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Author
John Cage (1912-1992: American)
- born in Los Angeles, attended Pomona College
- invented what he called the "prepared piano"
- much of his music reflects his preoccupation with East Asian philosophy
- composed many works involving chance and indeterminacy
- Wikipedia Article
About the Piece
(much of the description comes from elements that were brought out by Forney and Machlis, The Enjoyment of Music, and the accompanying DVD)
- Genre is non-Western music
- Prepared piano is used to emulate non-Western sounds
- irregular length phrases
- score looks relatively normal, but piece doesn't even sound like a piano (it's amazing what a few screws and rubber bands can do)
- meter is unclear and rhythm is constantly changing
- binary form
- distinctly different timbre (actually, quite a few different timbres, all coming from the same instrument)
- YouTube Video
Purpose
- experimentation
- entertainment
- expression of Eastern ideas and music in Western instruments
Reflections
I love this piece! Of all the pieces in this course so far, this is probably my favorite. Wow! It's fascinating to me how all of those different timbres can come from a piano just by putting screws and rubber bands in the back of it. The preparing of the piano is something I think would be fun to experiment with. It's too bad that it's not good for the piano. Whatever people may say about Cage's 4'33", they cannot deny that this is art and creativity in its finest.