Litany and Response No. 2 for Alison Knowles, Festum Fluxorum Fluxus: Musik und Antimusik, Das Instrumentale Theater, Staatliche Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf

Litany and Response No. 2 for Alison Knowles, Festum Fluxorum Fluxus: Musik und Antimusik, Das Instrumentale Theater, Staatliche Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf

Litany and Response No. 2 for Alison Knowles (1962) by Emmett Williams repeats two sentences, “how are you dear alison?” and “very well thank you oscar,” with a changing permutation of their vowels so that the sentences are transformed into “haw ero yue daar ilosen?,” “very wall thonk you ascor,” “hew oru yea dair olesen?,” “vary woll thunk yoa oscar,” and so on. The photograph shows Dick Higgins playing Litany Piano Piece for Emmett Williams (1962) while Williams is reading this score in Festum Fluxorum Fluxus: Musik und Antimusik – Das Instrumentale Theater held at Staatliche Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf in 1963.