NYPL Point: John Cage's Prepared Piano

Born the son of an inventor, American composer John Cage (1912–1992) died the father of musical invention. NYPL Point: John Cage’s Prepared Piano examines his innovative and radical technique of “preparing” a single piano to make it sound like a percussion ensemble. The book contains exclusive images from NYPL’s John Cage Music Manuscript Collection, held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center; video of Cage acolyte Margaret Leng Tan demonstrating how she prepares a piano; an interview with NYPL collection curator Jonathan Hiam; excerpts from several of Cage’s prepared piano compositions; as well as much more. And, through a call-out contained within the book, we invite you to contribute your own videos showing how you play Cage’s works to NYPL’s ever-growing online resource John Cage Unbound: A Living Archive. John Cage believed that anybody can feel and play music—and that all sounds are good. Point Volume 1, Edition 3, John Cage's Prepared Piano, was compiled and edited by Benjamin Holland-Arlen.