Tin, Christopher: Wild Swans

Movement V from "The Lost Birds"

Wild Swans, a setting of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, ends the first half of The Lost Birds. Told from the point of view of the poet, it starts with the sound of bird cries: gradually approaching from a distance, until they pass overhead, triggering feelings of longing. After an instrumental interlude, and the narrator's impassioned declaration of freedom, the song ends as it started--with the cries of wild swans receding into the distance, foreshadowing their demise.