A Flower

Not to be confused with Flower.

A Flower is a song for voice and closed piano by John Cage. It was composed in 1950, for a choreography by Louise Lippold, wife of sculptor Richard Lippold. There is no text; the singer vocalises a small number of phonemes such as "uh", "wah", etc., without vibrato. Instructions given in the score include, for some passages, "like a pigeon" and "like a wild duck". The entire vocal line is constructed of just four pitches, except for a single bar near the end where a fifth pitch is used. The pianist plays by hitting the piano lid in various ways - with his fingers, with his knuckles, etc. The composition is somewhat similar to the earlier work for voice and closed piano, The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs.[1][2][3]

Editions

  • Edition Peters 6711. (c) 1960 by Henmar Press.

See also

References

  1. ^ Cage, John (1960). A Flower: voice and closed piano (Peters Edition 6711 ed.). Henmar Press. ISBN 9790300735160. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ^ Cage, John. "A Flower". Oxford Lieder. Retrieved January 23, 2026.
  3. ^ "A Flower (1950) - John Cage". Wise Music Classical. Retrieved January 23, 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.