Hungarian Pictures Hungarian Pictures Hungarian Pictures, sometimes also referred to as Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 97, BB 103 () is a suite for orchestra by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók finished in 1931. The suite consists of orchestrations of earlier short pieces for piano composed between 1908 and 1911. The original piano pieces were created during Bartók's journey around Romania and Hungary, when he started collecting and arranging folk music that further transformed his somewhat Lisztian early style into the style he came to develop. Therefore, many of the compositions from this period were either based on folk music or created from scratch with
Works for prepared piano by John Cage Works for prepared piano by John Cage American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992) started composing pieces for solo prepared piano around 1938–40. The majority of early works for this instrument were created to accompany dances by Cage's various collaborators, most frequently Merce Cunningham. In response to frequent criticisms of prepared piano, Cage cited numerous predecessors (such as Henry Cowell). In the liner notes for the very first recording of his most highly acclaimed work for prepared piano, "Sonatas and Interludes", Cage wrote: "Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical." This article