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John Cage

Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano (2LP)

Out of stock

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Cage's very rare first album of his landmark 1946-48 compositions performed by Maro Ajemian, released as a double LP set on Dial Records in 1951, it can't get more seminal than this. An essential piece of history in embossed heavy cardboard gatefold sleeve with stickers.

condition (record/cover): VG+ (2 hairline marks on side B with 2 clicks at the beginning, 1 hairline mark on side C, occasional pops throughout) / VG- (spine partly split and pen marks on front cover).


Embossed gatefold sleeve with stickers.

Sonatas And Interludes (1946-48), John Cage's most sustained and formally complete achievement in the prepared piano medium, receives here its earliest commercial documentation - the Dial Records pressing, performed by Maro Ajemian, who gave the work its Carnegie Hall premiere in 1949. Sixteen sonatas and four interludes, the instrument transformed by screws, bolts, rubber and wood inserted between the strings into something that has almost nothing to do with the Western piano tradition: a percussive, resonant, unpitched world unto itself. Cage's conceptual framework draws on the Indian aesthetic of the eight permanent emotions - the rasas - and their convergence toward a ninth, Tranquility. The Dial pressing is the document of this music closest to its moment of composition. Despite some faults (please see conditions above), a solid copy of this piece of history.

Details
Cat. number: 19-20
Year: 1951
Tracklist
AThe First Four Sonatas Followed By The First Interlude
BThe Second Four Sonatas Followed By The Second Interlude
CThe Third Interlude Followed By The Third Four Sonatas
DThe Fourth Interlude Followed By The Last Four Sonatas
Credits
John Cage
Composed By
Maro Ajemian
Piano [Prepared Piano]

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