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John Cage: Three Dances for Two Prepared Pianos: No. 1 (Rhythm, metre and…
John Cage: Three Dances for Two Prepared Pianos: No. 1
Melody
Any proper sense of melody is missing as Cage was moving away from Western traditional concepts of harmony and melody
There is a melodic ostinato figure at 64/73 which retains a sligtly more noticable pitch. The repetitive 5 note rhythm is the main focus accompanied by percussive quaver rhythms rather than conventional chords.
John Cage's "Sonata II" uses arching melodic shapes which somewhat resemble a melodic phrase
Ostinato is the most important melodic feature with use of short patterns such as 3-note figure in 1st piano in the beginning
A sinmilar 2 Bar pattern in Piano 1,RH is repeated 16 times in figures 64+73. It does partly resemble the pitches
John Cage's "Sonata II" uses an ostinato passage in the left hand from bar 17 using alternating quavers
Cage uses a system of note addition and subtraction
7 note motif at figure 55 is extended at figure 56 to 8 beats long
Note addition and subtraction occurs at figure 55, shifting the position of the motif about
The piano uses an
inextensive
range. Some relatively high notes are used but the lower range is unexplored
Rhythm, metre and Tempo
Note values consist of just crotchets or quavers. Longer notes or rests are often used to mark the end of a section or group
2 bar rest just before figure 5. Minim just before figure 10.
Some occasional ornamental groups of notes
Septuplets at figure 20
Cage's" Sonata II" uses Ornamental groups of notes such as quintuplets from bar 28
Septuplet at figure 22 with an extra beat making a 5/4 time signature
Cage's" Sonata II" similarly uses Ornamental groups of notes such as septuplets from bar 36
The music uses polyrhythm (simultaneous different rhythms)
1st Piano has groups of three quavers going across the line against the 2nd Piano's crotchet and off-beat quavers in 2/2 metre (simple duple time).
Continuous quaver movement e.g end figure 71/80 giving the feeling of moto perpetuo (continuous motion)
Some phrases are repeated at different positions in the bar, causing a metric shift effect.
Phrase at figure 14 RH Piano 1 shifts from first to second to fourth beat, then returning to first beat
Note addition and subtraction occurs at figure 55, shifting the position of the motif about
Metric shifts at figure 70/79 cause the RH figure to repeat in the middle of the bar
Harmony
Repeated A at figure 46 piano 1,LH and repeated C at figure 62 piano 2, LH are somewhat related to "pedal points", but have no real harmonic or tonal significance
This piece lacks any conventional harmony, both functional and non-functional
Similarly, John cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" does not pointedly use western tonality, due in part to the prepared piano
Tonality
Due to the preparations and their effect on the pitch of the piano, the music is essentially atonal.
Similarly, John Cage's "Sonatas and interludes" uses a prepared piano causing the sound to be effectively atonal
Sounds have little relation to the pitch of the note on the stave
There is no sense of tonality. Tonality cannot exist without clearly organised pitches
Sonority
Preparing causes the timbre to retain some sense of pitch or is greatly percussive, without any sense of pitch
There is a clearer pitch at figure 64 and 73, with the 1st piano ostinato pattern, having some sense of pitch
There is a greater lack of pitch in figure 17 with chords notated in the score, but there is no harmonic function to what is being played
In John Cage's "Sonata 1" , notated chords are used at the start, but with no harmonic function
There is more sense of pitch at the higher range of the piano such as the outline of notes beging heard at bar 14 and at figure10
He also specified which of the 3 strings were affected and how near the bridge or dampers the items were placed
Cage uses a "prepared piano" by using specific items such as screws, rubbers, coins, bolts, plastic inserted between the strings of notes
Using the "una corda"(soft) pedal allowed alteration of the sound as just one string was hit as in grand pianos, all hammers move to the left
"Una Corda" pedal is used for the first time at figure 26 and lasts 6 bars
In John Cage's "Sonata II", the Una corda pedal is used extensively from bar 4
The una corda pedal is also used at figure 46 and lasts until the middle of figure 62
The soft pedal is used in figure 64 and lasts until the end of the section
Texture
Monophonic texture third bar of figure 5 (first piano)
John Cage's "Sonata II" also briefly begins monophonically
Two-part texture at figure 6
John Cage's "Sonata II" similarly uses a 2 part texture briefly at bar 10
Much of the music has a four part texture. Each of the staves for each hand is independant e.g figure 5
Three-part texture at figure 7
John Cage's "Sonata II" similarly uses a 3 part layered texture at bar 30
Silences, e.g. just before figure 64+73. This gives additional emphasis to the following music and also denotes the end of the section.
Structure
There are eight sections, with the last being repeated, making nine sections of 30 bars overall
Each section has the same groupings. 2nd section at figure 10 begins with groups of 2-5-2.
This structure is related to the Indian tala which gorups beats rather than bars. The Joomra Tal has is grouped in 3+4+3+4 beats
John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" similarly is divided into units i.e. Sonata 1's 7-bar units is divided into 1¼, ¾, 1¼, ¾, 1½, 1½
The number of bars in each section is 2-5-2; 2-6-2; 2-7-2. In each repeat, the central group is extended by one bar
The 2-5-2 bar division , followed by 2-6-2 and 2-7-2 in each section adds to 9,10 and 11 bars. There are 9 sections in movement 1 followed by 10 sections in movement 2 and 11 sections in movement 3.
The structure is based on tempo and rhythm. The tempo is 88 crotchets to the minute. This determines lengths of sections
The contents of each section are different, although some ideas are recurring
At figure 13, the second piano briefly plays what it had in the beginning
Figure 14 uses the rhythmic idea of the first piano in figure 8 with the 3-2-2-2 quaver pattern
Figure 46 returns with a similar rhythmic idea to the first piano in figure 8 with the 3-2-2-2-2-2-2 quaver pattern
The last two sections repeat starting at figures 64 and 73
A Micro-macrocosmic structure
John Cage structured his dances so that the division of each section into 2-5-2, 2-6-2, 2-7-2 related to the numhber of sections in each movement i.e 9, 10 and 11 sections in 1st 2nd and 3rd movement respectively.
John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" uses the 'micro-macrocosmic' structure i.e.. in Sonata 3, units of 8½ bars are subdivided into 1,1, 3¼, 3¼, whilst the overall structure of AABB has unit proportions of 1, 1, 3¼, 3¼.
Context
Cage was influenced by oriental music with relations to Javanese/Balinese gamelan music which used mainly percussive instruments
Indian rhythmic structures such as tala were also an important influence
Cage used the indian rhythmic structure in this piece and generally in his work as the structure is based around rhythm and tempos wather than conventional sections i.e sonata form. .he subdivision of sections in this piece into 2-5-2, 2-6-2 and 2-7-2 bars is similar to how the beats are divided in rhythmic tala patterns.
Many of Cage's pieces were written for ballet performances in New York such as this one.
John cage was an American experimental composer of the twentieth century. He was interested on basing his structure around new rhythmic directions.
"Three Dances for Unprepared pianos" was composed in 1944 and premiered in 1945. It was commissioned by the piano duo Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale.
It was designed for a dance piece called "Dromenon" by the choreographer Merce Cunningham.
The dance has an African emphasis. The standard piano wouldn't be suitable to produce the ethnic influence so a prepared piano was used
Cage was inspired by Eastern Philosophy and used I Ching, a chinese classic text decision - making tool, using chance operations to find answers to a question. This was Cage's primary method of composition
Dynamics
Prepararations in the piano means sounds are much quieter than they normally should be. The piano would be amplified as the prepared piano would be quieter than the regular piano
Forzando accents at the beginning of the piece , and numerous accent marks later on
Cage's "Sonata II" similarly uses forzando accents at the beginning of the piece, with additional markings further in
Use of crescendos , e.g. figure 9
Dynamic contrast and surprise with ff fortissimo markings after a piano passage at figure 38
More extreme dynamic contrast with use of sudden pianissimo followed by rests then unexpected fortissimo just before the final sections 64/73
Similar contrast in dynamics is found in Cage's "Sonata II" with the pp in bar 13 opposing the ff marking in bar 15