#2721: Music for Prepared Piano

New Sounds | May 24, 2010

Popularized by John Cage to approximate the sound of a percussion orchestra, the prepared piano has been used by composers like Arvo Pärt, Mikel Rouse, and of course Cage himself. In Cage's use, the preparations consist of nuts, bolts and pieces of rubber to be lodged between and entwined around the strings, and can sound like mbiras, marimbas, bells, wood blocks, Indonesian gamelan instruments, to name a few. Mikel Rouse digitally incorporated sampled sounds of John Cage’s prepared piano into"International Cloud Atlas," the score to a Merce Cunningham dance piece "eyeSpace." Plus, Arvo Pärt made extensive use of a prepared piano in his double concerto for two violins, string orchestra, and prepared piano, "Tabula Rasa." Perhaps we'll also hear from Jason Moran, and more.

PROGRAM #2721, Music for Prepared Piano (First aired on Friday, 10/05/07)

ARTIST(S)	RECORDING	CUT(S)	SOURCE
Philipp Vandre	John Cage: Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano	Daughters of the Lonesome Isle , excerpt [2:00]	Mode #180/81** www.moderecords.com *
John Adams	The John Adams Earbox	John’s Book of Alleged Dances, #1 [2:30]	Nonesuch 10-CD box, #79453 ** Also available on a separate Nonesuch CD, #79465 www.nonesuch.com
Jason Moran	Modernistic	Gangsterism On a Lunchtable [3:00]	Blue Note #39838 ** www.bluenote.com
Mikel Rouse	Love At Twenty	My Love’s Gone [5:00]	Download from iTunes, or mikelrouse.com *
Susanna And the Magical Orchestra	Melody Mountain	These Days [4:00]	Rune Grammofon #2057 www.runegrammofon.com *
Arvo Part	Tabula Rasa	Tabula Rasa [26:30]	ECM #1275 * www.ecmrecords.com
Philipp Vandre	John Cage: Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano	Music for Marcel Duchamp [7:00]	See above.

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