ear for EAR (Antiphonies)



Category: Musical composition
Dated: January 20, 1983
Instrumentation: Widely seperated single voices, one visible, the other(s) not
Duration: 4'
Premiere and performer(s):
Dedicated to:
Choreography: ---
Published: Edition Peters 66957 © 1983 by Henmar Press.
Also reprinted in EAR 8, nr.1-2 (February 1983)
Manuscript:


Cage wrote ear for EAR as a commission from EAR magazine on its tenth anniversary. It is a very simple composition, consisting of one page with eleven lines of music in antiphonal style, being a solo statement with a choral response. The subtitle (Antiphonies) refers to these works in the Roman-Catholic Liturgy, in which two choirs sings alternately.
The text is wordless and only uses the letters from the word EAR. In the score Cage mentions that the singing should be without vibrato and in one breath. The dynamics should be p-pp.