This chapter discusses Richard Causton’s The Flea (2000). This is a very different and ostensibly simpler setting of this wonderful text by John Donne from that of Krenek, but one that conveys its wit and sardonic humour with equal effectiveness. Causton, a highly experienced and gifted composer of broad musical tastes, understands the voice very well and has wisely kept to a comfortable tessitura to allow the smallest details and nuances to tell. The tonality is based firmly on C, at the lower and upper octave, and, once begun, the singer should have no difficulty in keeping pitches safely anchored, since this ‘tonic’ is frequently and reassuringly revisited throughout the piece. Medium range encourages a warm, resonant quality, but the singer must not allow vibrato to become too rich, obscuring detail or word clarity. Changes of time signature help to give a feeling of flexibility, but, as always in unaccompanied pieces, it is very important to keep a sense of pulse and forward impetus, especially through the rests which pepper the opening paragraphs.