Prepared piano

Cage frequently cited Henry Cowell (1897–1965) as the primary inspiration for the prepared piano.Nicholls, David (1991 [1990]). American Experimental Music 1890–1940. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. (p. 523) {{ISBN|0-521-42464-X}} Cowell pioneered piano extended techniques for what he dubbed "string piano", involving reaching inside the piano and plucking, sweeping, scraping, thumping, and otherwise manipulating the strings directly, rather than using the keyboard. He developed these techniques in numerous pieces such as Aeolian Harp (1923) and The Banshee (1925).Bartók, Peter, Moses Asch, Marian Distler, and Sidney Cowell; revised by Sorrel Hays (1993 [1963]): Liner notes to Henry Cowell: Piano Music (Smithsonian Folkways 40801). p. 12 (unpaginated)

Pieces of paper were called for in several early 20c works, the buzzing effect reminiscent of the parchment 'bassoon' pedal of early fortepianos. In his Ragamalika (1912–22), based on the classical music of India, French composer Maurice Delage (1879–1961) calls for a piece of cardboard to be placed under the B{{music|flat}} in the second line of the bass clef to dampen the sound, imitating the sound of an Indian drum.Pasler, Jann (2000). "Race, Orientalism, and Distinction in the Wake of the 'Yellow Peril'." In Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, ed. Georgina Born and David Hesmondhalgh. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, p. 107.{{IMSLP|work=Ragamalika (Delage, Maurice)|descr=1915 edition}}

In his Chôros No. 8, a 1925 work for large orchestra, Heitor Villa-Lobos instructs the 2nd pianist to insert pieces of paper between the strings "Mettre des papiers entre les cordes" at figure 48, a passage doubled by harp. {{IMSLP|work=Chôros No.8, W208 (Villa-Lobos, Heitor)|cname=Chôros No. 8 (Villa-Lobos)}} Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges (1920-1925) calls for Luthéal, but allows piano with paper to substitute.{{IMSLP|work=L'enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel, Maurice)|descr=piano part}}. the New Grove article cites this work in Edwin M. Ripin, revised by Hugh Davies and Thomas J. Kernan: "Prepared piano"

{{See also|Works for prepared piano by John Cage}}

The invention of the "prepared piano", per se, is usually traced to John Cage. Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned to write music for Bacchanale, a dance by Syvilla Fort (its date is variously given as 1938 or 1940). For some time previously, Cage had been writing exclusively for a percussion ensemble, but the hall where Fort’s dance was to be staged had no room for a percussion group. The only instrument available was a single grand piano. After some consideration, Cage said that he realized it was possible "to place in the hands of a single pianist the equivalent of an entire percussion orchestra ... With just one musician, you can really do an unlimited number of things on the inside of the piano if you have at your disposal an exploded keyboard".Cage, John, and Daniel Charles (1981). For The Birds: John Cage in Conversation with Daniel Charles. Marion Boyers London. {{ISBN|0-7145-2690-8}}.

• Ferrante & Teicher were an American piano duo who produced over a hundred albums of light classical and popular "easy listening" in their long careers (1947–1992). Between 1950 and 1980 they included partially prepared pianos on a number of their tunes to add percussive effects.Huey, Steve; Rovi. "Ferrante & Teicher Biography". CMT. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
• On "All Tomorrow's Parties" from The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), John Cale prepared his piano with a chain of paper clips.Mitchell, Tim Sedition and Alchemy : A Biography of John Cale, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7206-1132-6}}
• On his 1968 album Blues Roots, Dave Brubeck prepared a piano by laying copper strips across the strings to give the song "Blues Roots" a honky-tonk sound.Liner notes from album Blues Roots (1968) by Gerry Mulligan and the Dave Brubeck Trio
• Denman Maroney performs on what he has dubbed 'hyperpiano', which "involves stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, striking and strumming the strings with copper bars, aluminum bowls, rubber blocks, plastic boxes and other household objects."{{cite web | title=Philadelphia FRINGE Festival 2000 - Hyperpiano |url=http://www.pafringe.com/F2000/reform/hyperpiano.htm | access-date=2005-12-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071231171028/http://www.pafringe.com/F2000/reform/hyperpiano.htm |archive-date = 2007-12-31}}.
• Cor Fuhler pioneered many inside piano techniques during the 1980s and recorded his first prepared piano solo album 7CC IN IO on GeestGronden in 1995; recorded The Hands of Caravaggio with John Tilbury and M.I.M.E.O. on the USA label Erstwhile Records; and in 2007 he released Stengam on the French label Potlatch.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/7-cc-in-10-mw0000725533|website=allmusic.com|language=en|access-date=2018-08-09|title=7 CC in 10 - Cor Fuhler | Songs, Reviews, Credits}}
• Since 1982, Roger Miller has developed his own take on prepared piano in his work, initially on Mission of Burma's single "Trem II". Miller has since released many albums (on labels including Ace of Hearts, SST, New Alliance, Atavistic and Matador) incorporating this technique. His concert hall compositions since 2009 have often utilized prepared piano.{{Cite news|title=Music: Roger Miller|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/05/arts/music-roger-miller.html|first=Jon|last=Pareles|author-link=Jon Pareles|work=The New York Times|date=1987-06-05|access-date=2014-02-15}}{{Cite web |title=Fuse Feature: M2 — 'At Land's Edge' Album Review/Interview |url=http://artsfuse.org/63195/fuse-feature-m2-at-lands-edge-album-reviewinterview/ |first=Kathleen |last=Burke |publisher=The Arts Fuse |work=ArtsFuse.org |date=2012-06-19 |access-date=2014-02-15}}{{Cite web |title=The Mush Race of Boston: The SICPP 2013 Iditarod |url=http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/the-mush-race-of-boston-the-sicpp-2013-iditarod/ |first=Jennie |last=Gottschalk |publisher=New Music USA |work=NewMusicBox.org |date=2013-07-02 |access-date=2014-02-15}}
• On his 1975 album Another Green World, composer Brian Eno employed prepared piano on the track "Little Fishes".{{Cite book|title=Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound|last=Tamm|first=Eric|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1995|pages=127|quote="In 'Little Fishes,' Eno plays prepared piano and Farfisa organ."}} He also played it on David Bowie's Lodger (1979) album.{{cite book |last1=O'Leary |first1=Chris |title=Ashes to Ashes The Songs of David Bowie, 1976-2016 |date=2019 |publisher=Watkins Media}}
• Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, employed prepared piano techniques in his album The Prepared Piano in 2005.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hauschka-mn0000317960/discography|title=Hauschka {{!}} Album Discography {{!}} AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=2017-07-14}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/182737-Hauschka|title=Hauschka|website=Discogs|language=en|access-date=2017-07-14}}
• Several Aphex Twin compositions from the 2001 album Drukqs make use of prepared piano.{{Cite web|url=http://warp.net/news/richard-aphex-john-cage-and-the-prepared-piano/|website=warp.net|language=en|access-date=2018-03-15|title=WARP}}
• The third movement of John Mackey's wind symphony, Wine-Dark Sea, utilizes piano prepared with glass rods.John Mackey, Wine-Dark Sea, (San Francisco, Osti Music, 2014), 3, https://www.johnmackey.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Wine-Dark_Sea-perusal.pdf The combination of the glass rods, as well as a spoon scraped over the strings, work to create a dissonant "fingernails on chalkboard," setting the scene of Odysseus in the underworld.Sweet, Jonathan C., "JOHN MACKEY’S WINE-DARK SEA: SYMPHONY FOR BAND A DISCOURSE AND ANALYSIS OF JOHN MACKEY’S SYMPHONY FOR BAND" (2019). Theses and Dissertations--Music. 148.

https://uknowledge.uky.edu/music_etds/148

• Kristin Hayter, while on tour under the moniker Lingua Ignota, has performed on a piano prepared with forks, clothes pins, fishing wire with heavy rosin, bells, chains, and a clamp lamp.{{Cite tweet |author=Kristin Hayter |author-link=Kristin Hayter |user=LINGUA_IGNOTA_ |number=1523050397157502976 |title=I am here in New York at @lprnyc for the first of two sold out shows! They have provided me with cheezits, cheezit socks, and I have prepared the piano. All is well}}{{Cite tweet |author=Kristin Hayter |author-link=Kristin Hayter |user=LINGUA_IGNOTA_ |number=1524734721107935234 |title=For those curious, the piano has been prepared with: forks, clothes pins, fishing wire (with heavy rosin), bells from the record, chains, and a clamp lamp.}}

• Kelly Moran, an American composer and producer makes extensive use of prepared piano techniques on her 2017 album Bloodroot.

{{Main|Tack piano}}

Strictly speaking, a tack piano is not a prepared piano, since

• No objects are inserted into or onto the strings;
• The strings' original pitches remain perceptible; and
• The preparation is not fully reversible.

Although the tacks can be removed from the hammers, inserting them causes permanent damage to the felt; for this and other reasons, the use of tacks is generally discouraged by piano technicians.{{Cite web|url=http://www.perfessorbill.com/help/help.htm|title=RagPiano.com - Site Help|website=www.perfessorbill.com}}

The Acoustisizer is an electroacoustic musical instrument built from a small grand piano with built-in speakers, magnetic guitar pickups, PZMs, and prepared piano strings. It was built as part of a graduate thesis project at California State University Dominguez Hills by Bob Fenger (1983), a student of Richard Bunger (author of the Well Prepared Piano). Speakers are built into the bottom of the instrument, redirecting its own amplified sound back onto the sounding board, with strings and magnetic pickups creating an amplitude intensity loop, which in turn drives and vibrates suspended kinetic oscillators (assemblages of vibration sensitive materials). Secondary control parameters allow extraction of vibration and sound phenomena from the kinetic oscillators through a series of proximity microphones and PZMs (piezo-electric contact mics). An article by the inventor was published in Experimental Musical Instruments Magazine April 1991, Nicasio, California.Fenger, Bob Icon. [http://windworld.com/products-page/back-issues/ "The Acoustisizer"], Nicasio, California, volume 6, no. 6, April 1991. It includes pictures of the kinetic oscillators and stages of the construction process, including an underbody view of the speaker system configuration.Fenger, Bob, "The Acoustisizer" {{cite web |url=http://preparedpianos.com/ |title=Piano Bob-UJAM MAN ! |access-date=2013-08-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231654/http://preparedpianos.com/ |archive-date=2013-12-02 }} Joshua Tree, California, April 1991

• The Finchcocks collection
• Fortepiano
• Luthéal
• Prepared guitar
• Prepared harp
• String piano

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|first=Richard|last=Bunger|authorlink=Richard Bunger Evans|date=1973|edition=1981|isbn=978-0-94061-200-6|title=The Well-Prepared Piano|location=Colorado Springs|publisher=Colorado College Music Press}} The foreword by John Cage evolved into the essay "[https://www.johncage.org/prepared_piano_essay.html How the Piano Came to be Prepared]".
• Fürst-Heidtmann, Monika (1979). Das präparierte Klavier des John Cage. Gustav Bose Verlag Regensburg. {{ISBN|978-3-7649-2183-5}}.
• Dianova, Tzenka (2008). John Cage's Prepared Piano: The Nuts & Bolts. Mutasis Books Victoria. {{ISBN|978-0-9809657-0-4}}.

• [http://www.areyouprepared.dk 'Are You Prepared' 17-key Online Prepared Piano] by Andreas Busk. Site includes free downloadable prepared piano sampler for Ableton Live, NI's Kontakt and Logic's EXS Sampler
• [https://bop.unibe.ch/EJM/article/view/6170/8412 The Sound Collector - The Prepared Piano of John Cage] by Tim Ovens.
• [http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/essay_gann05.html If you build it, they will come!] essay by Kyle Gann, includes video performance of preparation by Margaret Leng Tan ([http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/rafiles/mlt.ram here]).
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080922161928/http://www.gersic.com/audio.php?id=33 Prepared Piano Sample Set] - By Tom Gersic. Some free, others cheap
• [http://www.zippernoise.net Prepared Piano Max/MSP-Object] - By Dr. Stefan Bilbao, ported to Max/MSP by Thomas Resch

• [https://archive.org/details/AM_1973_05_17 Prepared piano demonstration and performance by Richard Bunger]
• [http://www.epitonic.com/artists/johncage.html Epitonic.com: John Cage] performed by Margaret Leng Tan, featuring In the Name of the Holocaust

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Category:Extended techniques

Category:Piano

Category:Musical performance techniques