Prepared piano

Andrea Neumann's preparations, where pieces of cutlery are placed between piano strings (2010)

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.

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.

Background information

Richard Bunger wrote a book, The Well-Prepared Piano, in which he explains how John Cage prepared his pianos and even which pianos are suitable, because of the deviation of string lengths within different brands. Bunger also clarifies why the preparations were done in such ways; in other words, which adaptation creates which sounds (harmonics obtained, timbrel effects, etc.). The timbre of the instrument changes dramatically when preparations are introduced. Much of the technique is related to the harmonic positions of the strings. For instance a preparation on 1/2 of the string length causes a different sound than on 1/3. In other words, the preparations don't cause a random sound as often assumed.

History

John Cage coined the term prepared piano and was undoubtedly the composer who made the technique famous. He credited Henry Cowell and, to a lesser extent, Erik Satie, for contributing to the idea, but it is unclear if Cage was aware of many other precedents described below.

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 the instrument's stop was pulled (a stop in the meaning of a similar disposition for organs, known as organ stops).

Fortepiano

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, which 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.

Reed stop

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 such as 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.

Turkish stop

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.

Tack 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 derelict piano whose hammers have been hardened and compressed over decades of use. 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, or the fact that placing tacks inside felt hammers permanently damages the felt, which is stretched at high tension over the hammer heads, rendering it unvoicable and likely to split.^[1]

Alternatively, a piano can be prepared to give a honky-tonk sound by slightly detuning one or more strings per piano key, creating the characteristic beating sound of an out of tune piano.

Satie's Piège de Méduse

In the piano version of his Piège de Méduse (1913 or 1914) Erik Satie's score called for placing sheets of paper on the piano strings in order to imitate the mechanical sound of a monkey puppet that figured in the play.

Villa-Lobos's Choros no. 8

In his 1925 work for two pianos and large orchestra, Heitor Villa-Lobos added to his score instructions to the pianist to insert pieces of paper between the strings and the hammers to attain a certain sonority.^[2]

Luthéal

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 only pieces in the general repertoire to feature the Luthéal are L'enfant et les sortilèges (1920–5) and Tzigane (1924) by Maurice Ravel, performances of which tend to substitute an upright piano, either prepared with paper or straight.

Ragamalika

Another precedent to the prepared piano 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.^[3]

String piano

In the 1920s, American composer Henry Cowell coined the term string piano "to describe direct manipulation of piano strings, such as by plucking them with fingers or stroking them with a brush.

Acoustisizer

The Acoustisizer is an electro acoustic musical instrument built from a small grand piano with built in speakers, magnetic guitar pickups, PZMs, and prepared piano strings. Built as part of a graduate project thesis at California State University Dominguez Hills by Bob Fenger (1983) a student of Richard Bunger author of the Well Prepared Piano. Speakers are built into the bottom of the instrument redirecting its own amplified sound back onto the sounding board, strings and magnetic pickups creating an amplitude intensity loop which in turn drives and vibrates suspended kinetic oscillators (assemblages of vibration sensitive materials). Secondary control parameters allow extraction of vibration and sound phenomenon from the kinetic oscillators through a series of proximity microphones and PZMS (piezo electric contact mics). An article was written by the inventor and was published in Experimental Musical Instruments Magazine April 1991, Nicasio CA^[4] It includes pictures of the kinetic oscillators and stages of the construction process including an underbody view of the speaker system configuration. ^[5] See also Public Prepared Piano at Street piano 3.0 (Public Piano Project in Joshua Tree CA). ^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] [13]}

John Cage and later composers

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).

More recent composers to use prepared pianos include John Wolf Brennan, Roberto Carnevale, Philip Corner, Stephen Scott, Richard D. James, Jason Moran, Erdem Helvacıoğlu, Marina Leonardi, Hiromi Uehara, and Volker Bertelmann.

In popular music

• The Beach Boys' 1967-1971 "Love to Say Dada" and "Cool, Cool Water" recordings make use of a piano with its strings taped.
• "All Tomorrow's Parties" from The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), John Cale prepared his piano with a chain of paper clips.^[14]
• 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."^[15]
• Since 1982, Roger Miller (rock musician) has fashioned his own take on prepared piano in his work. Initially featured on Mission of Burma's 45 "Trem II", Miller has since released many albums (Ace of Hearts, SST, New Alliance, Atavistic, Matador) incorporating this technique. His concert hall compositions, from 2009 to present, often utilize prepared piano."^[16]|^[17][18]
• The Noah and the Whale song "Our Window" makes use of a piano prepared with "screws, ping pong balls and tooth picks."^[19]
• Tori Amos song "Bells for Her" has her play a prepared piano.

See also

• Piano extended technique
• Prepared harp

Notes

Further reading

• Bunger, Richard (1973). The Well-Prepared Piano. Colorado Springs: Colorado College Music Press
• Fürst-Heidtmann, Monika (1979). Das präparierte Klavier des John Cage. Gustav Bose Verlag Regensburg. ISBN 978-3-7649-2183-5.
• Cage, John, and Daniel Charles (1981). For The Birds: John Cage in Conversation with Daniel Charles. Marion Boyers London. ISBN 0-7145-2690-8.
• Dianova, Tzenka (2008). John Cage's Prepared Piano: The Nuts & Bolts. Mutasis Books Victoria. ISBN 978-0-9809657-0-4.

External links

• 'Are You Prepared' 17-key Online Prepared Piano by Andreas Busk-Jepsen. Site includes free downloadable prepared piano sampler for Ableton Live, NI's Kontakt and Logic's EXS Sampler
• 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).
• Prepared Piano Sample Set - By Tom Gersic. Some free, others cheap
• Prepared Piano Max/MSP-Object - By Dr. Stefan Bilbao, ported to Max/MSP by Thomas Resch
• Jingle Bells on Prepared Piano - By George Aroshidze

Listening

• Prepared piano demonstration and performance by Richard Bunger
• Epitonic.com: John Cage performed by Margaret Leng Tan, featuring In the Name of the Holocaust

v t e Extended techniques General Glissando Multiphonics Percussion Bowing Bowed strings Col legno Harmonics Other strings Luthéal Piano extended technique Prepared guitar Prepared harp Prepared piano String piano Tack piano Winds Circular breathing Flutter-tonguing Growling Split tone Slap tonguing Voice Screaming Sprechstimme