John Cage

The Perilous Night (1944)

The Perilous Night is one of a series of pieces that Cage wrote for “prepared” piano in the 1940s. Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned by Syvilla Fort, a Seattle-based dancer, to write music for "Bacchanale" 1938. He placed bolts, screws, weather-stripping, and pieces of rubber between and entwined around various strings inside the piano. By placing the preparation between two of the strings on a note which has three strings, it was additionally possible to change the timbre of that note by depressing the una corda pedal, which shifted the hammers so they struck only two strings. The result was an instrument that sounded like an entire percussion ensemble, perhaps even an Indonesian gamelan orchestra.

The Perilous Night was composed in 1944 after Cage had moved to New York. So far as I know it was not written for any particular purpose or commission. Cage later said that the piece was about “the loneliness and terror that comes to one when love becomes unhappy." (You can read more about the genesis of the piece as well as a tendentious but fascinating discussion of Cage’s love life and its relation to his music at: http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/KatzPages/KatzWorse.html .) In 1982 Jasper Johns, who knew Cage well, painted a painting based on and inspired by Cage’s piece. See: http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/johns/index.shtm.

The Perilous Night has 6 movements ranging from half a minute to 4 minutes. Because preparing a piano is complex and time consuming, Cage uses the same preparation throughout. However by changing tempos and changing which notes he emphasizes, Cage obtains great variety and contrast between movements.