John Milton Cage. How the "Prepared piano" was prepared

This article deals with the work of American composer John Cage (1912-1992), one of the most progressive musicians and music theorist of the 20th century, an outstanding avant-garde composer known for his unconventional use of musical instruments, inventor of "prepared piano", creation of techniques of sound changes, involving the preparation of the piano based on various everyday objects and turning it into a kind of bank of musical instruments. The composer used the existing sound palette in Western piano music in harmonic and non-harmonic contexts, at the same time opening up a new sound field for noise-like and divergent musical-acoustic processes. The paper analyzes the history of the invention of the concept of the "prepared piano" and defines the connection between the composer's musical philosophy and his "prepared" piano works. It is concluded that by creating the "prepared piano" Cage took the extremely radical step of transforming the harmonic and melodic features of the piano to sonic impressions, of which most were based on their "percussive nature." The composer never made a distinction between music and sound, musical themes, musical instruments and our minds, taking an important step away from classical composition to complex musical action, to lay the foundations for a more expansive concept of music, a radical expansion of sound space and, essentially, a change in the very subject of music.