Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
But looking back to when today's "classical" music was "new" music,
there was often a lot of improvisation within the common practice of
the day. Bach and Mozart are obvious examples of
composer/improvisers. Also, the written out cadenzas played by
today's classical soloists were originally an earlier performer's
improv.
** YEAH! and beethoven, liszt, etc. - - the tradition WAS there, but it has fallen by the wayside. i think that the more notation-heavy things got, the less likely the composer was to be an improvisor. (i'm thinking of people like mahler, schoenberg, webern - - all the way up to boulez, etc. while i respect and love a lot of that music, it gets farther and farther away from a player being able to really shape the piece themselves. whereas bach has a lot of leeway in my view.)
Cage being a notable example. His use of indeterminacy through
nontraditional graphic notation was often deliberately misinterpreted
by classical players as an excuse to horse around and play whatever
they felt like.
** of course, a lot of people would say that that is what free improv is - - just horsing around and doint whatever you feel like doing. however, i would disagree with that. while there is a component of that in there, i would say that improvising at a high level requires just as much discipline and musical decision-making as writing a great song or a symphony. my guess is that, with cage's music, the players had no training or extremely limited experience with improvising. i personally find it helpful to have my "composer hat" on when improvising - - it helps me to try to inject form, etc., into the improv. the music that i write these days has a lot of room for improv - - whether it be traditional solos, free group ("group" meaning two or more players) improv or structured group improv.
This was quite against the composer's disciplined
approach. Interestingly, in Cage's later years, after working with a
number of equally disciplined performers who were also talented
improvisers (and who were respectful of Cage's music) the composer
began to accept the possibility of including improvisation in his
work. Sadly, he died soon after.
** i friend of mine recently told me of a quote by lou harrison (i think), speaking of himself and cage, etc.: "we tried improvisation, it didn't work."
>rock/country/pop/funk/etc. music tends to be too song/word-oriented
>to really deal with improv on any *lengthy* basis. there have been
>many exceptions, but generally those engender a backlash that leads
>back to the 3-minute pop tunes. many songwriters are all about the
>song - - no noodling allowed!
Some of us challenged that constraint in the psychedelic '60s.
** i think the constraint keeps getting pushed - - it's sort of a expansion/contraction thing.
stig