to me. This version, however, does, capturing the sense of loss without losing the essence of his spirit.
I actually came across this video back when I was in high school, and I'm very glad it's still around. I should've said it back then but I'll say it now, thank you for uploading this. I've had a version of this on my iPod, then on whatever phone I had growing up. Still do! While I may not be the most knowledgeable fan of Tolkien's work, they still had a profound effect on me growing up, and hearing his words come to life through music is always a wonderful pleasure.
The BBC version is a dirge, a funeral march, only more depressing. Certainly not "lofty sounding", and not in keeping with Tolkien's optimism for eternal life as promised in the tenets of his devout Catholic faith.
Swann presented the song in triumphant melody and harmony, preserving the metrical complexity and internal rhyming schemes that were universal in Tolkien's poetry.
As an aside, when I played this recording at my Mother's memorial (We scattered her ashes in her favorite fishing hole, in accordance with her wishes), several relatives asked me where I had found the song.
Mom had worked for several years at Professor Tolkien's American publishing house, and had given me the second edition of THE ROAD GOES EVER ON, the one that includes this song.
And yes, I want this played at my memorial as well.
Nicely put.
@@5610winston I instructed my family to play the song at my funeral as well. When I finally receive the Gift of Ilùvatar.
It is quite a strong song when you look at the melodic shape, he's done a fine job. It deserves a new performance at least!
I especially like the metrical structure; it seems to me that it captures the meter that Tolkien might have read the poem.
An absolutely beautiful setting. I adore this song & I find his singing very endearing.
They should end the final hobbit film with a old bilbo singing this song
I'm sorry, dear boy
very beautiful composition and performance
I first heard this wonderful collection of songs and beautiful piano accompaniment in the late 60’s on an LP I acquired from somewhere. Some of them sound almost up with Schubert in terms of compositional quality. But all so underrated, I feel.
I particularly like ‘I sat before the fire and think all that I have known,’ along with the Elvish ‘Ah, Elbereth Gilthoniel, Silivren Penna Miriel.’
Happy 100th birthday, Donald Swann.
Yeah, me too. But it's a good cry.
I want this song to be played at my funeral. :)
You'd be in good company. It was sung at Michael Flanders' and Donald Swann's memorials, and we played this recording when we scattered my Mother's ashes in her favorite fishing spot to flow to the Chickasawhay River and on to the Gulf.
@TheGaslightHorror Sentimentality is entirely appropriate here. Listen to the words! Bilbo is meeting his departure from his world on his own terms. It is not a death, but an ascenscion to another world in keeping with Tolkien's devout Christian belief.
Swann set this text as a triumphant final testament by the old hobbit, whereas the BBC radio version is a dirge.
He had reached the Grey Havens. Namárië Sir Ian Holm.
Can you imagine the meeting of Professor Tolkien, Sir Ian, and Donald Swann, and let's not forget Michael Flanders, in the Great Beyond?
The music at the end is a recording I made in my living room of a friend playing some sort of wooden flute; she did two or thee improv takes, and I layered them over each other, adding some reverb. I was going to use it on a LOTR/Christmas audio spoof that was never completed; since I had slapped the title "Elven Flute" on it, and it's kind of mysterious, I thought it might work here. Thanks for asking. :)
I'm looking to perform this song, along with the cycle "The Road Goes Ever On," on a recital in the near future. I can't wait to start studying Mr. Swann's music.
How did the recital go?
@@5610winston Thanks for your kind question. Covid19 got in the way, so had to postpone. I'm hoping to do it in six months or so, whenever my apartment community can gather together again. Actually I'll be expanding the program...Tolkien/Swann first, then Copland's Old American Songs. I think they'll make a nice combination.
@@ralphficker167 Hey man, how did it go? A
Although Tolkien never heard this particular tune, he did give his personal approval for the other dozen interpretations that this composer Donald Swann wrote for his [Tolkien's] songs, to be found in the tome "The Road Goes Ever On". It was written when popular songs often sounded like musical theater pieces.
Donald Ibrahím Swann (30 September 1923 - 23 March 1994) was a British-Azerbaijani composer, musician and entertainer.
In one installment of his autobiography (SWANN'S WAY: A Life In Song) he wrote at length of his family's difficult escape from Russia (his father was a British expatriate doctor and his mother a Muslim nurse from what was then called Transcaspia) and settling in Llanelli, Wales, and a humorous account (and photograph) of his Uncle Mohammed performing a sword dance down the middle of the main street in that Welsh village.
As Swann's comedy partner Flanders remarked, conflating some of the comments on record, "... the distinguished pianist, composer, linguist, troglodyte, also contains lanolin... the distinguished Balkan soprano..."
I wish I could have been a fly on the wall while F&S were preparing their "Hat" shows.
Goodbye sir Ian Holm, the one and only Bilbo Baggins, safe journey to the other side! You'll be missed! 😭😣😥
@TheGaslightHorror Swann's acount of the events point out that he received this poem at Tolkien's funeral, hence it was not a collaboration or an "approved" setting.
Tolkien had approved Swann's settings of several poems after Swann and Michael Flanders performed them for the professor. Tolkien's only disagreement was with the setting of "Namarie", and he (Tolkien) sang it as he had intended it for the composer who noted it as musical dictation and included it in "THE ROAD GOES EVER ON".
How lovely to hear the composer sing it! My sisters and I used to sing it together, with his optional harmony in the second half of each verse. It's a gorgeous setting, with the perfect mix of folk-song and art-song styles.
Ah bilbo he's doing fine
The little,old Bilbo ♥.♥
this video is underrated
In comparison of Swann's settings with those in the BBC radio production, I have to favor Swann at every turn.
Perhaps Swann was the last great light composer in the tradition of Finzi and Butterworth. There will certainly never be another like him.
Despite the fact that I love this song, I have another idea for my funeral ... each to his own ... :P
Yeah, nevermind, this will be my funeral song
Thank you so much for posting this. So beautiful!
I like both the BBC version and this version. They are both sentimental (which I have no complaint with) but the sentiments are somewhat different: this version is somewhat more reflective in a triumphant way. The BBC version, in a minor key, is sadder and more wistful.
I believe this is more in keeping with Tolkien's devout Roman Catholic faith, a triumphant anticipation of the Life Eternal, a New Beginning.
This also preserves Tolkien's complex meter and the internal rhyming schemes that he so loved.
Thanks for this interesting posting.
when it is my time to go, I too also want to go out west like how he did with the elves because I myself still want to go on grand adventures just like how he did. and I wonder if I too will also get to finally meet an elf up there in the haven like place.
I prefer the BBC Lord of the Rings version personally, but this is still very pleasant.
honestly i don't think it's that I'm not liking it because it's not the movie soundtrack, it's the... silly? garish? perhaps the word is theatrical character of it. makes it feel like a soap opera or a vaudeville show
Ouch, my heart.
RIP Ian Holm.
Джиму ронольду толкину спасибо большое за точто с велеколепную женшину создал леди Галадриэль эльфийскую владычицу лотлориэна
For the definitive recording of Swann's song cycle and the musical score, check out my video here: czcams.com/video/YtH6ROfV7WA/video.html&ab_channel=JacobLudwig
excuse me while i cry under my bed, all the feelings........
Sounds more like something from a 1930s musical. Bilbo with jazzhands anyone?
👐
@TheGaslightHorror I agree with you re:BBC, and that this version certainly veers towards sentimentality. Um, but still, I guess I can't see this song as anything BUT sentimental. :)
what's the music in the end?
That Don swan on vocals?
None other.
Give a listen to some of his other recordings, specifically the "Flanders and Swann" albums.
I know, I know. :)
I prefer the version from the BBC Radio Drama. This version sounds too much like a pub song or from a musical. It's by no means a bad rendition-just out of place.
I have to disagree with you. This version, a setting by a composer who was a friend of Tolkien's, is in every way superior to the BBC dirge.
Tolkien included intricacies of meter and rhyme in this poem that were no less sophisticated than the best of his earlier works. Also, as Tolkien approached his end, he reflected on his own mortality and the afterlife promised by his devout Roman Catholic faith. It in entirely appropriate that this song be set in a joyful and triumphant mood rather than as a funeral march.
Yes, it is. Send me your email addy to nbutlerdidit@aol.com and I'll send you an mp3 of the whole album. And I am also a huge Lovecraft fan!
It doesn't appear in The Lord of the Rings because it's not very good. That's why it was rejected. Putting it to music doesn't help.
To quote Wolfgang Pauli, "Not only is that not right, it isn't even wrong."
THE LORD OF THE RINGS was published in the 1950s, and this poem was presented to Tolkien's secretary as a gift shortly before The Professor's death in 1973.
This poem is not included in LOTR because it did not exist at the time of publication of LOTR.
Donald Swann, whose settings of poems from LOTR and other stories, received this poem from Joy Hill at Tolkien's funeral, and, as Swann said in the introductory narrative to this video as well as in the text of the published version of THE ROAD GOES EVER ON, that he and Ms. Hill discussed whether and how to proceed with the musical setting (among Swann's best).
Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with LOTR (the books, not the movies), and some of Tolkien's other work, especially his commentaries on religious faith, and the commentaries of his contemporaries.
@@5610winston You're assuming that the poem was written at the same time it was given to the secretary, but presented no case to that effect. Obviously you're massively ignorant of Lord of the Rings, and need to familiarize yourself et cetera, et cetera. (See, I can argue your way as well as arguing my own way).
@@5610winston Here's the part that your el quickie research overlooked, winston.
While it is true that Lotr was first published in "the 1950s" (had you Googled deeper you might even have learned the exact year), it was r-e-v-i-s-e-d in the 60's. You didn't know that, did you? Changes were made. Some small things, like Atendea and the Book of the Kings (don't ask) were removed, while others were added. In fact, the revised edition came out... when? Why, just the year before Tolkien gave the poem to Joy Hill. That's a coinky-dink, isn't it? Almost like it was written for the revised edition, and, when rejected, given away to a friend.
The alternative is that he revised the book with no thought of the poem, then, almost the minute that it was too late, slapped his head, and thought "I've got this great idea for a poem I SHOULD have put in Lotr. Oh well, it's too late now, so I'll write it up anyway, and give it away."
Seriously?
I think not. This is almost comical in tone, is redolent of some cockney musical hall singalong, with pearly kings and queens. Or maybe an Al Johnson ditty?
Far better, in my humble opinion, is Stephen Oliver's version for the BBC's superb 1981 dramatisation of the Lord of the Rings.
BTW, I loved your spoken introduction.
The speaker and following Singer is Donald Swann, a good friend of Tolkien and well known composer, lingustist (and known trogledite)
This is the version that he sat down and created with tolkein himself during his lifetime.
+Bashyboyash Maybe Tolkien was tone deaf?
Actually, Tolkien's musical leanings were very much in that direction (and he personally approved of the rest of Donald Swann's musical settings for his lyrics). It was a different age, you know.
While Swann (also contains lanolin) and Tolkien were friends, Swann could hardly have "sat down and created" this with Tolkien himself during his lifetime when the existence of the poem only came to Swann's attention after The Professor's death. Stephen Oliver's funeral march setting of these lines is absolutely the opposite of Swann's setting, and (to my mind) shows a complete ignorance of Tolkien's intention. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, and "Bilbo's Last Song" anticipates and celebrates the "...sure and certain hope of The Resurrection..." to quote lines spoken at every Christian funeral I have ever attended. This is not a dirge, but a hymn to a joyous new beginning, anticipation and awe of what is to come.