John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano

April 16, 2018

University Relations

Nine performers from the percussion and piano studios of the Music Department will perform John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano on Sunday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Davis Concert Hall. Admission is free.

Written between 1946 and 1948, Sonatas and Interludes is Cage’s masterwork of his prepared piano pieces. The piano is prepared with an assortment of bolts, nuts, rubber and felt between the strings to produce a range of percussive sounds. This process takes three hours and uses 75 objects to produce 45 altered sounds from the grand piano. In this piece, much like in his famous silent piece (4’33”), he is questioning the tradition of sound and musical performance on stage. This historic and groundbreaking work has been described as the modern American counterpart to "The Well-Tempered Clavier," yet is rarely performed live due to its technical requirements. There will be a short pre-concert lecture explaining the historical and technical aspects of this work.

For more information email emaniatopoulou@alaska.edu.