John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.
Henry Dixon Cowell was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher and the husband of Sidney Robertson Cowell. Earning a reputation as an extremely controversial performer and eccentric composer, Cowell became a leading figure of American avant-garde music for the first half of the 20th century — his writings and music serving as a great influence to similar artists at the time, including Lou Harrison, George Antheil, and John Cage, among others. He is considered one of America's most important and influential composers.
In music, extended technique is unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds or timbres.
A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called tabletop guitar, because many prepared guitarists do not hold the instrument in the usual manner, but instead place the guitar on a table to manipulate it.
A bacchanale is an orgiastic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal.
String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965) to collectively describe pianistic extended techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, instead of or in addition to striking the piano's keys. Pioneered by Cowell in the 1920s, such techniques are now often called upon in the works of avant-garde classical music composers.
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists known for their clever arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes, as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances.
An experimental musical instrument is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modifications, such as cracked cymbals or metal objects inserted between piano strings in a prepared piano. Some experimental instruments are created from household items like a homemade mute for brass instruments such as bathtub plugs. Other experimental instruments are created from electronic spare parts, or by mixing acoustic instruments with electric components.
Cornelis William Hendrik Fuhler was a Dutch/Australian improvisor, composer, and instrument builder associated with free jazz, experimental music and acoustic ecology. He played piano by manipulating sound with electromagnetic string stimulators like Ebows and motorized actuators. Fuhler also performed on guitar, turntables and synthesizer. He invented the keyolin, a combination of keyboard and violin.
Volker Bertelmann is a German composer, pianist and former rapper who mainly performs and records under the name Hauschka. He is best known for his compositions for prepared piano. He won an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front (2022).
Music of Changes is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of indeterminate music. The process of composition involved applying decisions made using the I Ching, a Chinese classic text that is commonly used as a divination system. The I Ching was applied to large charts of sounds, durations, dynamics, tempo and densities.
American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992) began composing pieces for solo prepared piano around 1938–40. The majority of early works for this instrument were created to accompany dances by Cage's various collaborators, most frequently Merce Cunningham. In response to frequent criticisms of prepared piano, Cage cited numerous predecessors. In the liner notes for the very first recording of his most highly acclaimed work for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes, Cage wrote: "Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical." This article presents a complete list of Cage's works for prepared piano, with comments on each composition. All of Cage's indeterminate works for unspecified forces can also be performed on or with Prepared Piano.
Construction is the title of several pieces by American composer John Cage, all scored for unorthodox percussion instruments. The pieces were composed in 1939–42 while Cage was working at the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, and touring the West Coast with a percussion ensemble he and Lou Harrison had founded. The series comprises three Constructions. A piece titled Fourth Construction, mentioned in several sources, is apparently either an unfinished work from 1942 or, more likely, an early title of the work we now know as Imaginary Landscape No. 2 .
Imaginary Landscape No. 1 is a composition for records of constant and variable frequency, large chinese cymbal and string piano by American composer John Cage and the first in the series of Imaginary Landscapes. It was composed in 1939.
Richard Bunger Evans, also known as Richard Bunger, is an American composer and pianist who worked with John Cage and subsequently wrote "the classic book on John Cage," The Well-Prepared Piano. Evans has composed and performed music for opera and musical theatre, piano, art songs, prepared piano, choral music, string orchestra and chamber music. He continues to compose and perform in these various genres, and is especially respected as a collaborator with singers. During his 17-year career as a music professor, Evans was named one of two statewide Outstanding Professors of 1981–1982 in the 23-campus California State University system.
Piano extended techniques are those in which unorthodox or unconventional techniques are used to create the sound.
Kelly Moran is an American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn. Her music spans classical, electronic, minimalist, jazz, impressionist, and metal genres. In many of her compositions, Moran utilizes electronic musical techniques in combination with the John Cage-pioneered technique of the prepared piano. Moran signed with Warp Records in September 2018.
Sinner Get Ready is the fourth studio album by American musician Kristin Hayter, and her last under her alias Lingua Ignota. Created in collaboration with producer and engineer Seth Manchester, it is the follow-up to Hayter's 2019 album Caligula. It was released on Sargent House on August 6, 2021, and was met with widespread acclaim from music critics.
Lion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2016 film Lion. The album mostly features musical score composed by Dustin O'Halloran and Volker Bertelmann, known by the stage name Hauschka. This film marked their joint collaboration together in scoring films. The score consisted of piano, accompanied by strings, percussions and a minimal orchestra, to produce the score in a "subtle and restrained manner", to convey the emotions of Saroo, the film's protagonist. The score album, also featured a promotional single, "Never Give Up" by Sia. The album was distributed by Sony Classical Records and released in digital formats on 25 November 2016, and through CDs on 23 December. A vinyl edition of the album also released on 17 March 2017.
