prepared piano

noun

1. a grand piano that has been altered for some modern compositions by having various objects attached to its strings to change the sound and pitch, and performance on which typically involves playing the keys, plucking the strings, slapping the body of the instrument, and slamming the keyboard lid.

prepared piano

noun

1. a piano in which some strings have been damped by having objects placed between them or tuned differently from the rest for specific tonal effect. This process was pioneered by John Cage

Word History and Origins

Origin of prepared piano¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

The prepared piano, albeit without Mr. Muhly, returned in a crucial if less central role for the roughly half-hour “Te Deum,” which on Friday was crisply rendered with entirely Estonian forces led by Mr. Kaljuste.

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Then, after a short silence, the music resumed, but now with the addition of Mr. Muhly on prepared piano, lending ineffable poignancy to strains of unsentimental emotionalism.

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The first, an ice-cold trap pounder that sounds like the tortured strings of a prepared piano, provided a blueprint for the two-times-platinum “What a Time to Be Alive,” the full-length collaboration from Future and Drake, where Metro Boomin served as executive producer.

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And the prepared piano added an interesting timbre.

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“I think of that stuff now as an orchestrational device,” Wubbels said of his prepared piano designs.

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