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Donald Swann in 1957

Donald Ibrahím Swann (September 30, 1923–March 23, 1994) was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders (see Flanders and Swann).

Donald Swann was born in Llanelli, Wales on September 30, 1923. His father was a Russian doctor of English descent, from the expatriate community that started out as the Muscovy Company, and his mother was a nurse from Transcaspia — they were refugees from the Russian Revolution. The family moved to London, where Swann attended Dulwich Preparatory School and Westminster School (where he first met Michael Flanders).

In 1941 Swann was awarded an exhibition to Christ Church, Oxford, to read modern languages. In 1942 he registered as a conscientious objector and served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit (a Quaker non-combatant unit) in Egypt, Palestine and Greece. After the war, Swann returned to Oxford to read Russian and Modern Greek.

A chance meeting with Flanders in 1948 let to the start of their professional partnership. They began writing songs and light opera, Swann writing the music and Flanders writing the words. Their songs were performed by artists such as Ian Wallace and Joyce Grenfell. They subsequently wrote two two-man revues, At The Drop Of A Hat and At The Drop Of Another Hat, which they performed all over the world until their partnership ended in 1967.

At the same time, Swann was maintaining a prolific musical output, writing the music for several operas and operettas, including a full-length version of C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, and a setting J. R. R. Tolkien's poems from The Lord of the Rings to music in The Road Goes Ever On collection. A life-long friendship with Sydney Carter resulted in scores of songs, the best known being 'The Youth of the Heart' which reappeared in At the Drop of A Hat, and a musical Lucy & the Hunter. After his partnership with Flanders ended, Swann continued to give solo concerts and to write for other singers. He also formed the Swann Singers and toured with them in the 1970s. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s he continued performing in various combinations with singers and colleagues and as a solo artist. In the later years of his life he 'discovered' Victorian poetry and composed some of his most profound and moving music to the words of Blake, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde etc.

In 1992 Donald Swann was diagnosed with cancer, and he died at Trinity Hospice in South London on March 23, 1994. It is estimated that he wrote or set to music nearly 2,000 songs during his career. He left behind two wives, Janet Oxenbrow and Alison Smith; and two children from his first marriage; Rachel Swann and Natasha Swann.

• Swann, Donald. The Space Between the Bars. Hodder & Stoughton 1968
• Swann, Donald. Swann's Way Out: A Posthumous Adventure. Wiedenfeld & Nicolson 1975.
• Swann, Donald. Swann's Way : A life in Song. ISBN 0-85305-329-4 Pub. Heinemann 1991. Revised, Arthur James 1993. Revised, Thames Publishing 1997

• Swann, Herbert. Home on the Neva. Victor Gollancz 1968

• The Donald Swann Website
• Donald Swann at the Internet Movie Database