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PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES FOR FREE IMPROVISATION: PERFORMANCE
IN RELATION WITH COMPOSITIONAL THOUGHT
Rogério Luiz Moraes Costa
University of São Paulo
Rua Bento de Abreu, 232
São Paulo, SP, Brazil, Cep 05049-010
55 11 91682010
[email protected]
1-INTRODUCTION
Our intention is to formulate specific pedagogic strategies for contemporary
improvisation (also known as free or non-idiomatici). When we speak about any kind
of improvisation we can relate it with composition because both activities are
different forms of musical thoughtii. Obviously, it would be impossible to summarize
and further systematize all forms of musical thought because it would be necessary to
address the “huge musical library” where we find everything that has been done
(historically and geographically speaking), what is being done today, and even what
has not been done yet, since music is an open field for new and unexpected
experiences. And this means that music is the territory of virtuality. Quoting Luciano
Berio we could say that today that library has become boundless. Rather like Borges’
Library of Babel, it spreads out in all directions; it has no before nor after, no place
for storing memories. It is always open, totally present, but awaiting interpretation
(Berio, p.9, 2006). In this sense, when something is fully systematized as a technique
(maybe captured in a kind of computerized algorithm as has done David Cope iii) it
can’t be considered as a work of art.
Nevertheless, for our educational purpose, it could be useful, to borrow the open
approach created by the English composer Brian Ferneyhough and further developed
by Brazilian composer Silvio Ferraz, to think about musical composition from a
listening point of view. As exposed by Ferraz in his article about music and semiotics
(Ferraz, 1997), Ferneyhough proposes three different categories of musical thought:
figural, gestural and textural. From these categories it could be drawn different
pedagogic strategies that could be used with groups of musicians who want to learn
how to improvise without the restraintsiv, limits, or implicit rules present in musical
idioms, styles or genres. Obviously, these categories are only theoretical since music
is multiple and not divisible. Just for pedagogical sake we could say that there are
musical practices in which one or other of these categories is predominant.
2 -FIGURAL THOUGHT
As proposed by Ferneyhough, figural thought refers to an abstract (based on mental
images) way of thinking in which the musician deals with figures. These are
rhythmical-melodic patterns that could be reduced to numerical proportions. The
figure is an abstract idea that only becomes sonorous in practice and exist in the
performer’s head independently of its unfolding. In the case of an improvisation
performance it depends strongly on an active synthesis of the memory. What the
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musician creates here and now becomes an abstract figure (a motif or a theme) that
has to be manipulated in real time in many different ways and put into play interacting
in a complex environment. In composition, J.S. Bach could exemplify this kind of
attitude where the sonorous (the sound itself) dimension is not a first concern, or else,
where what really matter are the “numerical” relations between motifs, themes,
melodies and pitch class sets. In fact, all the occidental musical tradition based on
notation and its figural possibilities such as the idea of counterpoint, developing and
variation including Josquin, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schoenberg, and many others,
could be thought to a certain extent as being figural. We could say that this is a kind
of music based on notation and that its invention and constant improvement favored
this kind of thought. But we could also affirm that figural thought doesn’t depend
exclusively on a score, because even in oral tradition we can find this kind of musical
thought. When an improviser works in real time, he could be developing or varying
figural themes that were created by him, which he picked up from the improvisation
environment, or from tradition. As a matter of fact this three possibilities certainly
coexist in a performance: a figure is created by a performer in the context of a local
environment that is immersed in a tradition. In this case he is thinking musically in a
figural way.
For an improviser to learn about this kind of approach it would be useful to listen and
to analyze a large range of music such as, for example, Josquin’s Motets, Bach’s Art
of the Fugue, Beethoven’s Symphonies, Schoenberg’s pieces etc. Moreover, there are
a lot of great jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ornete Coleman and
many others, who create their performances by using this kind of approach: picking
up motifs and developing it through the chord changes - if the environment is related
to a tonal/modal system – or freely in atonal environments. We could even mention
this kind of musical procedure in non-occidental cultures such as Carnatic, Persian
and Flamenco environments.
Just as a pedagogical strategy, we could split this kind of thought in two subcategories.
1.1 Rhythmical:
When we focus on rhythm consciously neglecting the frequency aspect. We could
bring some of John Cage’s experiences with rhythm in which he would affirm that the
sound doesn’t matter, giving focus solely to the aspect of abstract rhythmical thought.
When we think about a group of percussionists playing (unpitched instruments), the
idea of rhythmical games immediately comes into mind. Obviously, the issues related
to timbre are very important too. But even if timbre is relevant, the rhythm can be
seen as the most important organizing force - especially when we have strongly
idiomatic or pulsated music. It is worthy to remind that rhythmical is not only that
kind of music thought that deals with the various arrangements of the different
durations related in various proportions. Rhythm also deals with accentuation,
sensations of time flow, the use of ostinatos, rhythmic pedals, etc.
The important thing is that it seems possible to bring a pedagogic strategy focusing in
rhythm and especially in rhythmical figures thought as motives. We could exemplify
some proposals: given a pulsed ostinato idea, improvise interacting in various ways:
a) summing up with different pulsed figures and creating a “groove” (as an idea of
complementation or “pyramid”); b) contrasting with non pulsed rhythms creating
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multiple layers in a kind of heterophony; c) creating polymetric contrasts against it.
And so on. Obviously, it is impossible (and it is not desirable) to avoid the other
parameters of sound such as frequency, dynamics and timbre. But it is possible to
create a focus just for the sake of an exercise or to propose a performance where the
musicians interact by paying attention only to rhythmical figures, dealing with short
memory, development, variation etc.
1.2 Melodic:
When we focus on pitch classes and its relationship mostly in a horizontal level,
leaving in a second plan the rhythmical aspects of the figures. Here we speak clearly
about themes, melodies, motifs and its unfolding: transposition, diminution,
augmentation, fragmentation, extension, retrogradation, inversion etc. The European
tradition of tonal music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic) is based mostly on this kind
of “thematic” manipulation. With Schoenberg, especially in his atonal period (in
which he is certainly freer than in dodecaphony) we can perceive a kind of narrative
composition that unfolds almost entirely from very short and synthetic intervallic
figures. As we know in Schoenberg’s music these figures turn to be a species of
original cell of the piece from where everything is originated (even chords or vertical
formations). We can also find many examples of this kind of elaboration in jazz and
other forms of improvisation practices. We could say that this kind of thought is
predominant in the type of performance that follows the traditional pattern themechorus-theme, where solo improvisation is thought as melodic variations over chord
changes. In this aspect it could also be related to traditional forms of Western music
such as theme with variations, chaconne, passacaglia etc. Even in a modal framework
such as those found in Hermeto Pascoal, Herbie Hancock and many others
composer’s themes, most of improvisers think about melodies, themes, motifs etc. In
a freer environment (with no such harmonic restraints) the improvisers also can
develop their performances focusing in this kind of approach. In this case their
performances could be related to traditional occidental atonal motivic manipulation,
such as Schoenberg’s.
It is important to remember that, as we have already pointed in the beginning of this
article, in a real performance situation performers are involved in a holistic way with
all the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamics etc. Nevertheless, again we
can think about these proposals as pedagogic strategies that aim exclusively to
develop a certain creative attitude in the student of improvisation.
For these purposes there are many possible exercises for the development of this kind
of skill such as improvise thinking always in melodic figures over tonal chord
changes, over atonal and modal framework, idiomatic rhythmical grooves (with no
“harmony”) and so on.
2- GESTURAL THOUGHT
As proposed by Ferneyhough, gestural thought refers to something “larger” than the
figure. It is related to gestalt perception (as a tendency to structure). Obviously,
musical gestures can be composed by figures. But they are more than that. The
meaning of a gesture is more than just the result of the sum of several figures. Musical
gestures are almost always contextualized in specific musical styles, idioms or some
extra-musical reference. In this sense we could also say that this category deals with
all the relations that music can establish with other “languages”, particularly those
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related with body and movement. A gesture is any significant musical event, which
has its limits well delimited in time and which is composed by smaller and nonsignificant units (which are the figures). A gesture configure its “meaning” in a
specific territory. We could identify a typical gesture from waltz, jazz, samba, choro,
be-bop, flamenco, Beethoven, Chopin, tonal system etc. But we could also use the
term in a more literal meaning as a physical movement of the performer to produce a
specific result.
An improvisation performance can lean strongly on the use of gestures and, in this
case, it almost always evokes cultural, technical, personal, stylistic or idiomatic
identities. If it there is a performance where the musicians are encouraged to use
gestures originated from their different cultural backgrounds - even if in a
recontextualized environment - the result will certainly bring up recognizable
fragments in a more or less successful blending. This kind of proposal points to a very
important subject since it deals with the possibility of putting together in a
performance musicians pertaining to quite different traditions. It looks like whether
they maintain too rigid the gestual structure of their cultures they won’t be able to
interact in a successful way. It is hard to define the procedures that make possible this
kind of environment. We could use the concept of deterritorialization of Gilles
Deleuze and Felix Guattari to think about this kind of process. They exemplify this
concept with Béla Bartók who, from territorial and popular melodies, self sufficient,
closed on themselves (and therefore, clearly gestual), creates a new chromatic style
ensuring development of a new style, let’s say, more universal. It looks like, if what is
“under” the gesture is figure, timbre (texture) and sound, musicians of different
traditions can interact in a satisfactory way if they assume a receptive posture and
create an environment where these “chunks” of territory can be torn apart and
rearranged in new combinations. To improvise inside of a territory, consciously
assuming all its rules, boundaries and constraints is also a very useful way to
introduce students in the this kind of activity.
3- TEXTURAL THOUGHT
As proposed by Ferneyhough, refers to something that involves a particular form of
listening focused in the general configuration of a sonorous flux characterized by
melodic and rhythmic figuration, harmonic-interval organization, registration,
dynamics, density, spacing, modes of articulation, density, timbre and other possibly
features of sound behavior. In his own words texture is the irreducible stochastic
substrate of music and is the minimum precondition for there to be any differentiation
potential relevant (Ferneyhough, 1990, p. 23)v. In other words we could also say that
the textural types are characterized by modes of interaction of these formal basic
features: how are sounds disposed in time, how they relate in the harmonic space and
are grouped into subsets - in blocks or as a superposition of flows partially
independent etc. The textural types are multiplicities, combinations of expressive
traits and define types of sound behavior.
In the context of tonal music we usually link this concept to traditional categories
such as monody, polyphony and homophony. But in contemporary music this kind of
thought relates to more diversified forms of music making in which especially timbre
takes a structural and predominant role. In this case texture and timbre are not related
with any tonal framework and therefore are not coordinated with the complementary
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relationship between melody and harmony as a mean to reinforce harmonic tonal
goals. Yet, as opposed to gesture, texture itself doesn’t evoke specific cultural
territories. Its quality produces a kind of primordial sensation that lies before that
identification of a specific territory.
When we speak about texture we can make an analogy with the idea of sonorous
object (object sonore) as proposed by Pierre Schaeffer. This kind of approach focuses
our listening upon the sound itself through its energetic history (form of attack,
spectral envelop, allure etc). The concrete and electronic music – which has Pierre
Schaeffer as one of its most prominent formulators - brings forth a series of concepts,
procedures and categories that contaminate and influence all the contemporary
musical production including improvisationvi. In his Treatise of Musical Objects
Pierre Schaeffer created, along with the concept of sonorous object, the idea of quatre
écoutes (four modes of listening: ouïr, écouter, entendre, comprendre) along with the
concept of ‘reduced listening’, meaning disregarding the original context of the
sound, including its source and signification, and instead focusing our listening on the
sonorous features. With these concepts in mind he formulates the opposition between
the idea of musical and sonorous. The first concept would be related with the concept
of comprendre that means grasping a meaning and treating the sound like a sign,
referring to this meaning as a function of a language. For example, in tonal music, we
hear an aggregate of sounds as a chord, which has its functional meaning. For
Schaeffer, in a certain extent we don’t really hear the sound but instead we hear what
the sound means in the tonal context. As another example of this concept we could
think about a rhythmical figure played by a percussionist in a samba context. Again,
we hear the figure as a whole, as a gesture, as a sign belonging to a very delimited
musical idiom. It makes sense in that context. The listening is focused in its quality as
a part of a system and, therefore we don’t really hear the sound in itself. For Pierre
Schaeffer, to hear the sonorous (that would refer to a presumed pre musical situation)
we have to seek for the “reduced listening” as it was mentioned above. This kind of
listening would make possible for someone to “really” hear the sound and its inner
qualities and energies, and it would make possible the textural kind of thought as
referred by Ferneyhough. In this case music can be thought as a result of physical and
aural qualities of the sound itself. In this sense much of the electroacustic music is
conceived not as music made of sounds (material originating form) but rather as
music where sounds are produced.
As a logical conclusion of what has been written until now, we have that when we
propose for a group of improvisation, an exercise focused in the idea of texture or
timbre we should somehow avoid the prominent use of figures and gestures as this
would lead our attention to the type of listening Schaeffer defines as musical in
opposition to sonorous. We could say, quoting French philosopher Gilles Deleuze,
that a musical practice that aims to transcend the molarityvii (in our case, the territory,
the idiomatic musical borders) has to be held in a molecular plan, in a kind of neutral
pre musical non-territory. To clarify these concepts we could say that textural or
timbral is a more vertical kind of thought in opposition to a more horizontal (related
with occidental tradition of narrative), which means that it leans more upon
intensification as opposed to extension that can be thought as being more discursive.
Of course, it can be argued that texture may be composed by figures. Obviously, there
are figures that are heard as melodies and themes in a tonal context, or even in a
narrative atonal context such as most of Schoenberg’s pieces. But there are figures
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that are used to create a textural context as in much of Xenakis, Ferneyhough ou
Ligeti’s works, only to name a few contemporary composers. Therefore, in this last
approach, figures are taken by the composers or, in our case, by the improvisers in
order to build a textural environment.
In this sense texture and timbre definitely seems to be the most appropriate approach
to free improvisation since it suggests a kind of listening that is focused in the
“essence of music”. That would be the sound and its energetic qualities. In this
situation it comes to mind the absolute necessity of including extended techniques for
the instruments as a mean of penetrating in the dynamism of the sound itself through
empirical experimentation and, at the same time, escaping of the already warn out
qualities of figures and gestures in music in which the sound - much in a linguistic,
almost communicative way - function as a signifier of a signified. In the process of
exploring an instrument in a more experimental way, searching for its unknown and
unexpected possibilities, somebody is able to reach a situation where the instrument
can be considered as an extension of his/her own body or voice. Quoting the
researcher of oral poetry of the Middle Ages Paul Zumthor, the voice lies in the
silence of the body (Zumthor, 1993, p. 12). For him, voice is a skill for language. It
has substance and tactility. The languages use the voice, but they should not be
confused with it. The language is abstract and the voice is concrete. Also, the sound
coming out of an instrument is ability to music. Analogously, it looks like this is a
very interesting way of thinking about the relation between the musician and his/her
instrument.
Anyway, at this point it looks like it is absolutely necessary to introduce for the
students of improvisation the kind of exercises where they will have to deal with a
more textural and timbric kind of music making – mostly, but not only - through the
use of extended techniques. It is perfectly possible to reach this kind of result using
conventional techniques. It should be useful to listen and analyze music from Scelsi,
Grisey, Murail, Ligeti, Ferneyhough, Kurtag, Dusapin, Sciarrino to name only a few.
4- CONCLUSION: PLANNING IMPROVISATION
The main goal of the exercises discussed above is to provide the students of
improvisation with means with which approach a free improvisation situation in a
contemporary point of view. Therefore one of our goals was to relate contemporary
improvisation to contemporary composition. So, we will summarize all that was
exposed relating it to a compositional situation and trying transposing it to a
performance of improvisation. Before that, it will be useful to speak about
premeditation.
There is a very interesting issue related with the usage of premeditated gestures in a
solo improvisation. This situation brings forth the important issue of planning or not
the solo while it is being done and can be applied particularly to the figural thought.
Obviously, premeditation is not applicable only to figures, for it can happen also in a
textural or gestual environment. The difference is that in figures the premeditation is
applied to an abstract representational image (rhythmical and intervallic ideas), while
in gesture and texture it looks like it is impossible to construct an abstract preview of
something that is essentially non-representative. Anyway, when an improviser is
making a solo he is able to act with a maximum of planning trying always to
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anticipate the next step or deal with the unexpected, the accidental and chance,
incorporating every “mistaken” or “dirty” sound. There are various degrees of balance
between these two attitudes that could be thought as rational and intuitive. In this
sense, we could consider improvisation as a kind of quick (and unrevised)
composition. Obviously, when there is interaction with other musicians it is not
possible to think in this way because what comes up musically is a result of the
complex interaction between various performances.
Coming back to the pedagogical strategies mentioned above, it would be interesting to
establish here a parallel of improvisation with the compositional practice by Brian
Ferneyhough regarding to the flow of sound events, the relationship between the
figural, gestural and textural levels and the link between the sound objects in the flow
of time. Let us not forget, however, that the plan for consistency of improvisation is
substantially different from that of composition. Cite here the words of an interview
of Ferneyhough for the Perspectives of New Music Journal of 1990: "... I, invariably,
devise a sound event as something that fluctuates between two poles notional - that is,
its gestual gestalt [texture] immediate and identifiable and their role as a starting point
for the subsequent establishment of linear trajectories of the components
characteristic [figures] of gestalts. The specific aspect of an event is the degree to
which these elements parameters is to provide opportunities for separation, extension,
and recombination in future constellations ... I even handle something like a variable
parametric provided that: a) can be quantified in a consistent manner to allow
modulation of gradual processes, and b) a component is sufficiently clear and
identified in a gestalt so that may be identified in subsequent contexts "(Ferneyhough,
1990, p.24).
It is inevitable for an improviser, in a contemporary performance context, to deal with
these three dimensions (figure, gesture and texture) at the same time and in a nonlinear way. During an interactive performance, time is not teleologically directional,
discursive or causal. There isn’t a correct development for the performance. Every
sound act (as in the action-paintings of Jackson Pollock) has the potential to produce
significant changes in the flow of the performance. It depends on its degree of
“resonance” that is revealed only in the real time of interaction. Sometimes, an event
that is apparently secondary in a complex texture becomes prominent and changes all
the unfolding. The simultaneous layers in the flow of the performance interact in all
directions: horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Then, the image presented above
by Ferneyhough, can be applied to an improvisational environment where every little
musical act of the performers present in a complex and multidirectional texture has
the potential of becoming a significant line apt to produce important changes in the
sound flow. Or else, all the sonic events can be thought as lines of energy interacting
in unexpected ways, and the difference of potential between then in the course of
performance is what produces the succession of “provisory states” that delineates the
performance. As quoted by Luigi Nono from a inscription written in a monastery in
Toledo: “Wayfarer, there is no path. Yet you must walkviii”
Bibliography
BERIO, Luciano, Remembering the Future, Harvard University Press, London, 2006.
FERNEYHOUGH, Brian, Shattering the vessels of received wisdom – Conversation
with James Boros in Perspectives of New Music, Seattle, 1990.
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FERRAZ, Silvio, Semiótica Peirciana e Música: mais uma aproximação, in Revista
Opus 4, Editada pela Anppom, Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós Graduação em
Música, São Paulo, 1997.
MACHÊ, François-Bernard, Music, Myth and Nature, in Contemporary Music
Studies N.6, Nigel Osborne, University of Edinburgh, UK, 1992.
SCHAEFFER, Pierre, Traité des objects musicaux, Seuil, Paris, 1966.
ZUMTHOR, Paul, A letra e a voz (The voice and the Text), Companhia das Letras,
São Paulo, 1993.
i
It is difficult to define this kind of musical activity, but we could say that free improvisation is an independent
form of music making that supposes a special kind of engagement from the musician that is thought to be at the
same time a composer and a performer. In this sense his/her performance doesn’t depends on any previous
composed music or any set of instructions posed by a composer such as we can see in the works of K.
Stockhausen, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and others. It is also quite different from an idiomatic situation where
the musician creates its performance from a previous reference (as a theme used in Jazz). This kind of musical
activity can be performed either by a group, in an interactive way, or by a soloist. In this case we have a situation
that could be considered in a certain measure, a kind of instantaneous composition.
ii Speaking about improvisation it certainly would be better to say musical activity meaning that we are talking
about something that involves body and mind at the same level. However, we will keep the expression musical
thought just for practical reasons.
iii David Cope, besides being an important composer and a professor, is also known as a scientist who is
developing researches involving artificial intelligence and music.
iv Paradoxically, our pedagogical approach for free improvisation need a kind of systematization that has to make
use of constraints. But this must be understandable since it would be impossible to reach our objectives without
breaking strong resistances that are rooted in the biography of most of the musicians.
v Ferneyhough, Brian, in Form, texture...in Contrechamps 3...
vi As quoted from François-Bernard Mâche about the more recent advances in technology in music: But it happens
that new technologies of musical data processing are overturning the game of signs by restoring sound to its
rightful status, without the loss of combinatory richness which has resulted from strait jacket of notational
organization. The sequencer coupled with the synthesizer or the sampler, and the automatic transcription facility,
makes possible the immediate notation, in the form of tablature, of the most complex musical gesture, and this with
a fidelity equal to that of sound recording itself. The work of composition can take place in real time…by
improvisation, and in time-lag by modification of the transcription of improvised elements. And the musician,
instead of working with sound, can henceforth work the sound itself, therefore considering as one thing what has
traditionally been separated into form and material (Mâche, 1992, p. 25)
vii For Deleuze and Guattari, molarity is the site of coded wholes. It is a productive process: a making-the-same. Its
attractor state is that of stable equilibrium. It is the mode of being, rather than becoming. The principle
revolutionary objective of their writing is to break down molar aggregates in favor of molecularity, and the
"microphysics of desire (http://www.christianhubert.com/writings/molar___molecular.html).