Prepared piano is an interesting method, altering the tone produced by the keyboard by placing objects between the strings. Its modern use has been credited to John Cage, who wrote his piece Bacchanale for percussion ensemble but found it was being performed in a space that didn't have room for one. As the Wikipedia page shows, there were precedents before that.
This performance of a cage piece is a good example. Likely not all good pianists are good at prepared piano. This one gets a lot of mileage out of it.
2 comments:
Except for the fact I find John Cage's piano pieces unlistenable that was interesting. The performing pianist was definitely very talented.
When I saw on the wiki link it mentioned Ferrante y Teicher also used prepared piano in their compositions. I wasn't able to find any of the individual pieces from their 1960 album but I eventually did find the album on youtube that you can scan through if you want.
https://youtu.be/o13S110k4nY?si=chm4_2m78HKSJ21G
01. Ferrante and Teicher - Blue Skies (02:06)
02. Ferrante and Teicher - Tea For Two (02:35)
03. Ferrante and Teicher - A Bee And His Honey (01:21)
04. Ferrante and Teicher - The Lady Is A Tramp (02:27)
05. Ferrante and Teicher - The Sheik Of Araby (01:53)
06. Ferrante and Teicher - Alternating Current (02:11)
07. Ferrante and Teicher - Cold Turkey (02:02)
08. Ferrante and Teicher - Mine (02:28)
09. Ferrante and Teicher - Holiday For Strings (02:15)
10. Ferrante and Teicher - They Can't Take That Away From Me (02:37)
11. Ferrante and Teicher - Echo Canyon (02:00)
12. Ferrante and Teicher - Liza (02:14)
Brian Eno, John Cale, Dave Brubeck and Aphex Twin all produced some wonderful compositions using prepared pianos. I may have to check out some of the others.. like Roger Miller's Anvil Orchestra.
I figured that I couldn't really avoid John Cage in blogging about the prepared piano. And they're interesting pieces as well. You're right that she's a good player.
Thank you for linking to the Ferrante & Teicher album. I've heard too little of them up till now. The opening song is like no other version of "Blue Skies" I've ever heard. And their "The Lady Is a Tramp" sounds like it could have easily been recorded 50 years later.
John Cale apparently prepared his piano with paperclips for "All Tomorrow's Parties", which I had no idea about, even though I've listened to it a bunch of times. There's also a prepared piano on The Beatles' "Penny Lane." The Roger Miller with the Anvil Orchestra is with the Boston band Mission of Burma, and not the guy who sang "King of the Road." Both great in their way, I'm sure.
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