Sonatas and Interludes is a collection of twenty pieces for prepared piano by American avant-garde composer John Cage (pictured). Forty-five notes are prepared, using screws, nuts, bolts, pieces of rubber and plastic, and an eraser. The pieces were composed between February 1946 and March 1948, shortly after Cage's introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, both of which became major influences on the composer's later work. Significantly more complex than his other works for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage's finest achievements. The cycle consists of sixteen sonatas and four more freely structured interludes. The aim of the pieces is to express the eight permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition. In Sonatas and Interludes, Cage elevated his technique of rhythmic proportions to a new level of complexity. In each sonata a short sequence of natural numbers and fractions defines the structure of the work and that of its parts, informing structures as localized as individual melodic lines. Cage dedicated the work to Maro Ajemian, a pianist and friend, who performed it many times.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_Interludes
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
Manchu regent Dorgon defeated rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shanhai_Pass
1799:
War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeated the French and captured the strategically important town of Winterthur, Switzerland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Winterthur_(1799)
1874:
The first group of the Dorsland Trek, a series of explorations undertaken by Boers in search of political independence and better living conditions, departed South Africa for Angola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorsland_Trek
1930:
Standing at 319 metres (1,047 ft), New York City's Chrysler Building opened as the world's tallest building before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building 11 months later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Building
1983:
A massive explosion at an illegal fireworks factory near Benton, Tennessee, US, killed eleven people and caused damage within a radius of several miles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webb_Farm_disaster
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
antaphrodisiac: Capable of reducing the sex drive. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antaphrodisiac
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
 I am anti-entropy. My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. Gadfly is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrator or critic with umbrage will say of my work, "He only wrote that to shock." I smile and nod. Precisely.  --Harlan Ellison https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison