Andrea Lockwood’s piece ‘Piano Burning’ (1968) was an attempt to “record fire” [Lockwood, Pink Noises]. She put a microphone inside the piano and recorded for as long as possible, as long as the microphone lasted. She then wrote a fluxus score for it in which the instructions were to “put a little lighter fluid down in one corner of the piano, and set it alight, and let it go.”
Set upright piano (not a grand) in an open space with the lid closed.
Piano Burning (1968 – London)
Spill a little lighter fluid on a twist of paper and place inside, near the pedals.
Light it.
Balloons may be stapled to the piano.
Play whatever pleases you for as long as you can.
The piece exists within the post-modern canon – meaning it breaks away from ‘forms’ of modernism into ‘anti-forms’ of post-modernism. The practice of writing a score for the piece is also very much in keeping with the post-modernist fluxus wave of experimental artists, writers and musicians.
Lockwood was inspired at a “remove” by John Cage, who “became a very liberating influence”. “Cage’s writings on sound […] were completely aligned with [Lockwood’s] own personal experience of sound.” At the same time, Lockwood was in contact with “kindred spirit” Pauline Oliveros “towards the end of the ’60s” – which proved to be an “invaluable friendship.”
When Lockwood was living in Essex in the English countryside, the cottage she was living in had an old-fashioned Victorian garden that was “running a little wild.” She was curious “to see the moment at which young saplings would start to force their way up between different parts of the structure of the instrument. That paradox, that beautiful thing, that young plants look so fragile and are in fact so strong.”
Dig a sloping trench and slip an upright piano in sideways so that it is half interred.
A small grand piano may be set down amongst bushes etc.Plant fast growing trees and creepers around the pianos. Do not protect against weather and leave the pianos there forever.
Piano Garden (1969-70 – Ingatestone, Essex)
How does Annea Lockwood’s identity as a woman/femme sound artist influence how we relate to the narratives of destruction and environmental sound scenographies? I’m curious about Annea Lockwood’s influence on later post-modern artists like Felix Gonzalez-Torres – who in his piece ‘Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A), 1991 ‘ put a pile of candy weighing 175 pounds, equivalent to the average weight of an adult man representing his late partner Ross, who had died of AIDS. The audience were invited to take a piece of candy, encountering a relationship to destruction similar to those seen in ‘Piano Burning.’ Art that uses scores brings in the audience into the piece, making them a part of the encounter of destruction, or love, or strength.
References:
Rodgers T., ProQuest (Firm), . (2010). Pink noises. North Carolina: Duke University Press.
(2020). Piano Burning (Annea Lockwood, 1968). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EMu15_9SF8 [Accessed 13 Oct. 2025].