How to Prepare a Piano with Stephen Drury

Stephen Drury of New England Conservatory's Piano faculty demonstrates the process of piano preparation for John Cage's "Sonatas & Interludes".

[Mar-gytm]

I personally think it's genius. They've expanded the potential of the instrument. If someone doesn't like the way prepared piano sounds, that's fine, but a lot of folks appreciate and use this experimental sound.

[clivefamily]

Stephen! I had fun playing these pieces when I was in your class! You are still awesome! Missing PZ...

[opa]

Stephen Drury was a pupil of Claudio Arrau, whic was a pupil of Martin Krause which was a pupil of Franz Liszt which was a pupil of Carl Czerny which was a pupil of Ludwig Van Beethoven which was a pupil of Joseph Haydn

[lotusbuds]

Hi Steve....fan from my Boston days 1990s...heard you last in Santa Cruz, CA some years back.

[harrieteames]

How I love Mr Cage and his prepared piano - definitely a genius!

[bid]

very interesting presentation, not just the process but also what Cage's instructions look like and specify - thanks for posting!

[ChickenVendetta]

Maybe I'm wrong, because I'm certainly no expert, but doesn't the idea of tirelessly recreating Cage's preparations in such detail kind of negate the experimental nature of prepared piano?

[markgoldstein]

re: the comments wondering whether the over-analysis of the piano preparation contradicts the experimental nature of Cage's music.

I don't think that experimentation and specificity are mutually exclusive. Lots of free improvisers (e.g. Sun Ra, John Zorn, Ikue Mori) have still cared a lot about the specific sounds that they were making, even if some of the organization of those sounds was less determined at times. Since Cage bothered to give musical notation at all --for specific rhythms and timbres-- in this piece, it means that he did have certain sounds, techniques, and durations in mind. This can be contrasted with other works of his, where pieces have been centered around primarily text instructions describing what to do:

- Cage's piece Indeterminacy, which had Tutor improvise while Cage read stories
- Cage's Music Walk, which is a mix of musically notated and choreographic instructions
- Stockhausen's Aus Den Sieben Tagen, which is a collection of poems that describes sonic goals

Interesting question to think about~

[jasarinvorawathanabuncha]

I wonder if this could potentially damage the strings.

[irontoad]

I guess cage was the pre digital age. what could he have done with General MIDI. Thanks for the detail. love cage. ps i heard he set an organ to play endlessly on a fractal algorythym. do you know about this

[unclejohnthezef]

thanks stephen! can we find a notation diagram of where to put the screws and rubber?

[joshuadowling]

Does preparing the piano change the pitch? I'm curious as I am currently composing a piece for prepared piano. I would like to change the sound of the piano but not the pitch of the music I've composed. Is there a way to do this?

[massvocals-]

this is DRury coat of arms I<M Steven DRury as well i like on drury ln

[Magnum]

There's a thin line between genius and insanity.
these guys use that line like a jump rope.

[wanker]

To atonal composers can I please ask a serious question? I'm not going to attack you i'm being serious... why did composers abandon the western classical tradition and start writing strange music, and place such great importance on originality and not think about pleasing the audience any more? 

My second question, is that I compose music of the Austrian Classical tradition, therefore alluding to Haydn and Mozart. Other composers and teachers attack me and say that my music is 'pastiche'. Is it wrong to write classical music? Can you please tell me what you think and why? Thanks!

[pandorajodara]

lol, he goes "the last thing you want to do is This!" and then he does it ... hmm ?! indeed it's weird to learn from another youtuber, another video, the clear instruction, lift the damper and use a wedge before you do the insert, otherwise you damage the piano. looks like this teacher doesn't care all that much about the damage.. ?

[DrDrick]

haha Huib dit ga ik echt nie kijken #interfaculteit  

[kddlb]

Three hours (at least) to (literally) screw up a piano? Ow!