American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

(1912–1992) began composing pieces for solo

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Bacchanale' ...

around 1938–40. The majority of early works for this instrument were created to accompany dances by Cage's various collaborators, most frequently

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

. In response to frequent criticisms of prepared piano, Cage cited numerous predecessors (such as

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

). In the liner notes for the very first recording of his most highly acclaimed work for prepared piano, ''

Sonatas and Interludes ''Sonatas and Interludes'' is a cycle of twenty pieces for prepared piano by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1946–48, shortly after Cage's introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art hist ...

'', Cage wrote: "Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical."Cage, booklet text for Ajemian's recording of the cycle: ''John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes'', Composers Recordings Inc. CRI 700 (reissue) This article presents a complete list of Cage's works for prepared piano, with comments on each composition. All of Cage's indeterminate works for unspecified forces (the Variations series, Fontana Mix, Cartridge Music, etc.) can also be performed on or with Prepared Piano.

Solo

Bacchanale

In interviews conducted in 1974 and 1982, Cage specified that this piece was composed in 1938.Kostelanetz 2003, 62 However, the manuscript used for Edition Peters' edition of ''Bacchanale'' specified 1940 as the date,Score: Edition Peters 6784. (c) 1960 by Henmar Press. and this has been used by numerous scholars since.Nicholls, 77 The circumstances of the piece's composition are much more clear: it was created for a choreography by the American dancer

Syvilla Fort Syvilla Fort (July 3, 1917 – November 8, 1975) was an American dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Born in Seattle, she drew on her African-American heritage in her original dance works. American composer John Cage wrote his first piece fo ...

. Cage and Fort were both working at the

Cornish School Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of p ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

at the time. The room where the dance was to be performed was not large enough to allow for a

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

ensemble, but had enough space for a

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. Cage decided to try placing various objects on the strings of the instrument in order to produce percussive sounds, inspired by

's experiments with extended piano techniques. In 1982 Cage mentioned that the whole piece was completed in just three days. Twelve notes are prepared, mostly using weather strippings. In the score, in 11 cases out of 12, the performer is instructed to "determine position and size of mutes by experiment."

Totem Ancestor

Composed in 1942 for a dance by

. Eleven notes are prepared, eight of them by

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...

s. This is the only Cage-Cunningham collaboration from the 1940s for which original choreography has survived.

And the Earth Shall Bear Again

Composed in 1942 for a dance by

Valerie Bettis Valerie Elizabeth Bettis (December 1919 – 26 September 1982) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. She found success in musical theatre, ballet, and as a solo dancer. Biography Valerie Bettis was born on either December 19 or Dec ...

. Ten individual notes are prepared, mostly with small screws, and a whole range from G1 to C3 is prepared using "two thicknesses of woolen material". This material is placed between the strings in the following manner: over the first string, under the second, over the third, under the fourth, etc.

Primitive

Composed in 1942 for a dance by Wilson Williams. Thirteen notes are prepared, all using screws or bolts.

In the Name of the Holocaust

Composed in late 1942 for a dance by Merce Cunningham. The title references

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(like in the lost prepared piano work ''Lidice'' (see

Lidice Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was com ...

) from 1943). Piano preparation involves only screws or bolts. Various

extended technique In music, extended technique is unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds or timbres.Burtner, Matthew (2005).Making Noise: Extended Techniques after Expe ...

s are used, such as producing sound by plucking strings. The piece starts with quiet, muted tones and gradually becomes louder, climaxing in several successions of large tone clusters, executed using the entire length of the forearm.Nicholls, 217

Our Spring Will Come

Composed in 1943 for a dance by

Pearl Primus Pearl Eileen Primus (November 29, 1919 – October 29, 1994) was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the need ...

. Piano preparation involves

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

strips, as well as screws and nuts. The music and the dance were to be accompanied by a speaker reading a poem by

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

about the condition of

Black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

A Room

Composed in 1943, originally conceived as the third part of ''She Is Asleep'' (see below). May be performed with or without preparations, which involve 11 notes. Most are to be prepared using bolts, one new material is a

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

. The music is written down on a single staff and follows the structure 4, 7, 2, 5, 4, 7, 2, 3, 5 (numbers denote the number of bars dedicated to a particular part of the section), repeated twice.

Tossed As It Is Untroubled

Composed in 1944 for a dance by Merce Cunningham, and dedicated to Valerie Bettis. Originally titled ''Meditation''. Only eight notes are prepared, mostly with weather strippings. Roughly two thirds of the piece are written down on a single staff; the melodic line which makes up most of the piece uses just five tones, all prepared with weather strippings. The two heavily prepared notes are only used for a

trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware custom ...

at the very end of the work.Pritchett, 26

A Valentine Out of Season

A suite of three pieces, composed in 1944. Choreographed by Merce Cunningham as ''Effusions avant l'heure / Games / Trio''. The title references Cage's separation from his wife Xenia, which happened in 1945.

Prelude for Meditation

Composed in 1944. A very short work that only uses four tones.

Root of an Unfocus

Composed in 1944 for a dance by Merce Cunningham. A work in three sections: Section 1 contains seven parts, seven bars each; Section 2 juxtaposes bars in 4/4 and 3/4

metres The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

; Section 3 divides 100

half note ''Half Note'' is a live album by saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1974 and first released on the SteepleChase label in 1985.

Spontaneous Earth

Composed in 1944 for a dance by Merce Cunningham.

The Unavailable Memory of

Composed in 1944 for a dance by Merce Cunningham. Written entirely on a single staff, primarily scored as a single melodic line.Nicholls, 79

Triple-Paced No. 2

This work, composed in 1944, is a revision of a 1943 piano piece titled ''Triple-Paced''. The 1944 version was choreographed by Merce Cunningham.

The Perilous Night

Composed in 1944. This is Cage's first large-scale work for prepared piano. Twenty-six notes are prepared with various materials. The piece contains six separate sections with different rhythmic structures. According to Cage, ''The Perilous Night'' expresses "the loneliness and terror that comes to one when love becomes unhappy". All of the six movements of this work are untitled. 38 years after its composition, his longtime friend artist

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

included a silkscreen of the score in a large

mixed-media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art incl ...

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

which itself is also titled “Perilous Night.”

Mysterious Adventure

Composed in 1945 for a dance by Merce Cunningham. This is another large-scale work with moderately complex piano preparation, involving 27 notes. It contains five sections.

Daughters of the Lonesome Isle

Composed in 1945 for a dance by

Jean Erdman Jean Erdman (February 20, 1916 – May 4, 2020) was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director. Biography Early years and background Erdman was born in Honolulu. Erdman's father, John Piney ...

.Pritchett, Grove Contains nineteen sections. Thirty-nine notes are prepared.

Music for Marcel Duchamp

Composed in 1947 for a segment of Hans Richter's

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

film ''

Dreams That Money Can Buy ''Dreams That Money Can Buy'' is a 1947 experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter. The film was produced by Kenneth Macpherson and Peggy Guggenheim. Collaborators in ...

''. The film contains several segments designed by different artists, and Cage's music was composed for a segment designed by

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. The segment—a dream one of the characters is having—is titled "Discs" and consists mostly of Duchamp's ''rotoreliefs''. These are designs painted on flat

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light b ...

circles, which are to be spun on a phonographic

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. The work was later choreographed by Merce Cunningham. The global structure is 11x11 (eleven sections of eleven bars each), the rhythmic proportion is 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1. Similarly to ''Tossed As It Is Untroubled'' and ''The Unavailable Memory of'', the work mostly builds on a single melodic line, which uses notes muted by weather strippings. This piece is one of the first to explore the idea of silence systematically: empty bars are juxtaposed with melodic passages throughout the piece.

Sonatas and Interludes

A cycle of 20 short works (16 sonatas and 4 interludes) composed in 1946–48. Dedicated to pianist

Maro Ajemian Maro Ajemian (July 9, 1921 – September 18, 1978) was an American pianist. Ajemian's career in contemporary music grew from her Armenian heritage. She became known as a contemporary pianist after performing the U.S. premiere of Aram Khachaturian' ...

. This is Cage's most famous work for prepared piano,Nicholls, 80 and also the most complex: piano preparation takes about 2–3 hours and involves forty-five notes, and the proportions governing the structure of individual pieces include

fractions A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

as well as

natural number In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country"). Numbers used for counting are called ''Cardinal n ...

s. ''Sonatas and Interludes'' was inspired by Cage's interest in

Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Veda ...

and the Rasa aesthetic as explained in

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...

's writings. The pieces express the eight "permanent" emotions (the humorous, the wondrous, the erotic, the heroic, anger, fear, disgust and sorrow) and their common tendency toward tranquility.

Music for ''Works of Calder''

Composed in 1950 for

Herbert Matter Herbert Matter (April 25, 1907 – May 8, 1984) was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. Matter's innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20 ...

's short

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

, ''Works of Calder''. The idea of the film was suggested by

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

, whom Calder met in spring 1948. The decision to ask Matter to direct was Calder's: the two had worked with each other previously when Matter made photographs of Calder's works.Alexander Calder. ''Calder; an Autobiography with Pictures'', p. 197. Pantheon Books, 1966. The 20-minute color film, produced and narrated by Meredith (narration by John Latouche) and photographed and directed by Matter, was completed in 1949, but since Matter insisted on asking Cage to compose the music, the team had to wait for about a year until Cage returned from Europe. The piece consists of three sequences, two of which (numbers 1 and 3) are for prepared piano, and one (number 2) is for tape: Cage recorded the sounds of Calder's studio while the sculptor was working —

mobiles Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

bumping into one another, etc.—then edited the resulting two-hour recording in order to produce the desired sequence of sounds.

Two Pastorales

Composed in November 1951 (first piece) and January 1952 (second piece). Both pastorales use chance operations applied using charts of layers, sounds, durations, etc. and the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

'', similarly to ''

Music of Changes ''Music of Changes'' is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of indeterminate music. The process of composition involved applying decisions made using the ''I Ching ...

''. Because the number of layers was smaller than in the latter work (specifically, there are just two layers), the texture of ''Two Pastorales'' is thinner, with long silences between notes. Like in ''Music of Changes'', the notation is proportional, one inch equals one

quarter note A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a note (music), musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless ste ...

. Extended techniques are used: strings are sometimes plucked by fingers or cymbal sticks, or muted by hand.

34'46.776" For a Pianist

Composed in 1954, this work is one of the so-called "time length" pieces, in which the title refers to the length of the work. The piece was composed using chance operations and written down in proportional graphic notation. The rhythmic structure is 3, 7, 2, 5, 11. Piano preparation is defined only by specifying the strings to be prepared and the materials to be used, the actual choice of objects and their position on the strings is left to the performer. This piece was composed for

David Tudor David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan ...

and is very difficult to play; its companion piece, ''31'57.9864" For a Pianist'', shares the same techniques but is much easier. Both works may be performed solo or together with other "time length" compositions.

31'57.9864" For a Pianist

Composed in 1954. A companion piece to ''34'46.776" For a Pianist'', it uses similar notation and compositional techniques, but is much easier to play. The rhythmic structure is also identical to ''34'46.776"''.

Two prepared pianos

A Book of Music

Composed in 1944. Like the later work, ''Three Dances'' (1945), ''A Book of Music'' was commissioned by pianists

Robert Fizdale Arthur Gold (6 February 19173 January 1990) and Robert Fizdale (12 April 19206 December 1995) were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts. Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the ...

and

Arthur Gold Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more w ...

. It was Cage's first work written on request from professional performers. There are two movements, each divided into several smaller sections (four in the first movement, three in the second). The music makes much use of

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

and

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

s and features much virtuosic writing. According to Cage, this was inspired by his ideas on Mozart's music, which "strictly adheres to three different kinds of scales: the chromatic, the diatonic, and that consisting of the larger steps of thirds and fourths". The technique of rhythmic proportions is used in a new way: the proportion for each piece is defined for a particular tempo. A change in the tempo causes a change in the proportion.

Three Dances

Composed in 1945. This work is similar in style (large-scale virtuosic writing) and technique (rhythmic proportions dependent on the tempo) to ''A Book of Music'' and too was commissioned by Fitzdale and Gold.

Ensemble

Second Construction

Composed in 1939–40. This piece is scored for various percussion instruments and piano. The score instructs the performer to insert a screw and a strip of cardboard between several strings,Nicholls, 74 but the piano part is written essentially for the

string piano String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965) to collectively describe those pianistic extended techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, instead of or in addition to str ...

technique. The rhythmic proportions — 16 groups of 16 bars divided 4, 3, 4, 5 — are defined in the score, but the music doesn't always rely on them.

She Is Asleep

An unfinished suite of different pieces, composed in 1943. The two completed movements are: # Quartet for 12

tom-tom A tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between in diameter, though floor toms can go as la ...

s # Duet for voice and prepared piano The piano/prepared piano piece ''A Room'' (1943, see above) was intended to be third part of ''She Is Asleep''. This piece is one of the earliest instances of the use of rhythmic proportions to govern the structure of individual movements and/or whole works. The proportion is 4, 7, 2, 5; 4, 7, 2, 3, 5 and it affects only the microstructure of the pieces.

Amores

Composed in early 1943 after Cage moved to New York City, as a concert piece. Choreographed by Merce Cunningham in 1949. ''Amores'' contains four movements: # Solo for prepared piano # Trio for 9 tom-toms and a

pod Pod or POD may refer to: Biology * Pod (fruit), a type of fruit of a flowering plant * Husk or pod of a legume * Pod of whales or other marine mammals * "-pod", a suffix meaning "foot" used in taxonomy Electronics and computing * Proper ort ...

rattle Rattle may refer to: Instruments * Crotalus (liturgy), a liturgical percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion instrument), a type of percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion beater), a part of some percussion instruments * Ratchet (instrume ...

# Trio for 7

wood block Woodblock or wood block may refer to: * Woodblock (instrument), a percussion musical instrument * Woodblock printing, a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood * Woodblock graffiti * Toy block Toy bloc ...

s # Solo for prepared piano Eighteen notes are prepared using 9 screws, 8 bolts, 2 nuts and 3 strips of rubber. Similarly to ''Bacchanale'', the performer is instructed in the score to "determine position and size of mutes by experiment". This was one of Cage's earliest works to use Cage's rhythmic proportions technique. The structure of the second movement, for example, is based 10-bar units each divided into four sections: 3, 2, 2, 3. The proportion 3, 3, 2, 2 is used similarly in the second solo for prepared piano.

Four Dances

Composed in 1943–44 for a choreography by

Hanya Holm Hanya Holm (born Johanna Eckert; 3 March 1893 – 3 November 1992) is known as one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance. She was a dancer, choreographer, and above all, a dance educator. Early life, connection with Mary Wigman Bo ...

. Original title ''What So Proudly We Hail'', also known as ''Suite of four dances''. The four dances are: # Dance No. 1 for percussion and piano # Dance No. 2 for tenor soloist (wordless) and piano # Dance No. 3 for piano # Dance No. 4 for tenor soloist (wordless), percussion and piano

Concerto for Prepared Piano

Composed in 1950–51. The work is scored for a prepared piano and a chamber orchestra and was written using the gamut technique Cage developed in ''

String Quartet in Four Parts ''String Quartet in Four Parts'' is a string quartet by John Cage, composed in 1950. It is one of the last works Cage wrote that is not entirely indeterminate. Like ''Sonatas and Interludes'' for prepared piano (1946–48) and the ballet '' The Se ...

'' (1950). Independently created sonorities (single notes, chords, aggregates) are arranged into rectangular charts; the music is composed by tracing geometric patterns on them. There are three movements. The piano part develops from free composition (movement 1) to following the orchestra using a parallel chart (movement 2) and then to sharing the same chart with the orchestra (movement 3). Piano preparation in the ''Concerto'' is rather complex and involves, among other things, a moveable plastic bridge that makes possible

microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

effects.

Lost works

Shimmera

Composed in late 1942 for a dance by Merce Cunningham.

Lidice

Composed in 1943 for a dance by Marie Marchowsky.''Dance Observer'' 1934, p. 20 The title refers to

, a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

village destroyed by German forces in 1942.

References and further reading

* Cage, John. 1973. ''Silence: Lectures and Writings'', Wesleyan Paperback (first edition 1961). * Ishii, Reiko. 2005. ''The Development of Extended Piano Techniques in Twentieth-Century American Music'', pp. 38–41. The Florida State University, College of Music. Available online

* Kostelanetz, Richard. 1974. ''John Cage'', Allen Lane; University of California, . * Kostelanetz, Richard. 2003. ''Conversing with John Cage'', Routledge. * Nicholls, David (ed.), 2002. '' Cambridge Companions to Music, The Cambridge Companion to John Cage''. Cambridge University Press. * Pritchett, James, and Kuhn, Laura. "John Cage", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', ed. L. Macy
grovemusic.com
(subscription access). * Pritchett, James. 1993. ''The Music of John Cage''. Cambridge University Press. * Revill, David. 2014. ''The Roaring Silence: John Cage: A Life'' (Revised Edition), Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Notes

External links

List of works by John Cage at the John Cage Database

The Sound collector – The Prepared Piano of John Cage
essay by Tim Ovens (2003) {{John Cage * Compositions that use extended techniques Modernist compositions Works for prepared piano