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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.
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