Seven O'Clock at the Cedar (Ode to Kline/de Kooning)
Chester Biscardi
About this work:
"Seven O'Clock at the Cedar (Ode to Kline/de Kooning)", for voice and piano (2008) [B3 – D5]
Lyrics: Shirley Kaplan
BMP No. B48-08-1 ca. minutes
SEVEN O’CLOCK AT THE CEDAR (ODE TO KLINE/DE KOONING)
The Cedar Bar is quiet
No talk of paintings
The girls from New Jersey
Are looking for
Somewhere
To feel that life matters
Is that really him
They ask as they
Wonder
Why
He talks of
Space
And knows so much
About Mars
It’s seven o’clock
I’m buying the beer
His eyes are bright blue
Make it a whisky
He sways with the thought
Of fragmented women
And images float off the edge
he sings to himself
No talk of paintings
The girls from New Jersey
Look over at him
He smiles as he asks them
Do they know
About stars
then
he thinks
how it feels
This wintry night
To be famous and suddenly old
No talk of painting
The girls look around
And he’s gone
To a booth
with a man in a suit
who paints
black and white
they speak only
of baseball/the moon /and the eclipse
the girls from New Jersey go home.
Version: Voice and Piano
Year composed: 2008
Duration: 00:04:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: Piano, Medium voice