Performed by Tau Wey, Head of Keyboard, with Eliza Ruffle, Malek Marar, Alex Hall, and Niki Zhang
I, II, II IV Tau Wey First Interlude Eliza Ruffle V, VI, VII, VIII Tau Wey Second Interlude Malek Marar Third Interlude Alex Hall IX, X, XI, XII Tau Wey Fourth Interlude Niki Zhang XIII, XIV, XV, XVI Tau Wey
This is a project that has been in the making since the start of the lockdown, when the students started learning parts of the Sonatas and Interludes in preparation for a rare opportunity to perform this music on a prepared piano.
The prepared piano is a great example of what can be achieved despite limitations. Cage (1912-1992) was asked to provide some percussion music for a dance show. All he had access to in the theatre pit was a grand piano. By inserting objects such as bolts in between the strings, he was able to completely transform the sound of the piano.
Cage’s creativity was inexhaustible. He had an interdisciplinary mindset. Not content with just the medium of sound, he found a creative outlet through painting, essay writing, and poetry, as well as developing profound interests in subjects as diverse as Buddhism and mycology.
In the Sonatas and Interludes, Cage projects in sound his interpretation of the permanent emotions of Indian tradition: the Heroic, the Erotic, the Wondrous, the Comic (the four light moods), Sorrow, Fear, Anger, the Odious (the four dark moods), and their common tendency toward Tranquillity. This was Cage’s first composition using Hindu philosophy as a basis, and he composed the Sonatas and Interludes in a period of time during which he was reading extensively the works of the Indian art historian and critic Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
Just as the students have learnt to express themselves through this new sonic dimension, may you as the listeners delight in the encounter with these new and alluring sounds. Click here to watch the video.
