Bacchanale, John Cage's first work to exploit his influential "prepared piano" technique, arose from a request for musical accompaniment by dancer Syvilla Fort. Intending to write her a percussion piece, Cage discovered that the theater in which the premiere was to take place was too small to accommodate any instruments beyond the piano already present, and instead adapted the piano into a palette of percussive sounds by placing small foreign objects among the strings.
A new arrangement by guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan translates this six-minute work from the prepared piano to an even more novel instrumentation: a duo of prepared guitars, the sound of their vibrating strings transformed by the addition of alligator clips, washers, and slips of paper. This performing score (EP 6784a) includes detailed, illustrated instructions from the arranger on how to prepare the instruments.
The original version of Bacchanale is now available for sale in John Cage's Prepared Piano Music 1940-47, Vol. 1 (EP 67886a). Along with fellow guitarist Adam Levin, Aaron Larget-Caplan gave the world premiere of this arrangement in December 2018 at Arlington Street Church in Boston.
