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John Cage's Prepared Piano: The Nuts & Bolts

168 pages | 6.0 x 9.0 inches | paperback | with b&w photographs
$20 CAD | $20 USD | July 2008 | ISBN13: 978-0-9809657-0-4
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About the book

This book was conceived as a comprehensive guide to the prepared piano as formalized and used by Cage, and to its repertoire. Cage invented the instrument in 1940; in the following fourteen years he created a considerable body of works featuring his unique hybrid.

Part One opens with a discussion of the significance of the instrument for performers and audience, and introduces the idea that the prepared piano could be a bridge between pre- and post-twentieth century classical music. Several chapters deal with piano safety issues, technical and aesthetic, and present a complete illustrated guide to suitable objects for piano alteration. All of the objects and experiences are based on personal experiments, as well as on collaboration with an expert piano technician.

Part Two deals with prepared piano performance issues. It covers the various aspects of the instrument’s invention and offers insights into the difference between playing a regular and an altered instrument.

Part Three consists of a complete guide to Cage’s works featuring a prepared (sometimes called a string or muted) piano. These works are appreciated through contextual, rather than formal analysis. Cage based his post-1940 works on the so-called “rhythmic structures”, which are numeric formulas often given on the first page of a work. Therefore, I chose not to analyze the form of the works, but rather to discuss their music in the context of aesthetic influences and phases in Cage’s artistic development. One particularly interesting aspect proved to be the pieces’ titles, which I came to regard as a rich source for interpretational ideas. Another was the personalities of the dancers for whom Cage wrote most of the prepared music, and their work, which influenced Cage in his choices of themes, rhythms and sonorities.

Where data was missing, I had to piece together fragments of facts, suggestions and implications, and arrive at my own explanations and interpretations.

From my research I conclude that the prepared piano is important for performers and audience alike as it links the avant-garde musics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition, it played a vital role in Cage’s artistic and personal formation.

— T.D., 2008


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PREPARED PIANO THE NUTS & BOLTS JOHN CAGE’S TZENKA DIANOVA, DMA WINNER Best Doctoral Thesis Award Auckland University 2007 Contents Foreword /… 1 Part One: Getting prepared to prepare a piano 1. Piano performers of today — artists or music historians? Comments on the diminished connection between composers, performers and audience from the late nineteenth century onward, introducing the idea that John Cage’s prepared piano music could play a significant role in revitalizing that connection /… 4 2. John Cage’s prepared piano: a bridge between pre- and post-twentieth century music Its importance for performers and audience /… 6 3. Cage and his audiences The grounds for John Cage’s popularity /… 10 4. Why Cage’s prepared piano music is not part of the established piano repertoire The results of a survey carried out amongst professional pianists and piano students offer insight to this apparent phenomenon /… 12 5. Is it dangerous for the piano? Ungrounded fears and misconceptions about piano alteration /… 15 [ iii ] 6. The Prepared Piano Safety Manual How to avoid harming the piano while working on it /… 18 • The dangers • The challenges 7. The Objects A practical guide to the objects used in John Cage’s prepared piano music, including numerous illustrations of materials and safe insertion techniques /… 23 Part Two: Playing the prepared piano 8. How the piano came to be prepared Viewing the invention from several perspectives /… 46 9. Percussion, prepared piano and dance The synthesis of the three in John Cage’s prepared piano works of the 1940s /… 51 10. Altered vs. regular piano techniques The piano as a percussion instrument(s) /… 54 Part Three: The Works A complete descriptive guide to John Cage’s solo and chamber works featuring prepared or string piano /… 57 Afterword /… 134 A Few Random Tributes to Indeterminacy /… 136 Bibliography /… 138 Discography and Videography /… 143 Internet Resources /… 145 [ iv ]

 

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