# John Cage's sonatas and interludes for prepared piano.



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I've listened to quite a bit of Cage over the years but mostly to the number pieces. I've kind of ignored his most early music like these sonatas. Time to correct that. 

What do you think of this cycle? How does Cage's style relate to the compositional ideas of his peers? How about the instrument? Do you think the choice has interesting implications or was it just an inconsequential accident of circumstances which prompted Cage to try to create a gamelan sound?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I like the Sonatas and Interludes, but I graviate towards overtly rhythmic pieces such as Dance No. 1 from Three Dances, which really do sound like some sort of percussion ensemble or gamelon. I especially like this Ralph Grierson/Michael Tilson-Thomas performance. It sounds like they're having a blast playing it!


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## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

Old and tired middle class psuedo arty nonsense.... the kind of thing that would probably sound good on a Tom Waits track... but if he continued with this sort of nonsense onto track two you'd put the album straight in the bin. 
Arty nonsense making up for a lack of substance... which describeds 95% of US classical music.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> I've listened to quite a bit of Cage over the years but mostly to the number pieces. I've kind of ignored his most early music like these sonatas. Time to correct that.
> 
> What do you think of this cycle? How does Cage's style relate to the compositional ideas of his peers? How about the instrument? Do you think the choice has interesting implications or was it just an inconsequential accident of circumstances which prompted Cage to try to create a gamelan sound?


I think of the prepared piano as a small percussion ensemble in a box, and think it was a act of inspired creativity for him to come up with it in response to the performance limitations he faced.

I've listened to sonatas and interludes for prepared piano over the years, but they're not my favorite music by Cage. _Ryoanji_ is among my favorites, as are the two concerti, for piano and prepared piano. Like you, I spend most of my time with his late number pieces.

I like a significant amount of his work, but often don't remember the titles.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I like John Cage's _Sonatas and Interlude for Prepared Piano_. I see it as the last in the line of a progression that is thoroughly American. In the American piano school you have Louis Moreau Gottschalk who employed folk elements and international flavor and characteristic intervals that someone here is more musically literate can better explain; Scott Jopiln took entirely new direction with Ragtime. Meanwhile Edward MacDowell stayed firm in a style that emulated the High Romantic of Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Grieg; and a handful of MacDowell miniatures such as _Ode to a Water Lily_ and _Ode to a Wild Rose_ even make it into a recital program now and then. Samuel Barber followed a long a similar line as MacDowell with a style that is firmly rooted in European Romanticism, but he's much more original than MacDowell and quite athletic.

Charles Ives, though, created something entirely new in piano music. When I first heard _Concord Sonata_ I couldn't grasp it at all. At the time, it mystified as much as did the piano works of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, only Ives was breaking the boundaries of tonality long before Vienna's "Second School". After Ives, Henry Cowell, with his slim number of solo piano works continues in the spirit of Ives and serves, to my ears, as the link between Ives and John Cage.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Coach G said:


> I like Jon Cage's _Sonatas and Interlude for Prepared Piano_. I see it as the last in the line of a progression that is thoroughly American. In the American piano school you have Louis Moreau Gottschalk who employed folk elements and international flavor and characteristic intervals that someone here is more musically literate can better explain; Scott Jopiln took entirely new direction with Ragtime. Meanwhile Edward MacDowell stayed firm in a style that emulated the High Romantic of Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Grieg; and a handful of MacDowell miniatures such as _Ode to a Water Lily_ and _Ode to a Wild Rose_ even make it into a recital program now and then. Samuel Barber followed a long a similar line as MacDowell with a style that is firmly rooted in European Romanticism, but he's much more original than MacDowell and quite athletic.
> 
> Charles Ives, though, create something entirely new in piano music. When I first heard _Concord Sonata_ I could grasp it at all. At the time, it mystified as much as did the piano works of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, only Ives was breaking the boundaries of tonality long before Vienna's "Second School". After Ives, Henry Cowell, with his slim number of solo piano works continues in the spirit of Ives and serves, to my ears, as the link between Ives and John Cage.


Thanks, I'm listening to some studies for piano by Ives now, for the first time, I see what you're getting at.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

the melodies of Sonata II are actually cute: 



 don't you think so, MR. MR?

reminds me of some soundtracks from a video game I used to play as a kid:
21:10 Smells Like Crickets, Tastes Like Chicken
18:20 Ride, Lawrence, Ride!
15:10  Bass Bag
8:55 Machina del Diablo


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

hammeredklavier said:


> the melodies of Sonata II are actually cute:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, I see what you mean. The preparation of the piano turns it into a kind of "toy" to be played with: rattles, bells, buzzes, and all sorts of playful sounds. Cage did, in fact, write a Suite for Toy Piano (1948). It's on this disc, and also on the Jeanne Kirstein set, which I highly recommend.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

You can create your own version...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Here's my favourite piece for toy piano,


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

_Dance 1_ is listenable. It reminds me of Javanese music from Indonesia. I think it is Cage's finest works.


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