for Elizabeth Bishop
Bix to Buxtehude to Boulez.
The little white dog on the Victor label
Listens long and hard as he is able.
It's all in a day's work, whatever plays.
Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903–1931), Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637–1707), and Pierre Boulez (born 26 March 1925) are famous composers and musicians. Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer. Buxtehude was a German-Danish Baroque composer and organist. Boulez is a French composer of “modern classical” music as well as a conductor and pianist. 
 The line is quoted/borrowed as the first line of Greg Williamson’s sonnet  “Music.” 
 
 Bix 
 
 Buxtehude 
 
 Boulez
The Victor Dog