This edition was prepared by Kenneth Langer — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Dickinson Songs: I Heard A Fly
Staff Notation • Secular, Art songs
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Dickinson Songs: I Heard A Fly by Kenneth Langer — Lyrics
I heard a fly buzz when I died. The stillness round my form was like the stillness in the air between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry and breaths were gath'ring sure for the last onset when the king be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes signed away what portion of me I could make assignable and then there interposed a fly with blue uncertain stumbling buzz between the light and me and then the windows failed and I could not see to see.
About Dickinson Songs: I Heard A Fly
Kenneth Langer's art song I Heard a Fly, for solo soprano, sets a profound text by Emily Dickinson. The poem contemplates the moment of death, with the unexpected intrusion of a fly symbolizing the mundane interrupting the sublime. Langer's musical setting, in English, captures the introspective and slightly unsettling atmosphere of Dickinson's words, exploring the stillness, the resignation, and the final fading of perception. This secular work offers a unique opportunity for a soprano to interpret a significant moment of existential reflection through both vocal line and dramatic nuance.
