Sounds that are not what they sound: The unrecognizability of piano sounds transformed due to string preparations
Alexandra Hettergott · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1999
Three different performances of John Cage’s, Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946–1948), each of which is a recent CD recording, were analyzed in relation to a common notational model. Though following the same lines regarding the preparations of the grand piano by means of screws, bolts, nuts, rubber, and/or plastic, applied to the double and triple piano strings, realizations of the same piece may differ from one another in almost all musical parameters: not only in aspects of tempo and dynamics, but also with respect to the respective spectral distribution, as pitch strength and tone color, and also in the perceived pitches themselves. The course of a tone sequence in one performance perceptually may completely be changed relating to the other. Cage’s preparations, though detailed up to a certain point, thus allow one to take interpretative liberties. The performances were compared referring to both their spectral and temporal characteristics, each of them yielding a completely different sound quality. Differences and factorial common facts will be shown in multicomponent features derived from; in addition, several sound examples will be given.