Klarinet Archive - Posting 000340.txt from 2006/10

From: Laurence Beckhardt <lbeckhardt@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] For the begginger in improvisation
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:57:15 -0500

I don't disagree with the responses to my proposition
about improvisation.

The main point I was trying to make is that most
improvisation in music (and certainly the recreation
of 18th Century European music) is carried out within
much more narrowly defined structure and conventions
than we might suppose "improvisation" implies.

To put it another way, oral epic poetry
(Nibelungenlied, Beowulf) was supposed to be totally
improvised story telling of great beauty and art.
True, but 95% of it was based on stock linguistic
formulas and phrases - the art was in how they were
cobbeled together by the teller. And the stock
formulas were artfully used by the story teller to
advance the narrative in a way that appeared
improvisatory.

"Free Jazz" can be hard to hear because there are few,
if any, stock phrases to rely on in order to advance
the narrative (or "tell a little story," as Lester
Young would say). Charlie Parker invented and
employed many, many stock phrases that please us by
their familiarity ("that's Bird!") and the surprising
ways he assembles them in order to advance his amazing
narratives.

Same with Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, Robert
Levin. They (and we) don't know exactly what they're
going to play going into a solo, but they operate and
surprise within defined, familiar, and pleasingly
predictable space.

--- Noel Taylor <r.n.taylor@-----.uk> wrote:

> I also thought that Laurence's response slightly
> under-estimated the nature
> of improvisation. I doubt whether anyone would
> dispute that practice can
> produce a repertoire of ticks and tricks that can be
> strung together in some
> form and that might even sound very acceptable. That
> could also be said for
> written composition. The aim, however, is not to
> just fill a period of
> silence with some passable sounds, but to try and
> make something beautiful
> and/or surprising happen there and then, on the
> spot, that grows out of the
> music you've been playing. To do this you have to
> take a risk that whatever
> you've embarked on might not work or you might fail
> to resolve things back
> to the written material because you've lost the
> logic of your musical
> syntax. If - by skill, talent or good fortune - you
> find yourself playing
> something that really works and you feel in your
> bones makes absolute sense
> then that's when the safety net of all your practice
> is no longer there. All
> that matters is to sustain that moment of clarity.
> It's a kind of special
> event that audiences sense just as quickly as the
> performer, and they will
> also sense any slight dishonesty if you settle for
> an easy option. So there
> you are and there they are and 'bravo' to you if you
> can find the path
> through without disappointing either them or
> yourself.
>
>
> Noel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dnleeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
> Sent: 27 October 2006 01:34
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: RE: [kl] For the begginger in improvisation
>
> I'm not quite sure about Laurence Beckhardt's
> comments, which rejected the
> idea of "prepared improvisations" being an oxymoron
> and also the notion of
> "[really] impetuous" improvisaitons. When I read his
> comments on the 25th, I
> tried to figure out some way to eliminate what I
> perceive as a communication
> problem between us. But I was so uncertain about the
> nature of that
> difficulty that I waited, now for three days, to let
> it mull around in the
> back of my head.
>
> On one point, he is quite correct when he says,
> "Levin's improvisation
> results from careful study and preparation." Can't
> argue with that. In fact,
> in my own case, which is miles behind Levin's
> abilities, I have a pocketful
> of cliches in terms of turns, grace notes, fixed
> melodic passage,
> particuarly those those that work back to the tonic,
> and I know where and
> how to put them in place. And I may, or may not,
> pull a cliche from my
> pocket whenever I feel like it.
>
> <SNIP>
>
>
>
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