Toop: John Cage began his career as an assistant to Henry Cowell "for his classes in non-Western, folk, and contemporary music"
"It was Cowell, in fact, who had influenced Cage into preparing the piano. Cowell had played inside the piano, rubbing a darning egg along the strings, and Cage took this further by filling the inside of the piano with newspapers, magazines, plates and ashtrays" (141)