John Cage was an American composer, music theorist, writer and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.
Cage was already famous since 1938 for using, during the execution of some of his compositions, the so-called “prepared piano”, a desecrating act against the romantic musical instrument par excellence.
But what exactly is a prepared piano? It is a technique which consists in introducing various materials such as screws, nails, pieces of rubber or plastic, between piano strings so that the pianist unintentionally produce different sounds from the notes written on the pentagram.
Perhaps Cage was not the first ever to prepare the piano, but surely he was the first to develop this idea consciously and programmatically.
For this exclusive edition of the work of John Cage, I have decided to apply this method: first of all, I drilled the custody centrally and I passed inside the hole a screw that both prevents and ensures its immediate opening and closure; finally, I altered the font, resizing some letters to give words a different beat than expected.
Designed by: Jacques Fuà, Italy.