John Cage: Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
One of John Cage's first and best musical explorations was the prepared piano. A prepared piano in Cage's hands could be any number of things but was, most basically, a piano with metal objects inserted between the strings. These are the earliest prepared piano recordings, dating from 1951, and feature the fresh execution of Maro Ajemian, who sounds at complete ease in proximity to her groundbreaking position. Cage's pieces rely on the piano as a percussion instrument as much as a harmony instrument, and these sonatas sound beautifully rich as well as skillfully cropped. The piano rings in ricochets, from clean intonation to hard-knocked slaps. This is musical discovery of the highest order. --Andrew Bartlett

Tracks:

Prelude A L'Apres-Midi D'un Faune - Alexander Rahbari
Walzer - Peter Hill
I. Andante-Scherzo - Rebecca Hirsch
Sehr Ruhig Und Zart - Ulster Orchestra
Lebhaft Und Zart Bewegt - Ulster Orchestra
Sehr Langsam Und Ausserst Zart - Ulster Orchestra
Fliessend, Ausserst Zart - Ulster Orchestra
Sehr Fliessend - Ulster Orchestra
Forlane: Allegretto - Klara Kormendi
First Tableau: The Shrove-Tide Fair - Philharmonia Orchestra
The Mountebank - Philharmonia Orchestra
Vivo - Bournemouth Sinfonietta
III. Moderato Pesante - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Hymn To St. Cecilia - Choir Of St. John's College, Cambridge
IV. Allegretto - Ondrej Lenard
Introduzione: Andante Non Troppo-Allegro Vivace - Alexander Rahbari

Tracks:

Romance - Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice)
II. Allegro - Ladislav Slovak
III. Allegro Agitato - Stephen Gunzenhauser
Main Theme From Schindler's List - Paul Bateman
The Unanswered Question - Northern Sinfonia
Second Electonic Interpolation (Conclusion) - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Third Electronic Interpolation (Beginning) - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
I. Liturgie De Cristal - Amici Ensemble
IV. Commentaire - Idil Biret
Warming Up, Leading To Model 1, Bass - Gregory Rose
'Gott Nochmal' Sun God - Gregory Rose
'Vishnu' God Of Storms - Gregory Rose
God Of The Earth - Gregory Rose
First Interlude - Boris Berman
I. - Roger Heaton
Short Ride In A Fast Machine - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Lord's Prayer - Choir Of St. John's College, Cambridge
II. Lento E Largo-Tranquillissimo - Zofia Kilanowicz
Lullaby - Philharmonia Orchestra
Vision Of The Hunt I - Philharmonia Orchestra
Voice For Solo Flute - Robert Aitken

Customer Reviews:

excellent overview of contemporaneous classic music.......2007-03-22

excellent overview of contemporaneous classic music.

Should be continued, plenty more 20th-century composers to be discovered.

For the price you can't lose.......2007-02-21

This 2 cd set consists of, as the title indicates, various 20c pieces or movements from the Naxos catalog. Sound quality is uniformly high, although for some such as Stockhausen's it's not clear if that's good or bad. What is excellent is the variety of the collection--some familiar (Debussy), others not, some pretty, others intentionally weird. Few will find every piece to his or her taste, but many listeners who do not spend much time on 20c music will find something to like. Overall, a great introduction to a period of much off-putting, yes, but also much compelling music.

Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Average customer rating:

I defer to Mr. White, but I like this disc
A groundbreaking concept for the time but somewhat flat...
strange, but rewarding
Cage has a revolution with this work.
An unexceptional performance of an important early Cage work

Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2
John Cage: In a Landscape
Insomnia
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Indeterminacy

ASIN: B00000JMYM
Release Date: 1999-07-20

Tracks:

Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata I
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata II
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata III
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata IV
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: First Interlude
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata V
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata VI
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata VII
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata VIII
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Second Interlude
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Third Interlude
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata IX
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata X
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XI
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XII
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Fourth Interlude
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XIII
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XIV and XV Gemini (After the work by Richard Lippold)
Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XVI

Customer Reviews:

I defer to Mr. White, but I like this disc.......2006-04-27

Edward Wright (see above review) knows more about this stuff than I do. I'm impressed that he has heard not one, not two, not three, but *four* different versions of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes! I thought I was doing great to hear just this one.

I have for a long time been interested in Cage as a sort of iconoclast and philosopher of sorts, so I picked this up at the good old Naxos bargain price, brought it home, listened to the first few pieces, and said, "What is this crap?"

But being no complete musical moron, I figured the idea of the music would grow on me, and grow on me it did. Lately, I want to hear this CD--not my Schubert or Beethoven--all the time. What initially sounded random and chaotic now seems magical. This music is by and large more rhythm and texture based than harmony based. It's tough music. I wonder what Ives would have thought of it (he never heard it, as far as I know).

When I hear Cage, I'm proud to be an American. The same goes for when I hear Ives.

I like this whole CD, but my favorite piece is, now at least, probably the Second Interlude, especially the last minute or so of it. It has a droning, clocklike, dreamy quality to it, but there might also be a little menace there as well, like the soundtrack to a slightly threatening dream. Much of this is, in fact, rather dreamlike.

This CD is positively not conventional Western music. The prepared piano highlights the percussive quality of the instrument (see Sonata 5), and the music seldom repeats itself thematically. It is brimming with ideas, but these are not ideas that everyone will find all that interesting.

A groundbreaking concept for the time but somewhat flat..........2005-06-16

John Cage was obviously both a musical visionary and renegade. Most of his key musical ideas and philosophy completely challenged and even shatttered three centuries of musical development. The idea of literally destroying a piano would have seemed blasphemous to the great classical composers, however Cage realised that music need not be so strict and constricting. The prepared piano was a simple but groundbreaking idea in its time, however today this music feels pointless and the listener is left feeling detached and uninspired. This release is probably best listened to for analytical purposes only.

strange, but rewarding.......2005-01-07

I arrived at this cd coming from the angle of electronic (dance) music. I can stand quite a bit of experiment, and I like music that sounds like machines. Where the music on this cd is not so machine like, it does have the same clinical, at times nearly desolate feel. The way the composer creates that feeling is rather unique i'd say. The feeling reminds me of the electronic music by the likes of frank bretschneider and some other mille-plateaux artists, even though the means of performance are rather different. It's a feeling that not everyone likes. And it's a feeling for special occasions. I enjoy this cd most on traintrips very early in the morning. Should say that I can hardly ever listen the cd untill the end. That's just too much. But I have experienced some of those magical listening moments when listening to this cd.

So, it may not be for everyone, it may not be for anytime, but I do recommend trying it.

Cage has a revolution with this work........2004-07-13

John Cage has written his best pieces for prepared piano during 1946-1948,when he composed the sonatas and interludes for this particular genious instrument.His approach to the rythmic structure instead of the harmonic one,is shooting excellent results,which are interesting to the ear,and simply creating something new,enjoyful.Another thing no one did before Cage until this work,is putting inside the music Zen Buddhism and Hinduism influences-the music remindes us of these eastern culture very well-and only for the best.The result is amazing,feeding us with wonder and excitement.
The work may also remind you modern-like dance tythms,and it is obvious,fore Cage has worked during that period as the director for the Merce Cunningham ballet(The works he had written for the Cunnigham ballet are some of his best).
The percussion effects produced by the prepared piano are wonderful,,and unbelivable,hearing a whole percussion orchestra,and sometimes you may want to shake your hooks with these maccabre effects.
A classical John Cage work from his earlier years,worth of everything in order to hear how wonderful and interesting and new it sounds,even until today.
The performance here by Boris Berman is excellent and quite assartive-I like it very much.He truly understands The music of Cage,though sometimes I feel he lack the excitement of these works.All by all,still an excellent performance,and a very interesting conrtol over the preapred piano.

An unexceptional performance of an important early Cage work.......2004-01-08

John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes have long been one of his most popular works (if popular means anything in the case of Cage). They are written for a piano prepared by inserting various objects onto the piano strings so as to partially dampen the sound in a variety of different ways. This preparation results in the piano becoming almost a one-man percussion orchestra (the comparison to Indonesian gamelan is useful, if oversimplistic). In addition, when the piano is prepared as Cage requests, each note has its own distinctive timbre as well as pitch, thus creating a link between these two musical elements.

The Sonatas and Interludes were inspired by Cage's study of Hindu aesthetics as discussed by Ananda Coomaraswamy, and were an attempt to create music based around the Hindu theory of the nine emotions (the "white" emotions of heroism, eroticism, mirth and wonder and the "black" emotions of fear, anger, sorrow and disgust, all tending towards the most important emotion, tranquility). The result was a collection of twenty single-movement pieces, lasting something over an hour in complete performances. The sixteen sonatas are mostly based on repetitive rhythms and brief, fragmentary modal melodies, while the four interludes tend to be rather more rhythmically varied than the sonatas.

There have been many recordings made of this set of works (the invaluable John Cage discography at http://www.johncage.info lists no fewer than 20 rival recordings), and it would be foolish to claim that Boris Berman's matches up to the best of them (Karis, Schleiermacher, Goldstein and Henck all have prior claims on the listener). In particular, Berman occasionally rushes the music, disturbing the intended tranquil feel, and his Russian-sounding espressivo playing in some of the sonatas seems distinctly at odds with Cage's aesthetic. I wonder if this recording was not made too soon, as Berman's second bite at the Cage cherry (a collection of miscellaneous prepared piano pieces recorded a year later and also available on Naxos), displays a distinctly greater empathy for the idiom.

Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1
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Early beautiful meditative Cage

Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1

Manufacturer: MD&G Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 (Two Pianos)

ASIN: B0000021HL
Release Date: 1997-10-21

Tracks:

Bucchanale
Totem Ancestor
And The Earth Shall Bear Again
Primative
I.
II.
Our Spring Will Come
A Room
Tossed As It Is Untroubled
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Root Of An Unfocus

Tracks:

The Unavailable Memory Of
Spontaneous Earth
Triple Paced
I.
II.
III.
Prelude For Meditation
Mysterious Adventure
Daughters Of The Lonesome Isle
Music For Marcel Duchamp
I.
II.

Tracks:

Sonata I.
Sonata II.
Sonata III.
Sonata IV.
Interlude I.
Sonata V.
Sonata VI.
Sonata VII.
Sonata VIII.
Interlude II.
Interlude III.
Sonata IX.
Sonata X.
Sonata XI.
Sonata XII.
Interlude IV.
Sonata XIII.
Sonata XIV.
Sonata XV.
Sonata XVI.

Customer Reviews:

Early beautiful meditative Cage.......2005-01-26

You will not be disappointed or dismissive of this early music, primarily for prepared piano, an instrument that has sort of fallen out of existence. I know of no vigorous repertoire that had followed Cage's innovations. The idea for placing nuts and bolts, woodscrews and erasers between the piano's internal strings was from Henry Cowell, a piano timbral innovator in his own right. Cage developed the instrument as an accompaniment to the performances of Merce Cunningham dance in the early Forties, and the idea simple took off toward theatre,toward performance art and associative images, Lincoln Kirstein also commissioned works from Cage. Well here you get the full weight of this repertoire, and my favorite is "Perilous Night", it reveals the "subjectivity" residing in Cage despite his numerous attempts to circumvent his persona, Well it comes through here although you always sense that timbre and rhythm remain the primary focus of this early music.Also the un=prepared works, single exposed threadbare lines are what interested early Cage .The timbral differences of the piano preparation are interesting in and of itself and seem to engage concept and image;as "prelude and meditation",a minimal work of three four lines, only a few strings are prepared, or the "Music for Marcel Duchamp" where only the middle register of the piano is utilized with a single melody written in alto clef. This work has more a lyric interest yet having a deeply sombre feel to it.

The more expansive "Sonatas and Interludes" are all here, and there are now dozens of recordings,(like a standard within the repertoire,as Chopin's "preludes") and some play them fast(Joshua Pierce) others slow. I prefer the John Tilbury, Decca recording (now unavailable) but here as well the renderings/readings are quite engaging. The negative feature to all this music is that the timbre seems to never suggest anything more than what it is, it is like anything remains beautiful. Perhaps that is why there has not been a "thousand flowers" blooming from this instrument. It has astatic quality to it,one-dimensional. Cage you feel knew this and did introduce as much variety, distributions of densities, and rhythms, textures, and the structural plan as well adheres to maintaining an agenda for variety. The "Sonatas" here being the primary focus, the exposition, and the "Interludes" the digression relief from the gestural whole.

John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

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John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005RTE0
Release Date: 2005-02-22

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John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Manufacturer: El Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000HC2OGY
Release Date: 2006-10-02

Tracks:

Sonata I
Sonata Ii
Sonata Iii
Sonata Iv
First Interlude
Sonata V
Sonata Vi
Sonata Vii
Sonata Viii
Second Interlude
Third Interlude
Sonata Ix
Sonata X
Sonata Xi
Sonata Xii
Fourth Interlude
Sonata Xiii
Sonata Xiv & Xv
Sonata Xvi

Album Details

John Cage was One of America's Most Important Avant-garde / Classical / Conceptual Composers of the 20th Century. The Influence of his Works Such as Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano in Both Jazz and Underground Popular Music (Stereolab, Broadcast and the Like). This Vintage Recording Dates from the Early Fifties When Nothing Like it Had Ever Been Heard Before and is the Perfect Introduction to Cage.

Locations: Sonatas and Interludes/Festeburger Fantasien (Piano Improvisations)

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Locations: Sonatas and Interludes/Festeburger Fantasien (Piano Improvisations)

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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John Cage: Early Piano Music
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ASIN: B00008UAFY
Release Date: 2003-07-22

Tracks:

Sonata I
Sonata II
Sonata III
Sonata IV
First Interlude
Sonata V
Sonata VI
Sonata VII
Sonata VIII
Second Interlude
Third Interlude
Sonata IX
Sonata X
Sonata XI
Sonata XII
Fourth Interlude
Sonata XIII
Sonata XIV Gemini- after the work by Richard Lippold
Sonata XV Gemini - after the work by Richard Lippold
Sonata XVI

Tracks:

Duo I
Duo II
Duo III
Solo I
Duo IV
Duo V
Duo VI
Solo II
Duo VII
Duo VIII
Duo IX
Solo I
Duo I
Duo II
Solo II
Duo III
Duo IV

Average customer rating:

Of Abiding Interest
Not enough
Highly recommended
Personal response is not always judgment
Time to Reconsider

Sound Forms For Piano

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Canons | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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Piano Music
Ben Johnston String Quartets

ASIN: B0000030F0
Release Date: 1995-02-28

Tracks:

The Banshee
Aeolian Harp
Piano Piece (Paris 1924)
Sonatas And Interludes: Sonata I
Sonatas And Interludes: Sonata V
Sonatas And Interludes: Second Interlude
Sonatas And Interludes: Sonata X
Sonatas And Interludes: Sonata XII
Sonata For Microtonal Piano: Movement I
Sonata For Microtonal Piano: Movement II
Sonata For Microtonal Piano: Movement III
Sonata For Microtonal Piano: Movement IV
Studies For Player Piano: Study No.1
Studies For Player Piano: Study No.27
Studies For Player Piano: Study No.36

Amazon.com

Three important early pioneers of New Music make tremendous splashes on this anthology of works for the piano. Pianist Robert Miller opens the collection with three of Cowell's distinctive, swirling pieces, bowing the piano strings with a fury for sonic expansion. Miller also engages Cowell's unforgettable chord clusters, with their large, slamming intensity and rich resonance. He also takes on several of Cage's early Sonatas and Preludes for prepared piano and Nancarrow's influential, oddly virtuosic Studies for Player Piano, examining alterations in both pianistic tone and execution. Ben Johnston's lively, Cowell-inspired Sonata for Microtonal Piano rounds out this comprehensive overview of avant-garde 20th-century piano music. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Of Abiding Interest.......2007-04-20

"Experimental" though they may be, the pieces on this CD meet one of the criteria for great music: they not only hold up on repeated listening, but can inspire additional insights. Cowell's work was almost an end in itself - there wasn't anywhere else to go in that direction, but it now seems inevitable that someone would play the piano in that way. The Cage pieces are delightful, enjoyable on the superficial level yet containing enough substance to maintain interest. The Johnston piece suffers in that the composer may have attempted to do too much at once - not only is it written in a highly complex microtonal scale, it dispenses with conventional sonata form. Either of these by themselves would have been enough. The Nancarrow pieces, representing a fraction of his writing for player piano, are astonishing and must be heard to be believed.

The liner notes are unusually extensive, although given the subject matter, a lesser treatment would not have sufficed - the novice is given a complete introduction to these works. Included is an essay on the history of the piano in America, outlines of each composer's life and work, and discussions of the individual pieces (with an additional one by Johnston himself).

The works presented here are not simply ideosyncratic exercises in oddity - they are profoundly approachable on many levels, and served as an inspiration to later composers. For example, the prepared piano is an indispensable component of Arvo Pärt's "Tabula Rasa."

Not enough.......2006-06-25

I fail to see how Messiaen had anything to do with this music, the American innovators/composers had their own language,a world apart from Europe,in gesture, in content, in source, in development/ Messiaen developed his own sense of rhythm from the East and the seriality of it. With impressive pieces as his "Chronochromie for orchestra" and his piano music was innovative with another content to pursue/ and here the only disappointment is that it is all excerpts except for the Johnston "Suite" a self-contained piece.
The prepared piano,is/was/ where you place nuts, bolts, wood-screws, erasers and pencils inbetween on the internal strings of a piano. It for the record was invented.suggested by Cowell, Cage merely perfected the instrument, and curious how there really is no literature for the instrument after Cage. The Sonatas and Interludes of Cage was a kind of summit for expression,an un-romanticized way, Cage was also interested in proportions,structure that had no dramatic telos somewhat anti-serial,third person, how durations come to inhabit spaces in a live situation. This music is traditionally very gorgeous,spacious and focused and the most beautiful music Cage ever wrote. Much of the prepared piano music had a dramatic purpose and was written for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company largely ignored in the early years of their existence by the "savy?" New York critics.(They also found painter Cy Twombly to be uninteresting) It was not until the Company and Cage was recognized elsewhere(Europe) is when the New York illiterate critics finely saw something innovative.
The Cowell pieces herein, as well are two small examples embark of the utilization of the extended piano, playing with the flesh of the hand on the inner strings of the piano,sometimes the pianist depresses the tones on the keyboard silently then harp like running fingers or plucking the strings, Clusters and percussive like gestures as well were utilized by Cowell. He played all this music also in Europe in the Twenties. I wish there was more that Johnston wrote for the piano, microtonal or otherwise, for the language of just intonation of different tuning systems ,utilizations of different scales all had incredible potential. Johnston also saw the creative paradigm of finding usable musical forms as "containers" for the timbres of just intonation unlike some other practicioners who merely "pour" it into well-known moribund forms as Harry Partch.It still reamins a problem for just intonation music to find equally innovative forms to equal the transfomration of timbre,and how we come to listen. Nancarrow is/was another neglected creator,only in his last years was his music known at all, and here you get small excerpts from the larger "Studies",the first to use musical automata the innovativeness is in rhythm only for tone manipulations and pitches are at a minimum,I really don't know if he could have gone atonal with this rhythmic discoveries.

Highly recommended.......2003-05-16

This is, without doubt, one of the finest recordings of American experimental music ever issued, performed with loving care by the late, great Robert Miller except for Nancarrow's studies. The excellent notes by Charles Hamm should prepare listeners unfamiliar with this musical universe for what they are going to hear.

Although there is a logical connection between the works that imaginative juxtaposition on the disc enhances, Cowell, Cage, Johnston, and Nancarrow arrive at their musical conclusions from completely different directions. This disc is a tribute to the nonuniformity of American experimental music.

Listeners should spend some time at their local music libraries familiarizing themselves with the scores, just to see how the composers get these startling results.

Personal response is not always judgment.......2003-04-29

I have my reservations concerning pure sonority, or intellectual game, or a combination of both as a basis for composition. But I also have reservations about what so many composers have done "on the keys" with sonority and intellectual game - or is it just plain "thinking" or "intuition" or "composition lessions"? Most of it, in any era, is either dismissed or lost, or never comes to light at all (never more true than now).

If one does not share Messiaen's religious viewpoint, his wonderful music can get (let's be gentle) tedious; it certainly borders on the pretentious at times (I know he wasn't that way personally); some might say blasphemous. But what is really his most accessible music besides the romantic and programmatic Quartet for the End.... (with those intellectualized rhythms based on a very personal reading of Indian tala)? All those bird (and bird as the spirit) pieces! Talk about (wonderful) gimmicks!

I guess the reviewer above shares Messiaen's heart/soul and therefore responds fully to the "Vingt Regards." (I like it, too.) But I assume that "new music" for him has to have a postromantic sensibility or surface attraction; has he read criticism/reviews, back to the 18th century, and not seen the pattern of nonacceptance of the new, whether it be sonic, intellectual or both? (Beethoven was "a madman," Berlioz a ringmaster at a noisy circus, et al.)

It's okay if the above reviewer doesn't like the music. The Cowell pieces are novelties, to be sure, but pretty darn important ones - and fun. Cage is in a non-Western place, so take it or leave it (or leave it and listen). Nancarrow's studies are a case of doing one thing, but doing it very well and for most of a lifetime. Those pieces are rhythmically shattering, defying all dance-rhythm expectations - not bad for a player piano. And, finally, my friend Ben Johnston's Sonata; about as radical a microtonal piece as he ever wrote (what is it, 77 nonidentical pitches?) with its interchangeable movements. In its original ordering, I wonder if an openminded ear can hear this without experiencing an expressionistic personal crisis unfolding. Just plain postwar beautiful!
There's room for all of it in this great big CD world....

Time to Reconsider.......2002-01-26

This may not be the place to take on the dominant themes of classical music in the 20th Century, but it is available. These works are imaginative (at least in conception if not execution), radical, and were undeniably shocking to the less-jaded audiences at the times of their first performances. But their limitations are profound. They are all short, mostly under 5 minutes, although some form parts of larger works. Their emotional ranges are narrow, or I would go so far as to say, nonexistent. In the most positive light, they are mere exercises in heretofore unheard sonorities, awaiting future composers who will employ their ideas in the production of new masterpieces. But they are presented as if they are already those masterpieces themselves. This is a grave misconception, and reveals a total misunderstanding of what music, and not just "classical" music, is about. Great music, as all great art, has the power to change our conception of the world. On the emotional plane, it has the power to move us without necessarily resorting to manipulation. The pieces recorded here, for the most part, lack "soul," they are "square" (in spite of their originality) because their challenge to us is purely on the intellectual level. They abandon melody, harmony, rhythm, consonance, and conventional methods of playing merely to showcase clever ideas.

Should one be interested in hearing a truly radical approach to the piano, Messiaen's "Vingt Regards Sur l'Enfant Jesus" may be of value. This is a cohesive whole comprising over two hours of music, with vast emotional range and variety. It develops and explores disparate themes within a unified totality. The astonishing sound effects (all produced in the mundane manner of striking the piano keys with the fingers) exist as necessary expressions of larger ideas, not as ends in themselves. If Messiaen abandons any of the previous conventions of classical composition, it is not as a clever gimmick, but because that was the best way to express the work's themes. The result is that the music is freed of convention, rather than simply lashing out against it. The Austbo performance on Naxos is highly recommended.

Cage: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano
Average customer rating:

piano as percussion orchestra

Cage: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano

Manufacturer: Wergo Germany
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Cage, John | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Character Pieces | Short Forms | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000025R7X
Release Date: 1993-12-08

Tracks:

Son #1
Son #2
Son #3
Son #4
First Interlude
Son #5
Son #6
Son #7
Son #8
Second Interlude
Third Interlude
Son #9
Son #10
Son #11
Son #12
Fourth Interlude
Son #13
Sons #14 & 15: Gemini
Son #16

Customer Reviews:

piano as percussion orchestra.......2005-01-05

In an effort to find new ways to use the piano, Cage came upon the idea of inserting objects on the strings such as nuts, bolts, erasers, cutlery, and so on. What he got was a wonderful percussion orchestra that makes these charming pieces so special.

Much of the music is very rhythmic and driving and does not in fact sound too much unlike an Indonesian Gamelan. Other music is more spacious and lets the intriguingly novel sonorities resonate and sink in. Cage was very specific about exactly what materials should be used to "prepare" the piano and where those materials go. I appreciate that the booklet that comes with the CD gives a list of all the preparations used.

This CD will both open your ears to what is possible with the piano and make a delightful addition to your record collection, even if you are new to new music.

Pianist Joshua Pierce plays these pieces very well with a nice integration of invention and seriousness.

The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage

Average customer rating:

The ideal starting point if you are new to Cage
A primary document of the American avant-garde

The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage

Manufacturer: Wergo Germany
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Septets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2
Silence: Lectures and Writings
George Crumb: Orchestral Music
John Cage: Music for Percussion
The Harry Partch Collection, Volume 1

ASIN: B000025SHL
Release Date: 1995-01-17

Tracks:

Six Short Inventions for Seven Instruments - Anahid Ajemian/Maro Ajemian/Douglas Allan/Joan Brockway/Melvyn Broiles/Earle Brown/Philip Brown...
First Construction in Metal - David Tudor
Imaginary Landscape No.1 - Anahid Ajemian/Maro Ajemian/Douglas Allan/Joan Brockway/Melvyn Broiles/Earle Brown/Philip Brown...
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs - Arline Carmen/John Cage
She is Asleep - Paul Price/Michael Colgrass/Warren Smith/Philip Brown
She is Asleep - Arline Carmen/John Cage

Tracks:

Sons & Interludes: Sons I
Sons & Interludes: Sons II
Sons & Interludes: Sons III
Sons & Interludes: Sons IV
Sons & Interludes: Interlude
Sons & Interludes: Sons V
Sons & Interludes: Sons VI
Sons & Interludes: Sons VII
Sons & Interludes: Sons VIII
Sons & Interludes: Second Interlude

Tracks:

Music for Carillon No.1 - David Tudor
Williams mix - Anahid Ajemian/Maro Ajemian/Douglas Allan/Joan Brockway/Melvyn Broiles/Earle Brown/Philip Brown...
Con for Pno & Orch - Anahid Ajemian/Maro Ajemian/Douglas Allan/Joan Brockway/Melvyn Broiles/Earle Brown/Philip Brown...

Amazon.com essential recording

Hard to believe that as early as 1958 there was a 25-year retrospective concert of John Cage's music. But this 3-CD set documents both the concert and its meaning for the history of New Music. Organized by no less than Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Emile de Antonio, the event sparked heated controversy--some of it documented in the crowd's reaction to Cage's early tape- music piece, Williams Mix. The expansive booklet accompanying the CDs includes loads of prescient commentary, much of it from Cage himself. Most telling is the simple formulation: "New Music. New Listening. Just an attention to the activity of sounds." Cage's earliest-prepared piano sonatas are abbreviated with clangorous, percussive results, and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra sprawls noisily in myriad directions. The sound is broad and warm for a 40-year-old live recording, and this is a cornerstone document of post-World War II art. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

The ideal starting point if you are new to Cage.......2002-12-11

This is perhaps one of the most important documents of American Music ever recorded, the Composer John Cage will undoubtedly be veiwed in future eras as not only the most important American composer of all time, but one of the most important Composers of all time. Until this time, also the work of Edgard Varese, Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen, all music in "the west" written after Bach could have been found in Bach, it was even said if all music was lost as long as Bach remained it could all be discovered again. Here's where everything changes. To really appreciate Cage's music it is best to hear him or David Tudor perform or "conduct" it, they are both onboard here for this excellent three C.D. set. Most of Cage's major works are represented here, his percussion pieces, his prepared piano, even his tape music. Start here, then get Indeterminancy, Roaratorio, more preapared piano pieces, and Cartridge music. But DO start here, there are too many poor interpretations of Cage's music available, you can't go wrong with this. And if you already know Cage's music but don't own this, then you should be ashamed of yourself.

A primary document of the American avant-garde.......1999-04-10

It was painters Jasper Johns and Bob Rauschenberg who helped arrange this, what today is a monumental document of the American avant-garde. And this was in the late Fifties a time when these American artists had very little money. Here we have all the Cage classics. The "Sonatas and Interludes" for pre-pared piano speaks for itself. Cowell suggested this idea to Cage. So Cage while working on dance accompaniments where no percussion instruments could be played,saw the availability of a piano. He began placing various screws and erasers between the strings. The sound is gamelan-like with thuds,knocks,clings and pings. But also very beautiful even enchanting. Also "Williams Mix" is here a very early electronic piece made from the ancient art of splicing tape together in an indeterminate fashion. I believe Earle Brown had helped. "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs" is also fascinating where the pianist closes the piano lid to strike 5 various parts of the front piano seated. The effect is not quite bongo-like more dull and thudy with a disarming folksy plain vocal lines singing Joyce. Pure simplicity was an early Cage fascination which has not lost its power to evoke. The mammoth "Concert for Piano" is also here a seminal work conceived of various graphic(almost encyclopedic) procedural ways of playing. Cage had identified some 40 odd ways of attacking,rolling verticalities and horizontialities on the piano keyboard. The work is also a pure graphic feast for the eyes, a delight. The orchestral accompaniment(we really cannot call it that) is made of independent solos,trombone,violin with no direct synchronization. And can be played with or without the piano or these various instruments. But the effect can be anarchistic(non-political) mesmerizing,humorous,dead serious all simultaneously,or not,depending on the performer's energy levels. Cage had opened a chasm of libertarian performing and conceptual creative fluidity that hasn't been closed yet. His open creativity continues to inspire and redirect itself through succeeding generations. This is a monumental document from the earliest days of the high avant-garde reflecting the full scope of these new aesthetic freedoms,or a turn away from an aesthetic object. Perhaps we will know someplace in between.