Prepared piano

It is only natural to give John Cage the honor of developing the prepared piano. Through Henry Cowell, his teacher, and through the flourishing interest for percussion music at the time Cage trated his experiments with putting different objects between the strings of the piano. I have found my own way of preparing my pianos through Cages pieces and I might even go so far as calling my computer and a Max patch some kind of a preparation.
Discovering Cage for me as a performer made my both thrilled and frustrated.

To put it bluntly – as students we were all playing the same Beethoven sonatas and Bach’s preludes and fugues. In my search for repertoire to play as a student that none of the other students were playing, Cage became some kind of a sanctuary. I had to leave my ambitious teacher to the benefit of the janitor and all I could find in his office of screws, bolts and rubber. I was thrilled with entering an imaginary landscape where every sound was a possible enjoyment. I was frustrated because of the lack of knowledge and interest at the institutions andthe teachers.

My first experience with Cage was the feeling of freedom and how I, as an interpret, actually have a huge significance for how the music sounds. After studying it further my experience was that Cage doesn't really provide me with any freedom at all, but strict rules to follow. After talking to people how played and worked with him, and studying with Christian Wolff, Cage's friend and colleague from the NY School, I learnt perhaps the most fun of it all: He broke his rules and used his taste and musical ear more than he maybe would admit, and a lot more that his philosophy and writings implies.

About the preparations for Sonatas and Interludes: Wolff taught me that the apparently very precise instructions for preparations was more Cage's own notes for remembering where he placed the preparations on his particular Steinway in his apartment, not so much for others to follow. The introductions are to be followed, but the precise measurements will only work on Cage's piano, as all pianos have smaller or bigger differences. So listening and finding the good sounds for each preparation has to be done for each new performer and each new piano.