A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers. A short grand piano, with the top up. ...

The idea of altering an instrument's timbre through the use of external objects has been applied to instruments other than the piano; see, for example, prepared guitar or third bridge guitar. In music, timbre, also timber (from Fr. ... A prepared guitar is a guitar which has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instruments strings, including other extended techniques. ... Fred Frith displaying some of his homemade 3rd bridge guitars, circa 1982. ...

History

John Cage was undoubtedly the composer who put the "prepared piano" concept on the world map, and coined the term. He credited Henry Cowell, and, to a lesser extent, Erik Satie, for contributing to the idea, and was probably unaware of many other precedents described below. For Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ... Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ... Selfportrait of Erik Satie. ...

Precedents

Since the later days of the harpsichord (17th-18th century) stringed keyboard instruments could have registers, for instance giving a drier or more ample sound when a stop was pulled (a stop in the meaning of a similar disposition for organs, known as organ stops). Harpsichord in the Flemish style A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. ... The choir division of the organ at St. ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany The organ is a keyboard instrument played using one or more manuals and a pedalboard. ... The choir division of the organ at St. ...

When the first pianos were invented around the beginning of the 18th century, the only "coloring" of the sounds produced by the instrument resulted from how the individual keys were pressed ("loud" = "forte", or "softly" = "piano", giving the name to the instrument: fortepiano). A type of "register", first implemented with a "stop" above the keyboard, that became a standard device for pianos in the second half of the 18th century was engaging or disengaging the muting of the strings after the release of a key. Only by the end of the 18th century the muting mechanism was triggered with a pedal, after an intermediate period when this "register" was operated by the pianist's knees. A short grand piano, with the top up. ... Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, as it existed from its invention by Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. ...

But the idea of harpsichord-like registers lived on: in the early 19th century some pianos were provided with a "reed" stop, which lowered a strip of paper onto the strings. This led musicologists like Tom Beghin to believe that the technique of placing a strip of paper on piano strings would probably have originated before it was standardised as a register operated with stops, and that, for instance, Mozart's Alla Turca can safely be played with a piece of paper on some of the strings as a "historical" interpretation (see http://www.klara.be/html/klara_cds.html or http://streampower.belgacom.be/vrt/klara/beghin_mozart.mp3 for an audio example of this Alla Turca played on a "prepared" rebuilt "authentic" Mozart piano, in Tom Beghin's interpretation). A reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to make music. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IPA: , baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Piano Sonata No. ...

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, "Turkish" music was so popular that piano manufacturers made special pianos with a "Turkish stop", also called the "military" or "Janissary" stop. The player would press a pedal that caused a bell to ring and/or a padded hammer to strike the soundboard in imitation of a bass drum. The Turkish stop was popular for playing the famous Mozart Rondo alla Turca, K. 331.

In the 1920s a new invention was presented, the Luthéal, which extended the "register" possibilities of a piano to its maximum, producing cimbalon-like sounds in some registers, exploiting harmonics of the strings when pulling other register-stops, and also some registers making other objects, which were lowered just above the strings, resound. But that instrument became obsolete before it became popular, partly due to most of the mechanics of the instrument being too sensitive, needing constant adjustment. The 1920s is a decade that is sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... Tzigane is a rhapsody type of composition by the French composer Maurice Ravel. ... Cymbalum // Overview The cymbalum, cymbalom, cimbalom (most common spelling), Å£ambal, tsymbaly, tsimbl or santouri is a musical instrument found mainly in the Roma music of Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. ... In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. ...

The short rise and fall of the Luthéal in 1920s Paris took place about a decade after the only French experiment John Cage was probably aware of when he developed the "prepared piano" idea around the middle of the 20th century: Erik Satie's execution of the piano version of the Piège de Méduse incidental music in 1913 or 1914, in which case the preparation was limited again to placing sheets of paper on the piano strings, in order to imitate the "mechanical" sound of the monkey puppet that figured in the play. Whether Satie himself saw any connection to a "tradition" of applying paper strips on piano strings is not known. City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Selfportrait of Erik Satie. ... Le piège de Méduse (Meduses trap) is a short play of which Erik Satie wrote both the text and the incidental music. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Another precedent was an experiment by the French composer Maurice Delage (1879-1961): his Ragamalika (1912-22), based on the classical music of India, calls for a piece of cardboard to be placed under the B-flat in the second line of the bass clef to dampen the sound, imitating the sound of an Indian drum.^[1] Maurice Delage - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

John Cage and later composers

The first composer to use prepared piano extensively was John Cage, who is often (though inaccurately) credited with inventing the instrument. Cage certainly popularized the prepared piano, and inspired many other composers. Arvo Pärt's popular Tabula Rasa (1977) is one of the better-known compositions to make extensive use of a prepared piano. A composer is a person who writes music. ... For Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ... Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide), (IPA: ˈɑr̺vÉ” ˈpær̺t) is an Estonian composer, often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or sacred minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki...

Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned to write music for "Bacchanale", a dance by Syvilla Fort in 1938. 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 and Charles, 38) Cage would often quip that by preparing a piano he left it in better condition than he found it. jus like my ass For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation). ... Syvilla Fort (b. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ...

Cage himself said he was greatly inspired by Henry Cowell's experiments with the so-called string piano, in which the performer plucks and scrapes the strings of the piano directly. Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ... String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell to collectively describe those pianistic techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, rather than by striking of the pianos keys. ...

In Cage's use, the preparations are typically nuts, bolts and pieces of rubber to be lodged between and entwined around the strings. Some preparations make duller, more percussive sounds than usual, while others create sonorous bell-like tones. Additionally, the individual parts of a preparation like a nut loosely screwed onto a bolt will vibrate themselves, adding their own unique sound. By placing the preparation between two of the strings on a note which has three strings assigned to it, it is possible to change the timbre of that note by depressing the soft pedal on the piano, which moves the hammers so they strike only two strings instead of all three (the soft pedal is traditionally called "una corda" on a grand). Other prepared piano sounds can be reminiscent of mbiras, marimbas, bells, wood blocks, Indonesian gamelan instruments, or many other sounds less easily defined. A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being struck with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. ... A bell is a simple sound-making device. ... In music, timbre, also timber (from Fr. ... Mbira Dzavadzimu in deze (top), Mbira Nyunga Nyunga (bottom), Hosho (bottom left). ... The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. ... A bell is a simple sound-making device. ... Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. ...

Although it is possible to prepare an upright piano in this way to some extent, it is far easier, and far more common, on a grand piano.

The phrase "prepared piano" is also sometimes applied to other kinds of preparations. The "tack piano" is a piano that has been altered by inserting thumbtacks or small nails into the striking end of each hammer, so that the instrument will produce a more percussive sound and brighter timbre. The resulting tone often resembles the sound of a very old and uncared-for piano. The tack piano has been used primarily in "honky-tonk"-style piano playing, or to make a piano sound like an antique piano that might have been heard in a saloon or brothel around the early 20th century. The application of tacks is generally discouraged by piano technicians as the tacks can drop off the hammers and lodge in the strings or jam the mechanism. On normal pianos, felt coverings on the hammers will harden with age (though not usually for at least several decades), yielding a characteristic "tinny" sound. This can be cured by softening the hammers with a device consisting of multiple needles, resembling a comb. Where the felt is too far gone, it can be simply replaced. The tack piano is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument, giving it a tinny, more percussive sound. ...

On some pianos, a bar is in installed above the hammers and activated by the center pedal. This bar can be furnished with felt - which will significantly mute the sound of the piano (a practice mute) or strips of cloth tape with metal attached to the ends, and the hammers will hit the metal bits onto the string. This is sometimes called a mandolin attachment - although mandolin players would likely object that the sound is nothing like a mandolin. This gives a sound similar to the "tack piano" but can instantly be returned to a regular piano sound by releasing the center pedal.

In classical music, the American composer Lou Harrison has called for tack piano in some of his compositions, primarily for its clarity of tone. The composer Conlon Nancarrow adapted his player pianos in a similar way, covering the hammers of his pianos with metal bands and hardened leather strips. Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 - February 2, 2003) was an American composer. ... Conlon Nancarrow (October 27, 1912 - August 10, 1997) was an American composer who took Mexican citizenship in 1955. ... The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily loses electrons to form positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds between metal atoms. ... Modern leather-working tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. ...

More recent composers to use prepared pianos include Philip Corner, Carson Kievman, Richard D. James (Aphex Twin), Jason Moran and Stephen Scott. Andrea Neumann takes an extreme approach to piano preparation, having gradually dismantled pianos until the wooden frame and piano strings are all that remain. Philip (Lionel) Corner (April 10, 1933—) is a composer as well as trombonist, vocalist, and pianist. ... Aphex Twin (born Richard David James on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland) is an electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, acid, and drum and bass. ... Jaxon Moran Jason Moran and The Bandwagon Jason Moran (born January 21, 1975) is a jazz pianist. ... Stephen Scott (b. ...

Australian composers Erik Griswold and Anthony Pateras have further developed the potential of the prepared piano in an improvisational context, as well as exploring the microtonal possibilities of the medium, while Ross Bolleter has taken the idea into an innovative direction - exploring the use of "ruined" pianos, or pianos decayed by weather and time.

In popular music

One of the earliest uses of prepared piano in mainstream pop standards is the 1953 Ferrante and Teicher dual-piano album Hi-FiReworks.^{[citation needed]} This is also one of the first records of the 1950s Exotica movement, also called Space Age Bachelor Pad. Ferrante & Teicher were one of the most successful US easy listening acts of the 1960s and 1970s, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes. ... Martin Dennys breakthrough album, Exotica Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the late 1950s to mid 1960s typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism exotica means tropical ersatz...

On "All Tomorrow's Parties" from The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967), John Cale prepared his piano with a chain of paper clips.^[2] All Tomorrows Parties can refer to: [[All Tomorrows POOOOOOP Tomorrows Parties]], a novel in the Bridge trilogy by William Gibson All Tomorrows Parties, an alternative music festival which takes place at Camber Sands, near Rye in East Sussex in the United Kingdom and Los Angeles in... The Velvet Underground and Nico is The Velvet Undergrounds debut album, originally released in March 1967 by Verve Records. ... John Davies Cale (born March 9, 1942) is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. ... Small metal paper clip Another example of a paper clip. ...

The Grateful Dead's Tom Constantan used prepared piano techniques on 1968's Anthem of The Sun album opener "That's It For The Other One".

Perhaps the best known recent use of prepared piano in pop music is the Flying Lizards' version of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)". Featuring a piano prepared with small pieces of tin and phone books, the minimalist song had a unique sound that turned it into a huge hit in the early 1980s. It is now often used in advertisements. }} For popular forms of music in general, see Popular music. ... The Flying Lizards is a experimental music group that made several record albums: avant garde and free improvising musicains including Deborah Evans, Deborah Strickland, David Toop, Steve Beresford and David Cunningham have been members at some time. ... Barrett Strong (born February 5, 1941 in West Point, Mississippi) is an African-American singer and songwriter. ... Money (Thats What I Want) is a 1959 hit single by Barrett Strong for the Tamla label, distributed by Anna Records. ...

On David Bowie's 1979 album Lodger, Brian Eno used a looped prepared piano to provide the rhythmic basis of the track "African Night Flight". David Bowie (IPA: []) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ... Lodger is a 1979 album by David Bowie. ... Brian Eno (pronounced ) (born Brian Peter George St. ...

Ernst Horn from the German group Deine Lakaien uses a prepared upright piano during live concerts, most notably during the song "The Mirror Men". Deine Lakaien is a German Darkwave group comprised of vocalist Alexander Veljanov and the classically trained composer, pianist and drummer Ernst Horn. ...

In 1994, Tori Amos used a prepared upright piano for Bells for Her on her album Under the Pink. "Bells for Her" was also played on a prepared piano for the second half of that album's live tour. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Under the Pink is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) album by Tori Amos. ...

More recently, the British electronic composer Richard D. James (better known as Aphex Twin) used a prepared piano on his 2001 album drukqs. Artist Ben Folds has recorded numerous songs using a tack piano as well. 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."^[3] Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin Aphex Twin (born Richard David James, August 18, 1971, Ireland) is a UK-based electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, IDM, acid, drum and bass (specifically drill n bass). ... Aphex Twin (born Richard David James on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland) is an electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, acid, and drum and bass. ... Drukqs (sometimes spelled drukqs or drukQs) is a 2001 experimental double album by Richard D. James, released under his most frequently used artistic name, Aphex Twin. ... Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is an American singer-songwriter and the former frontman of the musical group Ben Folds Five. ... Denman Maroney is a jazz musician who plays what he calls hyperpiano. ...

Chris Bulter's The Waitresses use prepared piano on their song "No Guilt". Members of the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and Tom Constanten) used prepared piano on their infamous second studio album Anthem of the Sun. The Waitresses were an experimental New Wave band from Kent, Ohio,[1] United States. ... The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco, California. ... Jerome John Jerry Garcia (August 1, 1942 –]) was an American musician best known for being the lead guitarist and vocalist of the psychedelic rock band Grateful Dead. ... Mickey Hart (born September 11, 1943) is best known as one of the two drummers from the rock band the Grateful Dead. ... Bill Kreutzmann (born May 7, 1946 in Palo Alto, California) was the drummer for legendary rock band the Grateful Dead for their entire 30-year career. ... Tom Constanten Musician, primarily keyboardist, born March 19, 1944, best known for his stint with the Grateful Dead from 1968-1970. ... Anthem of the Sun is the second studio album by the Grateful Dead, released in 1968. ...

Elton John is known to use a prepared piano in concert to give some of his songs (including "Daniel" and "Philadelphia Freedom") an electric sound.^{[citation needed]} Sir Elton Hercules[1] John CBE [2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a multiple Grammy and Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ...

British composer/producer Chris Brown created a type of prepared electric piano, the Gazamba from the shell of a Wurlitzer electric piano - it has become the trademark of his work. An electric piano (e-piano) is an electric musical instrument that is very mexican sounding. ... The gazamba is an electromechanical musical instrument, essentially a prepared electric piano. ... One of a series of electromechanical stringless pianos manufactured and marketed by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Corinth, Mississippi, USA. The Wurlitzer company actually called the instrument (inaccurately in retrospect) the Electronic Piano, but musicians usually describe it correctly as an electric piano. ...

Christine McVie, former pianist of Fleetwood Mac, used a prepared upright piano (metal bar attachment) on "Sara" from the album Tusk. A piano like this was also used on the Tusk Tour. Christine McVie (born Christine Anne Perfect, July 12, 1943, in Birmingham) is an English singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. ... This article is about the band. ... Tusk was a double album released in 1979 (see 1979 in music) by Fleetwood Mac. ...

Notes

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ Mitchell, Tim Sedition and Alchemy : A Biography of John Cale, 2003, ISBN 0720611326
3. ^ Philadelphia FRINGE Festival 2000 - Hyperpiano. Retrieved on 2005-12-23.

Georgina Born (born 15 November 1955 in Wheatley, Oxfordshire) is a British academic, anthropologist and musician. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 23 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (358th in leap years). ...

References

• Cage, John, and Daniel Charles (1981). For The Birds: John Cage in Conversation with Daniel Charles. Marion Boyers. ISBN 0-7145-2690-8.

See also

• list of solo piano pieces, American (John Cage)
• Prepared guitar

Samuel Barber Excursions (4), op. ... A prepared guitar is a guitar which has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instruments strings, including other extended techniques. ...

External links

• The Sound Collector - The Prepared Piano of John Cage by Tim Ovens (PDF version).
• If you build, it they will come! essay by Kyle Gann, includes video performance of preparation by Margaret Leng Tan (here).
• Epitonic.com: John Cage performed by Margaret Leng Tan, featuring In the Name of the Holocaust
• Prepared Piano Sample Set - some free, others cheap
• Prepared Piano Max/MSP-Object - By Dr. Stefan Bilbao, ported to Max/MSP by Thomas Resch