Preview: PianoForte Experimental Piano Series/John Cage Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano

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The miraculous instrument that today is known as the piano was originally called the pianoforte (literally, “soft-loud”) because of its unique ability to perform music as soft or loud as the performer desired via finger touch and foot pedaling. That served composers well for a century and a half or so, but wasn’t quite enough for John Cage, who began experimenting with other methods of altering the sound of the piano after World War II. Although technically a percussion instrument since the performer strikes the instrument via a keyboard that then triggers a series of hammers, what the hammers hit is actually an elaborate system of tuned strings, so the piano has always been a hybrid percussion and string instrument.

If, Cage reasoned, objects were strategically placed between the keyboard, the hammers and the strings, the timbre of the piano could be considerably widened, and thus the “prepared piano” was born. If you have an upright piano at home, you can replicate one of his earliest experiments by opening the lid and placing thumb tacks on the hammers which makes the metal end of the tacks strike the strings, giving the piano a bright, metallic sound.

But as time went on, Cage began adding all sorts of objects—from small pieces of paper to metallic industrial objects—to the inside of a piano, each composition having its own carefully notated system of sound-altering objects minutely placed which, when performed on a grand piano, can be seen by the audience as the performer actually “prepares” the piano between pieces. This means, of course, that the performer be as much a master of being able to prepare a piano on the spot as to be able to play these pieces and, luckily, Ann Ward and Adam Tendler are masters of both the technical as well as the musical demands that Cage spells out in his Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. (Dennis Polkow)

January 23, 6pm, at PianoForte, Fine Arts Building, Suite 825, 410 S. Michigan, (312)291-0000, $10-$15.

Author: Dennis Polkow

Dennis Polkow is an award-winning veteran journalist, critic, author, broadcaster and educator. He made his stage debut at age five, was a child art prodigy and began playing keyboards in clubs at the age of fourteen. He holds degrees in music theory, composition, religious studies and philosophy from DePaul University in Chicago. Polkow spent his early years performing and recording in rock and jazz bands while concertizing as a classical pianist, organist and harpsichordist and composing, arranging and producing for other artists. As a scholar, Polkow has published and lectured extensively and taught at several colleges and universities in various departments. As an actor, narrator and consultant, Polkow has been involved with numerous films, plays, broadcasts and documentaries. As a journalist, Polkow helped co-create the experiential Chicago Musicale and Spotlight, the award-winning tabloid arts and entertainment section of the Press Publications chain of newspapers, which he later edited. He also created and ran the nationally recognized journalism program at Oakton College and was faculty advisor to its award-winning student newspaper; many former students went on to major media careers, including Channel Awesome’s the Nostalgia Critic. Polkow’s research, interviews, features, reviews and commentaries have appeared across national and international media and he has corresponded from the Middle East, Asia and Africa for the Chicago Tribune. Contact: dpolkow25@aol.com