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Musical improvisation

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Musical improvisation is the spontaneous creative process of a making music while it is being performed. To use a linguistic analogy, improvisation is like speaking or having a conversation as opposed to reciting a written text.

Improvisation exists in almost all music - whilst the term is most frequently associated with melodic improvisation as found in jazz, spontaneous real time variation in performance of tempo and dynamics within a classical performance may also be considered as improvisation.

Most improvisation is structured, with certain predetermined structures shaping the improvisation, such as the form of a song.

Blues, jazz, and bluegrass are well-known for using improvisation. Almost all of the improvisation heard in rock and roll, blues, jam, and metal bands is in the form of lead guitar or other soloing. These musical improvisations are very song-oriented, usually working within the demands of the background rhythm and harmony.

Blues and traditional rock improvisation leans heavily on the use of the blues scale (a variation of the minor pentatonic scale), which sounds good in either major or minor keys and simple enough for beginning guitarists to execute. Many rock and jam bands use these, although forms of music are very open to individual interpretation, so the possibilities for improvisation are almost limitless.

Jazz improvisation

Improvisation is one of the basic tenets of jazz. Typically in a jazz piece, the "head" (the song's melody along with any backing harmony) is played once by the musicians and sometimes repeated. Improvisation by any of the musicians follows, and this is typically the longest section of a song as each musician improvises their own melody over the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the head. When the end of the head is reached it is repeated and a solo's length is specified by the number of repetitions of the head necessary. After one musician has finished improvising, another will begin, and no instrument is forbidden from improvising. A repetition of the head will end a jazz piece. There are an infinite number of variations to this pattern; new sections can be added before and after the head, two musicians can alternatively improvise for short amounts of time (known as "trading"), or several musicians can improvise in a group (this is common in Dixieland jazz).

Many varied scales and their modes can be used in improvisation. These mainly depend on the nature of the harmonic framework. Against a C Minor seventh chord, for example, an improvisor would usually have a choice of using C Dorian, C Aeolian, C blues, and others, depending on the situation and personal taste. Chord changes are very important in jazz improvisation as well. Whole solos can be built around chord tones. The variety is achieved with the rhythmic aspects of the solo.

In the bebop era of jazz in the early 1950s there was a common theme of urgency and technical proficiency. Performers would often construct intricate melody lines at speeds of up to 300BPM. These improvisations varied considerably from the songs main melody. The modal era of jazz, mainly started by Miles Davis, moved the harmonic framework for a piece from the fast, dynamic chord progressions of bebop to more static, relaxed chords with longer durations. Performers were then instructed to improvise not over specific chords, but in a musical mode instead. Free jazz eventually led to the loss of a harmonic framework in improvisation.

Jazz musicians are typically judged on their improvisation skills, and some are notable from their work on a single recording (like Illinois Jacquet). Charlie Parker was particularly known for his improvisations and many have been transcribed for study, or arranged for jazz groups such as Supersax to play with a harmonic backing. An improvisation can often give rise to an entirely new head for a jazz tune.

Vocal jazz improvisations is known as scat singing and made up from syllables that help articulate jazz phrasing. It is said to have been invented by Louis Armstrong

Western Classical Music

Is is appropriate to discuss Western Classical music last because it really represents the exception rather than the rule in music making. Improvisation is such a natural mode of music making that its absence should be regarded as unusual. It should also be recongnised that it is only in relatively recent history that improvisation has essentially dropped out of Western Classical music completely. That trend appears to have taken root in the last quarter of the 19th Century.

Original score notations for medieval organ music commonly include instructions for improvisation and embellishments. The scales that were used were selected according to the same improvisational principles now used in jazz. When the single voice plainsong started to develop into the 2-, 3-, or 4-part organum (during the period 1000-1300 A.D.), one or more of the parts were also commonly improvised, weaving free counter-lines around the written melody line.

Throughout the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, improvisation was a highly valued skill. J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and many other famous composers and musicians were known especially for their improvisational skills. Many classical scores contained sections for improvisation, such as the cadenza in concertos. The preludes to some keyboard suites by Bach and Handel, for example, consisted solely of a progression of chords. The performers used these as the basis for their improvisation.

Improvised accompaniment over a figured bass was a common practice during the Baroque era, and to some extent following periods.

During the 19th Century, improvisation seems to have fallen out of fashion. Its dissapearance from classical music has caused it to be labeled, by some standards, a lost art. Classical musicians are rarely taught to improvise even at a professional level. Music that was once performed with improvisation such as baroque music and the candenza section of concertos are now rarely performed with improvisation. The increasing importance of the written score and the rise of publishing. Understanding how improvisation was lost in classical music can require considerable research and understanding.

Improvisation and Contemporary Composition

Since the 1950s, contemporary composers have placed fewer restrictions on the improvising performer, using techniques such as vague notation (for example, indicating only that a certain number of notes must sound within a defined period of time). Jazz ensembles formed around improvisation were founded, such as Lukas Foss' Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at the University of California, Los Angeles; Larry Austin's New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis; the ONCE Group at Ann Arbor; the Sonic Arts Group; and the San Francisco Tape Music Center, the latter three funding themselves through concerts, tours, and grants. Significant pieces include Foss's Time Cycles (1960) and Echoi (1963). (Von Gunden 1983, p.32)

Other composers working with improvisation include Vangelis, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Karlheinz Essl, and Christian Wolff.

See also

Bibliography

  • Bailey, Derek. 1992. "Improvisation." Da Capo Press. Philadelphia, 146 p.
  • Berliner, Paul. 1994. Thinking in Jazz: the Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
  • Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "Piano Improvisation Develops Musicianship." Orff-Echo XXXVII No. 1 (2004): 11-14.
  • Von Gunden, Heidi (1983). The Music of Pauline Oliveros. ISBN 0-8108-1600-8.
  • Lucy Hall (2002). They're just making it up - Whatever happened to improvisation in classical music? The Guardian 22/02/2002

Articles

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