Musical Improvisation

I just read that the great German musician Wolfgang Fuchs has died. I’m posting a long and rich interview I did with him in 1997. It includes much of interest about the improvised music scene in Europe then, the relation of language and film to his own sound art.
A teaser: James Brown was an influence, which led to a comparison of his percussive vocalisms with those of the German language. Other topics/mentions include Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Peter Brötzmann, Fuchs’ group Küng Übü, Alexander von Schlippenbach and his Globe Unity Orchestra, Willem Breuker’s Kollektif, electronic music, Sainkho Namtchylak, Shelley Hirsch, Asian improvisatory traditions.

Elke jazzliefhebber staat geregeld stil bij het wonder van de improvisatie. Het lijkt zo vanzelfsprekend en gemakkelijk - en toch is het een talent dat lang niet iedereen toevalt. Iwan Wopereis doet onderzoek voor een proefschrift waarin hij het geheim van de improvisatiekunst in de jazz wil doorgronden. Hier geeft hij alvast een tussenstand.

This paper examines specific musical elements of Clifford Brown’s improvised solo on “Hot House”, from the recording “Live at the Bee Hive". Solos from live recordings, such as this one, give a window into the history and existence of the art of extended improvisation from an era before such solos were being documented in studio sessions. Clifford Brown used the extended format to develop musical ideas and display a variety of techniques which add coherence and interest over this longer time frame.
Citing examples from the score, I have discussed and detailed his use of the following features:
1. Thematic Development and the Variety of Techniques Used to Achieve It 2. Rhythmic Tendencies and Contrasts
3. Phrasing Structure and Pacing
4. Melodic Construction and Intervallic Shapes
5. Harmonic Approach
6. Trumpet-Specific Instrumental Devices
In addition, I have mentioned other aspects of this solo which I consider to be important, and have described them with detailed analysis.

Resumo: O presente artigo propõe uma forma alternativa de se discutir a execução de ritmos brasileiros na bateria tendo como enfoque a performance individual, quando esta se distancia da representação (adaptação) do instrumental típico da percussão. O objetivo do artigo é apresentar uma possibilidade de compreensão da estética e do significado destas abordagens singulares, cotejando autores como COOK (1998) e OLIVEIRA PINTO (2000) e indicadores extraídos de transcrição musical e entrevistas com o baterista Nenê.

Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset: signifying by transubstantiation Abstract: The present paper proposes an alternative way to discuss the brazilian rhythms execution in the drumset, with a particular focus to individual performance, which practice differs from the representation (adaptation) of the typical percussion instruments. The aim of this paper is to propose a possibility of understanding of aesthetics and meaning of these unique approaches, comparing authors such as COOK (1998) and OLIVEIRA PINTO (2000) and data extracted from musical transcription and interviews with drummer Nenê.

Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (354 p., 566 games) was published by GIA (giamusic.com) in 2008. Vol. II (372 p., 642 new games) published April 14, 2016 by GIA. This is the table of contents of Vol. II. There are fewer categories than Vol. I, but more content per category and several new categories.

This paper evolved from a Graduate Seminar directed by Margaret Bent at Princeton University during the Fall of 1988, thus owing something to both her scholarship and her provocative insights into the thorny subject being covered. It is presented here with only minor cuts, corrections and clarifications, retaining essentially the same contents, form, and faults, of the 1989 version; a minimal bibliographical update is given at the end. The title is to be heard as if ‘Defying Analysis’. In fact, Dufay is here both the subject and the pretext for a redefinition of analytical concepts used to describe fourteenth- and fifteenth-century polyphony. It upholds two-voice counterpoint as the main theoretical reference, but it is paradoxically shown that in one particular context, Dufay’s use of perfect triads already implies the concept of chord.

As a performer of firstly acoustic and latterly electronic and electro-instrumental music, I constantly seek to improve my mode of interaction with the digital realm: that is, to achieve a high level of sensitivity and expression. This thesis illustrates reasons why making use of haptic interfaces—which offer physical feedback and resistance to the performer—may be viewed as an important approach in addressing the shortcomings of some the standard systems used to mediate the performer’s engagement with various sorts of digital musical information. By examining the links between sound and touch, and the performer-instrument relationship, various new compositional and performance strategies start to emerge. I explore these through a portfolio of original musical works, which span the continuum of composition and improvisation, largely based around performance paradigms for piano and live electronics. I implement new haptic technologies, using vibrotactile feedback and resistant interfaces, as well as exploring more metaphorical connections between sound and touch. I demonstrate the impact that the research brings to the creative musical outcomes, along with the implications that these techniques have on the wider field of live electronic musical performance.

The close relationship of Victor Assis Brazil and the jazz is widespread among musicians, students and music lovers in general, especially for his eloquence as an improviser. However, the specific knowledge about the musical procedures which confirms this intimity – that would clarify such proximity - is rare. This study aimed to analyze the improvised solos of Victor Assis Brazil recorded in the album Pedrinho in order to demonstrate the existence of elements that better explain its relation with the improvisation of jazz imprint. We try to outline the articulations of the main musical elements - described by a range of authors as a constant in the study of improvisation - in order to better understand the phraseological construction, the musical poetry of Victor. The choice of this disk is justified for being the musical maturity of the saxophonist, and also because Pedrinho is the last album recorded by him.
Key words: improvisation, musical analisys, harmonic analisys, Victor Assis Brasil (1945-1980), saxophone, popular brazilian music, jazz.

Inspired by the spiritual revelations crying from John Coltrane’s saxophone in the late 60’s, Jonathan Kay has been continuing Coltrane’s search for a “multicultural theory of musical transcendence” in Kolkata, India, where he lived for 10 years alongside his Gurus, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya, and Sri Abir Singh Khangura, learning the art of North Indian Classical Raga music and its expression on the soprano and tenor saxophones, bansuri and esraj.
This paper is Jonathan's about cultural, psychological and spiritual journey from the improvising world of jazz into the life of a Raga musician in search for meaning and individuality as an artist in today's multicultural world.

It is often stated that, in spite of a rich historic improvisational activity, classical musicians no longer improvise. But how can this statement be understood? If musicians don’t improvise, why not? Who makes the decision? Is a decision in fact made?
In the first part of this essay I examine these questions by looking at the practice of classical music from an ideological perspective. To understand how, in general, people can be persuaded to act in certain ways, without compromising their own individual will, it is necessary to conceptualise the practice of classical music as a cultural institution with it’s own ideology - a set of commonly-held beliefs which are implicitly reinforced rather than explicitly stated. Statements and texts, programming and practice in general, I conclude reveal hidden or implicit beliefs about music, beliefs which prevail against the expression of natural appetites to improvise.
In the second section, I consider the specific ideology - the collection of beliefs - which guides the practice of classical music. In this respect I am heavily indebted to Goehr’s (1994) rich and insightful analysis of musical practice, which charts the birth of the work-concept or Werktreue ideal, now central to modern music-making. As the word implies, the Werktreue ideal, proposes that musicians be true or faithful to the created work, or score. Of critical importance to the Werktreue ideal is the belief that scores themselves represent the transcendental creative act of a composer - a belief which has led to attitudes of reverence towards scores and a division of labour amongst musicians between composers who create original works, and performers who specialise in interpreting such works. I conclude with an analysis of the Werktreue principle in relation to improvisation, showing how this principle with its associated ideology removes the contexts in which improvisation can be practised and learnt.
In the third part of the essay I address the fact that, for musicians steeped in the ideology of the Werktreue principle, the transition to improvising is not a comfortable or straightforward one, requiring considerable changes of attitude and beliefs. I examine literature in the fields of learning, attention, role models and personality types to illustrate some of the emotional barriers which await the experience of classically-trained musicians as they attempt to improvise. In spite of much recent literature which examine improvisation from a range of perspectives, there is little consideration given to the emotional aspects of learning, yet I believe it is unlikely that musicians will succeed in developing the cognitive skills of improvisation if their experience is valenced towards negative feelings of frustration, shame and embarrassment.

"The concept of improvisation has become increasingly popular in the discourse of organizational theory. This paper explores the several aspects of improvisation, in the context of musical, organizational, and everyday activities, in order to address some of the philosophical issues relevant to this emerging interest. It addresses, for instance, the way the term improvisation has fallen into disrepute, referring to something that is, ultimately, a pale and messy copy of the ‘correct’ way. It argues that in western music, this can be traced to the modernist valorization of the order provided by a written musical score, perfectly representing the composer’s wishes, and the concomitant devalorization of the spontaneity and creativity of musicians who, before approximately 1800, improvised a substantial amount of their performances. Connections are made between the modernist concept of organization and postmodern or complexity-based approaches that stress creativity as an emergent property of the relationship between order and disorder. It concludes by suggesting that the study of improvisation demands a profound immersion into (inter-)subjectivity, emotions, time, aesthetics, performance, and social creativity, none of which have traditionally been the focus of organization and management studies, or the social sciences in general."

This essay provides some general observations about the field of improvisation studies and surveys important theoretical and empirical work on the subject. It makes a distinction between referent- based and referent-free musical improvisation, placing particular emphasis on the specific issues that surround the latter and highlighting recent research that has arisen to address them. The scope of the research being surveyed is primarily limited to work published in English.

This paper explores the theory and rhetoric behind select sonic occurrences within Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude No. 3 in C# Major from his Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1. In addition, as a secondary component to this research, I briefly describe how the prelude was adapted and re-imagined for modern-day jazz quartet instrumentation by Grammy-nominated MacArthur Fellow and saxophonist, Miguel Zenon. This supplement will finalize the paper, and is written in support of a live presentation and performance of the Zenon piece, titled “J.S.B.”

This article briefly describes how art and life intertwine with the dreaming of the performance of Brian Ferneyhough's Cassandra's Dream Song for solo flute. Dreams are playful and slip through the fingers of our minds, warping any sense of linear time. Logic is illogical in dream worlds. Time is reversed and nonlinear. This short essay does not provide all the details of the work. It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with the score and unusual notation. Instead, I offer a personal glimpse into one aspect of interpretation of this complicated piece. It is a glimpse into the ways my life experiences and choices have allowed me to break my own spells. The story of Cassandra comes to light at a particularly poignant moment: the dawn of the Age of "Me Too." Her story reflects mine and many other women. I cannot help but foresee the direction of this performance and feel compelled to share this with whoever might find it useful. We all have spells to break whether we see them or not.

Though less-known, the piano Sonata opus 78 was claimed by Beethoven as one of his best. Written in the unusual key of F-sharp major, it is characterized by remarkable cohesion both in the first movement (Sonata-form) and the following Rondo (Allegro vivace). The constant variation of the opening motives strongly suggests an improvisational matrix especially throughout the Rondo. The improvisation which Beethoven practiced in his live performances to create variations on melodies, and which affected the creative process of his written-out compositions, was also inextricably linked to a strong sense of pleasure and freedom. Beethoven expressed this idea in his writings just when he was composing opus 78. The Rondo of the Sonata, even more than the first movement, reflects the joyful character of many Beethovenian final movements down to Schiller’s Ode which the composer would set in his 9th Symphony. To support this thesis, the article offers a close analysis of the Sonata, cites written documents from the age of Beethoven and explores his manuscripts – courtesy of Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. In addition, the article includes a live performance of the Sonata given by the author in Padua in 1997.

This chapter examines the role of improvisation in a range of musical styles: classical, jazz, folk, pop. It analyses the concept of ‘improvisation’, and argues that improvised performance calls into question a number of commonly attributed characteristics of music-making, by testing - occasionally to destruction - the decision-making processes involved in musical development and the variable relation between adherence to convention and flights of individual creativity. Moving beyond musical structure, the chapter explores (in its discussion of Jacques Attali’s Noise: the Political Economy of Music) how improvisation fits at best awkwardly with dominant notions of the production and distribution of music in commodified formats. It queries how relationships involved in improvisation can be represented economically, legally and aesthetically, and concludes that improvisation raises important questions for any wider formation of music, in that it is as much practical considerations of ...

Neste trabalho, busco investigar de que maneira os processos interacionais ocorrem no momento da seção de improviso, com o propósito de compreender como os músicos se influenciam. A investigação focalizou dois grupos de música instrumental brasileira, o Trio Curupira e o grupo Mente Clara, por seu diálogo com a corrente estética denominada Escola Jabour. Nas músicas Malandragem, composição de Ary Barroso e arranjo do Trio Curupira, e 'Round Midnight, composição de Thelonious Monk e arranjo do grupo Mente Clara, estão contidas as seções de improvisação que foram aqui analisadas. Com o intuito de localizar a produção realizada por esses grupos, apresento um panorama da música instrumental brasileira, e, principalmente, de que forma a improvisação nela está inserida. A partir da filiação estética dos grupos que aqui formam o corpus do trabalho, foram apresentados aspectos da Escola Jabour, e sua "territorialização" (DELEUZE & GUATTARI, 1997). A perspectiva metodológica que orientou a leitura dos processos interacionais foi desenvolvida por Michaelsen (2013). Nessa perspectiva, os fluxos sonoros, realizados pelos músicos, projetam continuações na performance, constituindo eventos convergentes ou divergentes. São esses eventos que foram analisados para a compreensão da interação como geradora da seção de improviso. A manifestação do "tocar junto" enquanto comportamento interacional, o engajamento dos músicos e o estabelecimento da seção de improviso na "segunda inversão", contribuem sobremaneira para o desenvolvimento dos processos interacionais, conferindo ao "tocar junto" uma ação interacional. Espera-se que a pesquisa aqui realizada possa contribuir para os estudos de performance em música instrumental brasileira.

There are two assumptions surrounding the art of improvisation. The first deals with the definition of improvisation concerning the implications of its perceived rules and whether improvisatory knowledge is pre- learned or spontaneous and to what extent a particular musical genre dictates and influences the nature of improvisation.  The second focuses on the development of skills and knowledge involved in learning to improvise, i.e. does a learner need pre knowledge and skill acquisition to improvise to a high level? Furthermore, How do we make explicit any similarities and differences in ‘how we think we do it’ and ‘what we actually do’ during the process of learning to improvise individually and in teams?

Martin Parker’s gruntCount is a multi-version, configurable composition for improvising musician (or musicians) and computer. Performers embark on a journey through sound processing modules that are specifically customised to individual playing styles. It exists in no fixed state, yet allows for a growing set of rehearsable, replicable and configurable pieces, in which all musical material, timing, overall duration and levels of effort are managed by the live musician. In order to optimise elements of flow and of liveness in each performance, gruntCount challenges traditional definitions of 'piece', ‘system’ and ‘instrument’, instead establishing an environment for human-machine improvisation that serves the musical result and not the system itself. This paper refers to a selection of sound examples from the bass clarinet version (2012-14) and examines formal time-shaping possibilities within a structured performance, while exploring the environment’s qualities of coaction and configurability in an era of new score types.

Stockhausen's works in the 1960s seem to defy any coherent scholarly narrative due to their stylistic diversity (live-electronics, process compositions, and musique concrète), in addition to the curious absence of the composer's own self-analytical writings during this period. Thus, the musicological literature concerning this decade has either isolated specific works (overlooking the context in which the music was created) or conducted general surveys which dissect the period into a mere progression of individual works or thematic differences. This paper attempts instead to provide a coherent perspective from which to read Stockhausen's output in the 1960s, by focusing on the issue of form/formation.
First, the influence of the philosopher Raymond Ruyer, who was cited in «Erfindung und Entdeckung: Ein Beitrag zur Form-Genese» (1961), will be examined, along with the cybernetics and information theory that Ruyer himself relied upon. It is known that Stockhausen was impressed by these latter theories while studying under Meyer-Eppler, though the actual resonance of this learning in his works remains relatively understudied. The problematic of form(ation) (or “Gestalt”) was a major issue in cybernetics/information theory, as it was thought to constitute the basis of human information processing which proved difficult to articulate in a mechanical-objective manner. The recourse to the problematics of form(ation) could therefore be understood as having granted the composer tools with which to conceive solutions to his primary concern around this period, as exemplified in the development of “Moment-form”: the creation of compositions based on the cognitive processes of the listener, rather than the perceptional, as had been central for most of the 1950s.
From this theoretical perspective, it will be shown that despite superficial differences in style, all the works from this period submit to a common pattern of treating familiar “sound objects” (to some extent a paraphrase of “Moment”) that a listener and/or performer could immediately identify, with a process of transformation (variously paraphrased as “process planning,” “intermodulation,” or “realtime modulation”). Special focus will be given to Prozession and Kurzwellen, for which an analysis of “Skizzenblatt” drawn during the process of composition shows in detail how Stockhausen composed the form(ation) of his pieces. An examination of their distinct manner of improvisational performances demonstrates further how the form inscribed on the score was rendered into an audible-temporal form via the performer's listening process. Together, these examples serve to verify how the composer's concern with form(ation) pervaded the various phases of his works.
Following the manipulation of form in the phases of composition and performance, in the phase of (the audience's) listening, Stockhausen's role as the controller of a potentiometer in his concerts is read as an extension of his position to that of an authoritative listener who (literally) sits in between the performer and the audience, shaping the final form of sounds played out from the speakers. This augmentation of the composer’s function reveals an inherent contradiction in Stockhausen's approach, one that led to dismantling the Stockhausen Ensemble and the subsequent developments in the 1970s; it may also explain the disappearance of his detailed self-analyses in this decade: the medium that ultimately frames a musical composition and controls its reception shifted from language to mixing board circa 1960.

This is a video about some invertible counterpoint schemata that can be exploited in imitation phases as opening section. This tutorial contains:

- analysis of original examples by Händel and J.S. Bach
- reduction to schematic scaffoldings
- explanation of different partimento basses (by Fago, Fenaroli, Insanguine) that feature double counterpoint schemata
- presentation of short examples of typical diminutions of the explained schemata, partly taken from original compositions for improvisational or compositional purposes

This paper seeks to explore the visions of AE in order to frame contemporary creative practices that actively seek numinous experience as part of a creative continuum. Of import are the diversity of AE’s visions: they span an introvertive-extrovertive spectrum (Marshall 2005), and occur both in the natural scene (for example, his ‘awakening’ as one of the ‘heavenly household’ in the Irish countryside) and in more prosaic surroundings (often through meditation, but at times unheralded such as his vision of ‘earth breath’ while working as a city clerk: ‘an exile from living nature but she yet visited me’.)

Coupled with Voss’ hermeneutic approach to creativity and imagination (2009), such visions may be related to a series of creative approaches that strive toward the ‘participatory turn’ in which empirical modes of interpretation necessarily yield to the alternative, intuitive and visionary approaches, before being re-integrated as part of a working process within an ‘awakened’ or ‘initiated’ landscape. Grounded in the archetypal/imaginal concepts of Corbin, Voss’ approach to the methodology of imagination is a natural complement to the poetic essentialism implied by AE’s vision and the wider mystical backdrop of his work. Furthermore. the author’s own work since 2001 with music and text are analysed to elucidate the process of working within an ‘initiated’ landscape in a contemporary context. Works such as Abital (2007) and Almias (with Simon Bradley and Layla Legard, 2010) encounter participatory turns within the physical environment, while Angelystor (2013) and Hawthonn (with Layla Legard, 2014) explore reflexive interior landscapes through visionary practice.

Many of the texts of these oral poets survive, often bearing intriguing traces of their oral origins, but what can we say about the 'canta' that all three terms share, except that the singing was often accompanied by the instrument of choice, the lira da braccio, and that the music so thoroughly inhabited the oral realm of these singer/poets that it is entirely lost to us? In fact, there is evidence that can be summoned to make informed speculation possible, and it is essential to try, for it is clear that musical delivery was an essential ingredient of the canterino's practice and popularity. In this article I approach the subject in several ways: the surviving archival records, which drop significant bits of information about the singing and playing of the canterini; the evidence of the cantasi come tradition in Florence, which reveals the wide array of music (much traceable to surviving sources) that circulated orally in the city and that can be connected to some of the Florentine canterini; the evidence of the vernacular memory treatises that can be linked to 15th-century canterini, the techniques of which suggest something about how the musical process of improvisation and rifacimento might have worked; and finally what we know about the technical capabilities of the lira da braccio, including what kinds of music could have been played on it, and how it might have been deployed in performance. I will also attempt to address another knotty problem encountered in the documents related to these performers: the often interchangeable use of the verbs 'cantare' and 'recitare'.

Musical improvisation is the expressive capacity of a performer fostered by
access to their own “productive” (creative) or “reproductive” (mnestic) tonal
imagery: a field of consciousness that includes experiences, images that are internal,
combined, distorted, associated, or in competition between themselves. In
the highly original form of life that is jazz, narrating means directing time: a
time of epiphanies and introversions, of intuitions and revelations, of syncopated
rhythms and aesthetic insights, which appear and disappear on the edges of interference
between consciousness and the unconscious. The performing urgency of
gestures, voices, and sounds, although arranged in the same scene, highlights the
difference in individual time. In this intense activity of opposition and resolution
the experience becomes an unstable territory that rests on the capacity of the
body to remember, decide, anticipate, and invent. The ego reveals itself to be an
emerging representation of our nerve structures and, even if conscious organization
continues to be attributed to it, its role is not at all crucial. Unity, if anything,
means coordination. The conscious ego is the

In this paper I discuss a particular musical practice, the contrafacture, as an interesting case of artistic appropriation. I argue that musical contrafacture, especially in the jazz field, may deflate some biased assumptions that sometimes are taken for granted – mostly in the ontologies of music based on the type/token dichotomy. The case of contrafacture may support the philosophical views endorsing the link between ontology and social-artistic practices and accepting that the ontological constructions presuppose the different practices in which they arise. I strengthen my view of the link between musical artistic practices and musical ontology by considering the nominal ontological paradox generated by improvising on jazz contrafacts.

Access: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/45012

This dissertation documents my  research into late medieval and early Renaissance extempore polyphony, through music-historical scholarship as well as practical experiments with students and fellow-singers. The author’s aim is to expand current knowledge of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century polyphony, and thereby to develop new music-analytical and -pedagogic tools for approaching this repertoire. An in-depth investigation of the material remains of late medieval musical culture—the extant compositions and theoretical treatises—forms the basis for experiments with vocal polyphonic improvisation above plainchants. These practical experiences, in turn, can shed new light on the historical pieces and texts.

Improvisation is a social practice that is, by definition, counter archival in nature. Transitional justice studies often link failures and wrongs with apology and reconciliation. Yet, mistake in improvisation does not necessitate apology. It is more about being accountable through future actions. Doing rather than saying. Un-remembering rather than re-inscribing. Responding to the new situation with knowledge and confidence, without the weight of guilt. Abolishing the need for apology, an archive of a different kind is created.  Of interest here is what is at stake for law and justice when theorised as improvisation, through the ethics and aesthetics of surprise?

The concept of PLAY SPACE MUSIC (SPIEL RAUM MUSIK) was developed by Stefan Heidweiler in Salzburg in 1996 at the Orff Institute, Salzburg. The basis of the project lies in the pioneering work of Wilhelm Keller who developed the ideas of Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman (Orff-Schulwerk) and applied them also to work with children and adults with and without disabilities. Heidweiler recognizes another important contributions to this project in free improvisation particularly in the work of some music therapists e.g. Fritz Hegi. The fundamental idea of the 5-day Improvisation workshop was the musical and artistic encounter between 6 professional musicians, who had experience in improvisation, and adults with additional support needs and an interest for music. The method of Free Improvisation took place in duos, trios and small ensembles and ended with a performance on the last day. Between 2000 and 2002 the project was further developed by Brigitte Flucher and Thomas Stephanides who extended it to include dance, painting and drawing. 2 short films documented the projects from 1999 and 2002 and articles on the projects were written by the directors (Salmon & Schumacher 2001). The project was revived in 2014 as a “Workshop for artistic improvisation and creation” by Coloman Kallos and Shirley Salmon (lecturers at the Orff Institute) and included workshops with music, dance and, for the first time, sculpture. In addition to 2 professional musicians and 4 dancers, the sculptor Andrea Kuhnlein was invited, students from the Orff Institute as well as adults with additional support needs and adults from a day-centre for adults in need of psychological support. The projects showed the wide range of creative artistic abilities in all the participants using the media of music, dance, painting and sculpture. The diverse experiences of dialogues were beneficial to all. The project 2014 were documented fully. The main implications for Special Music Education and/or Music Therapy are firstly, the value of free improvisation as a method in different social constellations as a means for individual artistic expression and communication. It allows and furthers elemental expression, encounter and dialogue and is not dependent on the ability to learn and repeat particular parts of a song or piece. And secondly, the value of working with different media such as dance, painting, sculpture and combining them in a variety of ways with music.