Swanson studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was then taught by Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
William Flanagan, reviewing three songs of Swanson, said, "They are authentic and in the best tradition of the song-writing art--sensitive, intimate, and evocative."
Virgil Thomson said, "Howard Swanson is a composer whose work singers (and pianists, too) should look into.
It is refined, sophisticated of line and harmony in a way not at all common among American music writers.
His individual song settings of the poems "Joy," "In Time of Silver Rain," "Night Song," "Pierrot," and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (performed by Helen Thigpen and David Allen in 1950) reflect his intimate acquaintance with the inner workings of Hughes poetry.