O canto do cisne negro (Song of the Black Swan) is extracted from Villa-Lobos' symphonic poem Naufragio de Kleônicos. It is a flowing, impressionistic duet for cello and piano that reveals Villa-Lobos' affection for the string instrument his father taught him as a child, and which he lavished with attention throughout his life; the piece occupies a fittingly melancholy space, given its swan-song title. O canto was excerpted from Naufragio in 1917, a year after the source work's composition, along with a version for violin and piano; it has since become a concert favorite for cellist/pianist duos. The music itself is very simple in conception: the piano arpeggiates an endless series of chords—some sweet, some spicy, always favoring the upper registers—while the cello sings plaintively, also without interruption. The resulting texture is reminiscent of Ravel and Debussy, especially in harmonic vocabulary, but it also readily announces itself as a work of Villa-Lobos, especially in its fusion of lyricism and sensuality.

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