John Cage - Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano

John Cage is one of the giants of 20th century contemporary music. His composing, performing and philosophy are intertwined, and Cage has influenced innumerable composers and performers in classical, jazz and rock music. Cage has made a life's work out of music-as-sound and sound-as-music. This disc is a re-release of two albums from the mid-'60s of pieces Cage wrote in the late 1930s. Yuji Takahashi (himself a composer) plays "sonatas" for "prepared piano," an innovation by either Cage or Henry Cowell, where the piano has small objects inserted within to alter the sound. These pieces are short and sparse, with the piano producing tones similar to an mbira (African thumb piano) or a koto. The music is reminiscent of Erik Satie's piano music, but darker and more percussive, with a haunting, questing quality. Cage, with his (then) radical conceptions, "liberated" the piano from all the established notions of how it should sound, and open it―and music in general―to limitless possibilities.

Tracklist

Sonata I
Sonata II
Sonata III
Sonata IV
First Interlude
Sonata V
Sonata VI
Sonata VII
Sonata VIII
Second Interlude
Third Interlude
Sonata IX
Sonata X
Sonata XI
Sonata XII
Fourth Interlude
Sonata XIII
Sonata XIV and XV
Sonata XVI

Yuji Takahashi, piano
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Denon 7673