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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.classical
Subject: Re: cage and listening (prepared piano)
Message-ID: <692@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-May-84 09:29:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.692
Posted: Wed May 23 09:29:35 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 26-May-84 10:11:43 EDT
References: <381@decwrl.UUCP> <115@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 24

Ah, the thrills of prepared piano.  Remember when you were a child
sitting at your parents' piano, covering strings with rubber pencil
erasers, sticking dimes amongst the strings on those notes fortunate
enough to have three strings associated with them (the dime kept falling
through on the two-stringed notes), laying aluminum foil across entire
octaves, and having your mother run in screaming "What are you doing to
our piano?!" (You don't remember this?  Poor deprived lads and lasses.)

The sounds you could get from these and other various techniques was and
is astounding.  The hollow drum-like thud from the eraser, the chime-like
quality from the dime, the I've-forgotten-what-kind-of-sound from foil
(boy, do I wish I had a piano now!).  And you could "tune" your mini-gamelan
to any tuning you like, simply by moving the "preparations" to different
points on the strings.  More fun than a synthesizer!

I'm currently writing a piece myself for unprepared piano.  (After all,
what piano could truly consider itself "prepared" for what I would do
with it...).

(Aside from Cage's innovative work, one can hear prepared piano in a
'popular music' (shudder!) context from Brian Eno, e.g., on David Bowie's
"African Night Flight" (from The Lodger).)
-- 
"Submitted for your approval..."		  Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr