Prepared piano
Piano whose sound is altered by objects placed between the strings (John Cage).
What it means
A prepared piano is a piano whose sound is altered by objects placed between or on the strings, such as screws, nuts, rubber, felt or pieces of wood. As a result the notes lose their usual tone color: they sound dull, metallic, jangling or bell-like and recall percussion or a gamelan.
Musical use
John Cage developed the prepared piano in 1940 for the dance piece Bacchanale, because the space had no room for a percussion ensemble. His main work Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48) requires exact preparation, which he specified in the score with tables: at certain notes a certain object belongs at a certain place on the string. Before that, Henry Cowell had played the strings directly.
The prepared piano should be distinguished from the normal piano, whose sound remains unchanged, and from playing inside the piano, in which the strings are plucked or bowed directly without inserting objects.
Performance practice
When you play a prepared piano, follow the preparation instructions exactly and do not change the position of the objects. Note that the preparation alters the notes: listen carefully, for pitch and tone color no longer match the notation.