Prepared piano

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.

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The first composer to use it extensively was John Cage, who is often credited with inventing the instrument. Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned to write music for ?Bacchanale?, a dance by Syvilla Fort in 1948. 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 then he found it.

Related Topics:
Composer - John Cage - Dance - Syvilla Fort - Percussion

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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. Many others have since written for the prepared piano. Arvo Pärt's popular Tabula Rasa (1977) makes extensive use of a prepared piano in both movements.

Related Topics:
Henry Cowell - '''string piano''' - Arvo Pärt

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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 ). Other prepared piano sounds can be reminsicent of mbiras, marimbas, bells, wood blocks, Indonesian gamelan instruments, or many others less easily defined.

Related Topics:
Percussive - Bell - Timbre - Mbira - Marimba - Gamelan

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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.

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The phrase prepared piano is also sometimes applied to other kinds of preparations. Lou Harrison, for example, used something he called the tack piano, a piano with small nails stuck in the hammers to produce a more percussive sound. Conlon Nancarrow adapted his player pianos in a similar way, covering the hammers with metal and leather. The application of tacks will produce a sound similar to a very old and uncared-for piano. In such pianos the felt covers on the hammers will harden with age, yielding a characteristic "tinny" sound. This is cured by softening the hammers with a multiple needle device resembling a comb. Application of tacks is generally discouraged by piano technicians as the tacks can drop off of the hammer and lodge in the strings or jam the mechanism.

Related Topics:
Lou Harrison - Tack piano - Conlon Nancarrow - Player piano - Metal - Leather

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More recent composers to use prepared pianos include Philip Corner, Carson Kievman, and Stephen Scott. Although little known, the French composer Maurice Delage (1879-1961) was an early composer to call for the preparation of the piano; 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.{{ref|autonumber}}

Related Topics:
Philip Corner - Carson Kievman - Stephen Scott - Maurice Delage

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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.

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