Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste or inclination of the musician(s) involved; in many cases the musicians make an active effort to avoid overt references to recognizable musical genres. Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate Musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental The term is somewhat paradoxical, since it can be considered both as a technique (employed by any musician who wishes to disregard rigid genres and forms) and as a recognizable genre in its own right. A paradox is a true statement or group of statements that leads to a Contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or inversely
Free improvisation, as a style of music, developed in the U.S. and Europe in the mid and late 1960s, largely as an outgrowth of free jazz and modern classical musics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For the Ornette Coleman album after which this genre was named see Free Jazz A Collective Improvisation. In the broadest and popular sense Contemporary music is any music being written in the present day None of its exponents can be said to be famous amongst the general public; however, in experimental circles, a number of free musicians are well known, including saxophonists Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey, and the improvising group AMM. The saxophone (commonly referred to simply as sax) is a conical- bored transposing Musical instrument considered a member of the Woodwind Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944 in Bristol is a British free-improvising Saxophone player from the European free jazz Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German Free jazz Saxophonist and Clarinetist. Derek Bailey ( January 29, 1930 – December 25, 2005) was an English avant-garde Guitarist and leading figure in the AMM are an important British Free improvisation group founded in London, England in 1965
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Characteristics
Although performers may choose to play in a certain style or key, or at a certain tempo, conventional songs are highly uncommon in free improvisation; more emphasis is generally placed on mood, texture or, more simply, on performative gesture than on preset forms of melody, harmony or rhythm. In Musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently 2266-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the Chemical compound with the formula (CH23(CMe22NO In Music, texture is the overall quality of sound of a piece, most often indicated by the number of voices in the music and by the relationship between In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of These elements are improvised at will, as the music progresses.
Guitarist Derek Bailey proposed "non-idiomatic improvisation" as a more accurately descriptive term, claiming the form offers musicians more possibilities "per cubic second" than any genre [1]; while guitarist Elliott Sharp (himself occasionally active in free improvisation) has argued—partly tongue in cheek—that no improvisation is ever truly free, excepting the unlikelihood of amnesiac improvising musicians. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles Derek Bailey ( January 29, 1930 – December 25, 2005) was an English avant-garde Guitarist and leading figure in the Elliott Sharp (b Cleveland, Ohio, March 1, 1951) is an American Multi-instrumentalist, Composer, and Tongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement or an entire fictional work is not meant to be taken seriously but its lack of seriousness is subtle Amnesia (from Greek) is a condition in which Memory is disturbed [1] Interestingly, John Eyles notes that Bailey has been quoted as saying that free improvisation is “playing without memory” [2]
In his landmark book Improvisation, Bailey writes, "The lack of precision over its [free improv's] naming is, if anything, increased when we come to the thing itself. Diversity is its most consistent characteristic. It has no stylistic or idiomatic commitment. It has no prescribed idiomatic sound. The characteristics of freely improvised music are established only by the sonic-musical identity of the person or persons playing it. "[3]
Free music performers, coming from a disparate variety of backgrounds, often engage musically with other genres. This list is split into four separate pages List of styles of music A-F List of styles of music G-M List of styles of music N-R For example, acclaimed soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone was a member of the free improvisation group Nuova Consonanza. Ennio Morricone OMRI (born November 10, 1928) is an acclaimed Italian Academy Award -winning composer Anthony Braxton has written opera, and John Zorn has written acclaimed orchestral pieces. Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American Composer, saxophonist, Clarinettist flautist, pianist Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto John Zorn (born September 2 1953 in Queens, New York City) is an American Avant-garde Composer, arranger, Record
As it has influenced and been influenced by other areas of exploration, aspects of modern classical music (extended techniques), noise rock (aggressive confrontation), IDM (computer manipulation and digital synthesis), minimalism and electroacoustic music can now be heard in free improvisation. Noise rock (also known as noise punk) describes one variety of Post-punk Rock music that became prominent in the 1980s Intelligent dance music (commonly IDM) is a genre name invented in the early 1990s by the creators of an American online mailing list Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design especially Visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features
History
Though there are many important precedents and developments, free improvisation developed gradually, making it difficult to pinpoint a single moment when the style was born. As an uncredited critic has written for Allmusic, "being freed of all rules, free improvisation cannot be traced back to a genre other than the very generic term avant-garde". allmusic (previously All Music Guide) is a Metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. Avant-garde (avɑ̃gaʁd in French) means "advance guard" or "vanguard [4]
However, in the same article cited above, Bailey contends that free improvisation must have been the earliest musical style, because "mankind's first musical performance couldn't have been anything other than a free improvisation. " Similarly, Keith Rowe stated, "Other players got into playing freely, way before AMM, way before Derek [Bailey]! Who knows when free playing started? You can imagine lute players in the 1500s getting drunk and doing improvisations for people in front of a log fire. Keith Rowe (born March 16, 1940 in Plymouth, England) is an English Free improvisation Guitarist and painter. Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either Fretted or unfretted and a deep round back or more specifically to an instrument from . the noise, the clatter must have been enormous. You read absolutely incredible descriptions of that. I cannot believe that musicians back then didn't float off into free playing. The melisma in Monterverdi [sic] must derive from that. Melisma, in music is singing a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession But it was all in the context of a repertoire. "[5]
Classical precedents
Skilled musicians were expected to improvise in the common practice period (about 1600 to 1900), and many notable composers and performers (such as violinist Paganini, and keyboardist and composer Beethoven) were acclaimed for their skills at improvisation. The common practice period, in the history of European Art music (broadly called Classical music) spanning the Baroque, Classical, and Niccolò Paganini ( October 27, 1782 &ndash Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. The cadenza portion of a concerto was an opportunity for the instrumental soloist to demonstrate their improvisatory skills. In Music, a cadenza (Italian for cadence) is generically an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists usually The term Concerto (plural concertos or concerti) usually refers to a three part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an Orchestra Different composers allowed for varying degrees of improvisation in a cadenza: sometimes a soloist would simply embellish a pre-composed cadenza with a few minor changes; other times, however, the soloist had much more latitude as to how they improvised during the cadenza, with a blank spot being left on the score (with or without an indication of how long the musician was expected to improvise), and pitches, notes, melodies, harmony and tempo left to the soloist's discretion.
But by about 1900, such improvisation fell out of style, and even slight deviations from a printed score could be regarded as improper.
By the middle decades of the 20th century, however, composers like Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen and George Crumb, re-introduced improvisation to classical music, with compositions that allowed or even required musicians to improvise. Henry Cowell ( March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American Composer, musical theorist, Pianist Morton Feldman (January 12 1926 – September 3 1987 was an American Composer, born in New York City. George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American Composer of modern and Avant garde music Perhaps the most notable example of this is Cornelius Cardew's Treatise: a graphic score with no conventional notation whatsoever, which musicians were invited to interpret. Cornelius Cardew ( May 7, 1936 – London, December 13, 1981) was an English Avant-garde Composer, Treatise is a Musical composition by British Composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981 Musical graphic notation is a form of Music notation which refers to the use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music
Another notable group, Musica Elettronica Viva, were formed in Rome in 1966 by Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, and Jon Phetteplace, most of whom had at least some crossover with the experimental classical world. MEV redirects here For the physics measurement of energy see MeV Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational Composer Alvin Curran (born 13 December 1938 in Providence Rhode Island) is the co-founder with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Richard Teitelbaum (born May 19, 1939) is an American Composer, Keyboardist, and Improvisor. Frederic Anthony Rzewski (born April 13 1938 in Westfield Massachusetts) is an American Composer and virtuoso Pianist. Carol Plantamura (b February 8, 1941, Los Angeles California) is an American soprano specializing in 17th and 20th century music
Jazz precedents
Perhaps the earliest free recordings are two pieces recorded under the leadership of jazz pianist Lennie Tristano: "Intuition" and "Digression", both recorded in 1949 with a sextet including saxophone players Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Leonard Joseph Tristano ( 19 March[[ 919]] - 18 November[[ 978]] was a Jazz Pianist and Composer. A sextet is a formation containing exactly six members It is commonly associated with vocal or musical instrument groups but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related Lee Konitz (b October 13, 1927) is an American Jazz Composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago Illinois Warne Marion Marsh ( 26 October 1927 - 17 December 1987) was an American tenor saxophonist born in Los Angeles In 1954 Shelly Manne recorded a piece called "Abstract No. 1" with trumpeter Shorty Rogers and reedsmith Jimmy Giuffre which was freely improvised. Jazz critic Harvey Pekar has also pointed out that one of Django Reinhardt's recorded improvisations strays drastically from the chord changes of the established piece. Harvey Lawrence Pekar (born October 8 1939 in Cleveland Ohio; ˈpiːkɑr is an American underground comic book writer best known for his Jean "Django" Reinhardt ( January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Gypsy jazz Guitarist While noteworthy, these examples were clearly in the jazz idiom.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the free jazz movement coalesced around such important (and disparate) figures as Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, as well as many lesser-known figures such as Joe Maneri. For the Ornette Coleman album after which this genre was named see Free Jazz A Collective Improvisation. Cecil Percival Taylor (born March 15 or March 25, 1929 in New York City) is an American Pianist and poet Sun Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, Legal name Le Sony'r Ra; Ornette Coleman (born March 9, 1930) is an American saxophonist Violinist Trumpeter and Composer. Joseph Gabriel Esther Maneri (born February 9, 1927, Brooklyn) is an American jazz Composer, Saxophone and Clarinet Free jazz allowed for radical improvised departures from the harmonic and rhythmic material of the composition – for instance, by permitting performers to ignore conventional repeating song-structures. Such music often seemed far removed from the preceding jazz tradition.
These ideas were extended in the 1962 Free Fall recording by jazz clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's trio, featuring music that was often freely and spontaneously improvised, and which had only tenous similarity to established jazz styles. Free fall is motion with no Acceleration other than that provided by Gravity. James Peter Giuffre ( April 26, 1921 &ndash April 24, 2008) was an American Jazz composer arranger and Saxophone Another important recording was New York Eye and Ear Control (1964), a soundtrack for a film by Michael Snow, recorded for the ESP-Disk label under the leadership of saxophonist Albert Ayler. Michael Snow, CC (born December 10, 1929) is a Canadian artist working in painting sculpture video films photography holography ESP-Disk is a New York -based Record label, founded in 1966 by the lawyer Bernard Stollman, originally financed from an inheritance Albert Ayler ( July 13, 1936 – November 1970 was an American avant-garde Jazz saxophonist, singer and Composer. Snow suggested to Ayler that the band simply play without a composition or themes.
The Spontaneous Music Ensemble was formed by John Stevens and Trevor Watts in the mid-1960s and included, at various times, influential players such as Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler, Roger Smith, and John Butcher. The Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME was a loose collection of Free improvising musicians convened beginning in the mid-1960s by the late South London -based John William Stevens ( 10 June, 1940 in Brentford, Middlesex - 13 September, 1994 in Ealing, West London Trevor Charles Watts (b York UK 26 February 1939) is a Jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist Derek Bailey ( January 29, 1930 – December 25, 2005) was an English avant-garde Guitarist and leading figure in the Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944 in Bristol is a British free-improvising Saxophone player from the European free jazz Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, CC, (born 14th January 1930 Toronto Canada is a Canadian Composer and Trumpet and Flugelhorn player Roger Smith may refer to People: Roger Bonham Smith, former chairman and CEO of General Motors Roger Guenveur Smith, American John Butcher may refer to John Butcher 1st Baron Danesfort (1853-1935 British lawyer John C As with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), many of these players began in jazz, but gradually pushed the music into a zone of abstraction and relative quietude. The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM) is a Non-profit organization, founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States by The British record label Emanem has documented much music in this vein. for information about the similarly named rap artist see Eminem Emanem Records is an Independent record label based in
There was (and continues to be) often considerable blurring of the line between free jazz and free improvisation. For the Ornette Coleman album after which this genre was named see Free Jazz A Collective Improvisation. The Chicago-based AACM, a loose collective of improvising musicians including Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Jack DeJohnette, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Famadou Don Moye, and Malachi Favors was formed in 1965 and included many of the key players in the nascent international free improv scene. Muhal Richard Abrams (born September 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American educator administrator Composer Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American Composer, Saxophonist and Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American Composer, saxophonist, Clarinettist flautist, pianist Jack DeJohnette (born 9 August 1942) is an American Jazz Drummer, pianist, and composer Lester Bowie ( 11 October 1941 &ndash 8 November 1999) was an American Jazz Trumpet player and Composer. Roscoe Mitchell (b August 3, 1940 in Chicago Illinois) is an African American Composer, Jazz instrumentalist Joseph Jarman (b September 14, 1937 in Pine Bluff Arkansas) is a Jazz Musician, Composer and Shinshu Buddhist Don Moye, sometimes referred to as Famoudou Don Moye (born May 23, 1946) is an American Jazz Percussionist Drummer He Malachi Favors (born August 22, 1927 in Lexington Mississippi; died January 30, 2004 in Chicago) was a noted American (Braxton recorded many times with Bailey and Teitelbaum; Mitchell recorded with Thomas Buckner and Pauline Oliveros. Thomas Buckner (born 1941 is an American Baritone vocalist specializing in the performance of Contemporary classical music and improvised music Pauline Oliveros (born May 30, 1932 in Houston Texas) is an Accordionist and Composer who currently resides in Kingston New )
In 1966 Elektra Records issued the first recording of European free improvisation by the UK group AMM, which included at the time Cornelius Cardew, Eddie Prévost, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe and Lawrence Sheaff. Elektra Records is a now-dormant American Record label owned by Warner Music Group (WMG and from 2004 on operating under WMG's Atlantic Records AMM are an important British Free improvisation group founded in London, England in 1965 Cornelius Cardew ( May 7, 1936 – London, December 13, 1981) was an English Avant-garde Composer, Edwin Prévost (born June 22, 1942 in Hitchin) is an English Drummer and Percussionist. Lou Gare (born June 16, 1939) is an English Free-jazz saxophonist born in Rugby Warwickshire, perhaps best-known for his Keith Rowe (born March 16, 1940 in Plymouth, England) is an English Free improvisation Guitarist and painter.
International free improvisation
Through the remainder of the 1960s and through the 1970s, free improvisation spread across the U. S. , Europe and East Asia, entering quickly into a dialogue with Fluxus, happenings, performance art and rock music. Fluxus —a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media A happening is a performance event or situation meant to be considered as Art. This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation Rock music is a genre of Popular music often though not necessarily employing Electric guitar, Bass guitar, and Drums. Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd was famously an AMM devotee; rock bands such as the Grateful Dead, The Mothers of Invention, King Crimson and Henry Cow incorporated extended passages of free improvisation into their live performances. Syd Barrett (born Roger Keith Barrett; 6 January 1946 - 7 July 2006 was an English singer songwriter guitarist and artist Pink Floyd are The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Mothers of Invention was an American Rock and roll band active from 1964 to 1975 King Crimson is a Progressive rock band founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969 Henry Cow were an English Avant-garde rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred
By the mid-1970s, free improvisation was truly a worldwide phenomenon. Japanese players like saxophonist Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi took the music to greater heights. Kaoru Abe (阿部薫 ( May 3, 1949 - September 9, 1978) was a Japanese Free jazz alto saxophonist who generally played solo Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi (高柳昌行 (1932 - 1991 was a Japanese Jazz / Free improvisational musician The Los Angeles Free Music Society ran ahead with glee through the ideals of free music. The Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS has been since the early 1970s the banner heading of a loose collective of experimental musicians in Los Angeles California who
In 1976 Derek Bailey founded and curated Company Week, the first of an annual series of improvised music festivals in which Bailey programmed performances by ad hoc ensembles of musicians who in many cases had never played with each other before. Company was an ever changing collection of free improvising musicians This musical chairs approach to collaboration was a characteristically provocative gesture by Bailey, perhaps in response to John Stevens' claim that musicians needed to collaborate for months or years in order to improvise well together. Musical chairs is a Game played by a group of people (usually children often in an informal setting purely for entertainment such as a Birthday party John William Stevens ( 10 June, 1940 in Brentford, Middlesex - 13 September, 1994 in Ealing, West London The final Company Week was in 1994, but its spirit survives in many similar ongoing festival and events worldwide. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar)
Electroacoustic improvisation
A recent branch of improvised music is characterized by quiet, slow moving, minimalistic textures and often utilizing laptop computers or unorthodox forms of electronics.
Developing worldwide in the mid-to-late 1990s, with centers in New York, Tokyo and Austria, this style has been called lowercase music (a term coined by gallery artist and musician Steve Roden for his own work) or EAI (electroacoustic improvisation), and is represented, for instance, by the American record label Erstwhile Records and the Austrian label Mego. Erstwhile Records is an Independent record label devoted to Free improvisation, particularly the electroacoustic variety
EAI is often radically different even from established free improvisation. Eyles writes, "One of the problems of describing this music is that it requires a new vocabulary and ways of conveying its sound and impact; such vocabulary does not yet exist - how do you describe the subtle differences between different types of controlled feedback? I’ve yet to see anyone do it convincingly - hence the use of words like 'shape' and 'texture'!"[6]
Free improvisation on the radio
The London based independent radio station Resonance 104.4FM, founded by the London Musicians Collective, frequently broadcasts experimental and free improvised performance works. Audio Feedback (also known as the Larsen effect after the Danish scientist Søren Larsen who first discovered its principles is a special kind of Feedback London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Resonance 1044 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC with a licence to cover "practising The London Musicians' Collective (LMC is a cultural charity based in London, England devoted to the promotion of contemporary, experimental WNUR 89.3 FM ("Chicago's Sound Experiment") is another source for free improvised music on the radio. WNUR (893 FM) is a 7200 watt Radio station based in Evanston, Illinois that broadcasts to Chicago and its northern suburbs Taran's Free Jazz Hour broadcast on Radio-G 101. 5 FM, Angers and Euradio 101. Angers is a city in the Maine-et-Loire department in northwestern France about 300 km south-west of Paris. 3 FM, Nantes is entirely dedicated to free jazz and other freely improvised music. Nantes (Naoned Gallo: Naunnt) is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast
See also
References
- ^ a b Guitar Player, January 1997
- ^ Eyles, John (10 August 2005). This is a list of musicians and groups who compose and play free music or Free improvisation. Musical collective is a phrase used in reference to a leaderless entity that is predisposed to performing music that may be considered experimental. Musics was an independent magazine (ISSN 0307-2924 launched with Issue No Guitar Player is a popular magazine for Guitarists It contains articles interviews reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists genres and products Free Improvisation. All About Jazz. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
- ^ Bailey, Derek. FREE IMPROVISATION. Cortical Foundation. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
- ^ anonymous. Free Improvisation. allmusic/Macrovision Corporation. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
- ^ Warburton, Dan (January 2001). Keith Rowe. Paris Transatlantic Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
- ^ Eyles, John (21 June 2006). 4g: cloud. All About Jazz. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
External links
- European Free Improvisation Pages An information resource for European free improvisation
- Signal to Noise magazine A publication focusing on avant-garde jazz and electro-acoustic improvisation
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