A piano in which the pitches, timbres and dynamic responses of individual notes have been altered by means of bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers and/or other objects inserted at particular points between or placed on the strings. The idea originated with Cowell. The prepared piano was devised by Cage for his Bacchanale (1940), and used in a number of his subsequent compositions.
Since around 1950 the prepared piano has been used by other composers, sometimes solo but usually in an ensemble work, including Christian Wolff, Conlon Nancarrow, Toshirō Mayuzumi, Pauline Oliveros, Dieter Schönbach, Aldo Clementi, Gérard Grisey, Harrison Birtwistle (muted bass strings), Kaija Saariaho, James Tenney and Annea Lockwood. Less predictable was its popularity in Eastern bloc countries before the demise of communism (especially in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Soviet Union – including one concert work each by Pärt and Shchedrin and two by Denisov and Schnittke). Particularly notable is its use for continuo-like colouration and punctuation in two compositions for two solo violins and string ensemble, Pärt’s Tabula Rasa and Schnittke’s First Concerto Grosso (both 1977). A somewhat different approach to piano preparations was devised from 1970 by Hans-Karsten Raecke, as in his Raster cycle (1972–91), with some works requiring up to eight players at two prepared pianos. The prepared piano has gained a new popularity with members of the generation of composers that emerged in western Europe after 1990. In the 1990s new solo works for prepared piano were commissioned by the pianists Lois Svard (USA) and Joanna MacGregor (Britain, including Jonathan Harvey and Django Bates).
The prepared piano has also been used in jazz by Cecil Taylor, and by the improvisers Chris Burn, John Wolf Brennan, Hermann Keller and Harry de Wit, among others.
Since the tonal alteration desired varies from one piece to another and depends on the nature and placement of the objects used to effect it, these have to be indicated in the score, as shown in the Table, which reproduces the table of preparations for Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes (1946–8).
See also Instrumental modifications and extended performance techniques, esp. fig.1.
M. Fürst-Heidtmann: Das präparierte Klavier des John Cage (Regensburg, 1979)
R. Bunger: The Well-Prepared Piano (San Pedro, CA, 2/1981)
M. Fürst-Heidtmann: ‘Cages Musik für präpariertes Klavier’, Amerikanische Musik seit Charles Ives: Interpretation, Quellentexte, Komponistenmonographien, ed. H. Danuser, D. Kämper and P. Terse (Laaber, 1987), 149–61
D. Charles: ‘About John Cage’s Prepared Piano’, Writings about John Cage, ed. R. Kostelanetz (Ann Arbor, 1993), 46–54
E. Salzman: ‘Cage’s Well-Tampered Clavier’, ibid., 55–7
EDWIN M. RIPIN/HUGH DAVIES