Tuesday, February 23, 2010

John Cage - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948)

OHHHH MAN. The piano reinvented. So mind-bendingly original and influential. A little history for you from allmusic:

"Students of music history have probably seen photographs of pianos fitted by Cage with all sorts of foreign objects -- bits of rubber stuffed between strings, hammers fitted with tacks, perhaps even a wooden spoon poking out from the instrument's entrails at an odd angle. The so-called prepared piano, for which the Sonatas and Interludes are composed, provides the means by which a single instrument is able to evoke a wide variety of colors, timbres, and textures...The sound is immediately engaging, and because of the differences between various pianos and the numerous varieties of weather stripping, thumb tacks, and wooden spoons available, each performance or recording is distinct. The work conjures a world of sound that is variously serene, haunting, percussive, and surreal...Each movement examines a particular emotion, with a palette drawn from the Indian tradition that includes heroism, eroticism, wonder, mirth, sorrow, fear, anger, and tranquility."

This music is a head trip of serious intensity. Very exotic, very otherwordly, sometimes beautiful, sometimes frightening, sometimes funkalicious, but always--as allmusic says--surreal. Feast your ears on this shit and feel these unearthly noises resound in your soul. Awesome. This dank performance is brought to you by Maro Ajemian, who premiered the work and to whom it is dedicated.

check it

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