Prepared Piano Guidelines

[Allen Wright]

I personally find George Crumb's music often very interesting, and even 
beautiful and moving. Ditto John Cage. They've expanded the sonic 
possibilities of the instrument. But the important point is that some 
of the prepared stuff has definitely become a standard part of the 
literature in some circles, and it's not going to go away, whether or 
not any of us personally find it appropriate or musical.

It can take a toll on the pianos, though, especially if not supervised 
carefully. When I was at Oberlin we had a couple of smaller Steinways 
dedicated for prepared pieces for any student performances. It worked 
out well for us. There is one faculty player (becoming well-known as a 
Crumb interpreter), who we allowed to use on of the main D's on stage, 
and it never got harmed. Of course Crumb is mostly about strumming and 
touching harmonics and such, so not as drastic as some others.

But why not assign one piano for this sort of thing? A scrificial lamb 
of sorts. It does mean some extra moving, of course, depending on how 
often this sort of piece happens.

Allen Wright
Northern Kentucky University

On Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at 07:35  AM, James Ellis wrote:

> I appreciate the back-up support from Horace and Wim.  Thanks, 
> fellows.  By
> suggesting some hard and fast guidelines for those who do "prepared 
> piano"
> stuff, I was not implying that I go along with it.  I don't.  I think 
> it is
> a bunch of garbage.  There are instruments that are designed to be 
> plucked
> and bowed, and others designed to be strummed, etc.  The piano was not 
> made
> for that.  By suggesting guidelines, I was just acknowledging that we 
> are
> going to have this stuff, whether we like it or not, so let's try to
> protect the piano, as best we can.  Even better, set aside an old 
> junker
> for this nonsense.  "Prepared piano" is a misnomer if I ever saw it or
> heard it.
>
> Fifty five years ago, UT had a piano professor who was a real teacher. 
>  He
> taught the kids how to play the piano for real.  On the same day he
> retired, the UT music department featured one of those
> out-in-never-never-land "concerts" where they did crazy things with the
> piano - something that would NEVER have been done under that 
> professor's
> administration.
>
> Sincerely, Jim Ellis
>
>
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