"Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music."
- Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
The term "Swan Song" dates back to ancient Greek mythology. It is said that the swan saves its most beautiful song for the moments just preceding its death, after remaining silent for the majority of life.
In mythology the swan, a symbol of beautiful harmony, was consecrated to Apollo, the god of, among other things music, and its limitations as a songbird attributed to the dispensing of her vocal talents unto other birds.
A symbol of sacrifice as well, it seems.
A prelude to its own demise, these are the final notes of life, the sounds of ascendent rapture. For the swan must know that death is merely a portal, evidence that we are in a sense, immortal.
Her destruction is just the beginning.
We should all have such a prelude to our own demise, one final act of greatness, one last hauntingly beautiful song symbolizing the destruction of one cycle and the creation of another. For what is harmony if not a repetitive sequence, a pattern impeded on the fringes of our reality by a beginning and an end? And what of life if not for harmony?
Today's Jazz Hands select Chopin's Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.35 as their immortalizing swan song.
Today's Jazz Hands select Chopin's Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.35 as their immortalizing swan song.
Day three-hundred and forty-seven complete.
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