Read "Percussive pianists: UB students’ performance features a retrospective of John Cage’s music for ‘prepared piano"

By Mary Kunz Goldman for the Buffalo News:

"Late on a sunny afternoon, when sane people would be outside, UB pianist Eric Huebner and three of his students are in Lippes Concert Hall gathered around a beat-up Steinway grand piano.

It is not just any old Steinway grand.

Wedged under and between its strings are…objects. Felt. Bolts. Oddments.
On Wednesday, Huebner and his students are performing an hourlong retrospective of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. And preparations are finally complete.

Cage (1912-1992) was known for his experimentation. One of his most famous innovations was the “prepared piano”—a piano adjusted to produce unusual
sounds.

It was born out of necessity. Cage came up with the idea in the 1940s so he could get the sound of a percussion ensemble. (In keeping with his shoestring spirit, Wednesday’s concert is free.)

The composer was working a lot with dance troupes, and dance, along with Indian philosophy, inspired him. There are shards of the Baroque — trim little ornaments, tiny trills — and dance rhythms. The items among the piano strings produce soft jingles and gong sounds. There are African beats and twinkling treble lines.

You could debate whether the pieces are actually music, or if they are instead montages of sound effects. Arguments over that break out frequently on YouTube.

You could also call prepared piano “quaint.” UB, after all, has a history of the avant-garde. Cage himself was no stranger to our town.
But there is no denying the instrument’s entertainment value. And if the prepared piano never caught on among other composers, Huebner says, that is because Cage owned the concept.

“Cage got there first,” he says. “He was like an actor in a TV show.”"

Read the rest here.