The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs is a song for voice and closed piano by John Cage.
Cage chose to set a passage from page 556 of Finnegans Wake, a book he bought soon after its publication in 1939.
[2] The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs marks the start of Cage's interest in Joyce and is the first piece among many in which he uses the writer's work.
The vocal line only uses three pitches, while the piano remains closed and the pianist produces sounds by hitting the lid or other parts of the instrument in a variety of ways (with his fingers, with his knuckles, etc.).
In 1976, Robert Wyatt performed a version on the split LP Voices and Instruments attributed to Jan Steele and John Cage, produced by Brian Eno and released on his Obscure Records label.