In December of 1987, I gave a series of concerts for The Composer's Fund called Spotlight on Improvisation. The concerts featured myself, bassist Alex Fowler, guitarist Michael Townsend, and oboist Alice Hiorth in a variety of improvisational settings.
I asked each musician to bring an improvisational structure to our first rehearsal. These four pieces; True Love, Dance Round, Excursions, and Essay Questions, became the cornerstone of the series. Each night, along with these four pieces, I improvised a three-movement piano sonata , we performed a jazz tune, and we ended with a sound-piece which explored the border between music and noise.
Rehearsals for these concerts consisted mainly of group improvisations. We would begin with one of the more structured pieces, and gradually remove layers of structure until we were improvising without any limitations at all. This became the format of the performances, beginning with the most structured music, and peeling away layers of definition.
Much of the music described in this chapter was created for and during these concerts.
The audiences for the series were small but appreciative. On several occasions, audience members joined in the interaction by contributing sounds to the final piece, "Noise." Another level of interaction happened one night during Excursions," when Alice playfully tossed a spoon at Michael. Michael responded by tossing a clamshell back at Alice. Soon afterwards, someone from the audience tossed a set of car keys onto the stage.
The freedom of interaction between musician and audience during this series helped to make it an experience that held meaning for all participants. More than most concerts, the audience became players as well, linked musically with those on stage. The music that resulted was consequently freer and more experimental, the audience more willing to accept unfamiliar or challenging concepts and sounds.
There are many forms and styles of jazz, ranging from the complete freedom of expression of free improvisation to the complex harmonic structures of tunes such as Giant Steps(John Coltrane) or Lush Life(Billy Strayhorn). Jazz has been called America's classical music, coming as it does out of a long tradition and evolution. Playing jazz requires a certain level of harmonic knowledge, as well as a good ear and the ability to let go of a certain amount of conscious control that is essential to all improvisation.
Modal jazz is one of the easier styles of jazz to improvise on. While a bebop tune, to take the other extreme, will frequently change key many times in the course of a single chorus, modal tunes stay for the most part within a single key, or mode. The-practical value of this is that it's easy to hear what notes are "right" or "wrong," and that notes that fit in one part of the piece will likely fit elsewhere as well.
This is particularly true of Onychophagia, which, with its stacked fourths and statement of both the major and minor third, will accommodate notes from either the minor or the major scale. Dropping the left hand motif, it is possible to change keys or play atonally without rocking the harmonic boat.
Onychophagia, as with most jazz numbers, is generally played twice through, with improvisation taking place for an unspecified amount of time between the two statements of the theme. Unlike many jazz tunes, Onychophagia has a fairly complex structure for the "head" or melody chorus, requiring a fairly straight rendition the first and last times. Improvisation is usually done over the ostinato of the stacked fourths motif, with occasional forays out of that mode, which can take any form.
The trick to the sonata improvisation was in creating and sticking to a structure. While the outline of the piece is fairly vague, the actual playing made it very specific. As soon as I improvised a theme, I had to commit it to memory in order to repeat it later in the piece, develop it, and so forth. Once I had been halfway through the first movement, the second half was largely a logical progression: having set up certain expectations in the first half, I now had to fulfill them. In this way, the first half of each movement was extremely creative, but as I got further into it, variables dropped out, until the second half was mostly memory and interpretation.
Alice's contribution to the program, True Love, was taken from an old book of Italian songs. We performed it as an instrumental theme and variations. Each night, every member of the group would have a chance to lead an improvised variation. Before and after these variations, we played the piece as written.
Playing variations requires an understanding of the form and style of the piece. The variation must have enough similarity to the original to be recognizable, yet be different enough to be an original statement. Generally, one aspect of the music will be changed for each variation: rhythm, key, melody, mood, or harmony.
One of the most difficult things about this particular improvisation
was clue-giving. There was no break between one variation and
another, so the new leader needed to quickly and effectively communicate
the nature of his changes within the first bar of the music. The
other players needed to listen and watch to see and interpret
these clues in order to play in ways that supported the new leader's
idea.
Michael's tune has roots in many ethnicities. The structure is based on English rounds, the melody on Greek song, and the rhythm on the M'bira music of Africa.
The simple harmonic structure was easy to work with. After the initial statement of the melody, we passed leadership around the stage. We attempted to keep the music diatonic (keeping to the seven notes in the key of C), but otherwise both soloist and supporting players were free to improvise freely within the harmonic and rhythmic structure implied. At any time, any particular player could choose to play the melody, or a variation of the melody, the bass line, the chords, or any combination of the above. With any of these parts, it was possible to emphasize either the three feel (2+2+2 beats) or the two feel (3+3 beats) within the six-eight time. Several times we extended the two feel into a four feel, giving a complex four against three rhythm.. At times, the group would coalesce on one rhythmic feel, or simultaneously change, giving an illusion of great change though we were essentially still playing the same six bars.
Two parts of the structure were pre-planned: At some point midway through the performance, we all took up a melody or counter-melody with our voices, dropping the instruments completely. When we resumed the instrumental parts, we changed the harmony, using a non-diatonic chord progression that put the melody in a new light.
Rules: Improvise in B Phrygian. The drone stays mainly on B, occasionally straying briefly to C. The root chord is a B9 with no 3rd. The feel is similar to flamenco, the rhythmic feel generally 12/8,(3+3+3+3 beats), occasionally interposing a 3 against 2 feel by making that 2+2+2+2(8/8).
Leadership passes on through a change in the drone: The drone note passes stepwise up the scale. Leadership passes on when the drone again reaches B.
This piece is very simple in structure, and plays beautifully. Two simple pieces of information - a root chord and a scale - provide most of the harmonic information. Leadership is again passed around the stage, using a simple and unmistakable procedure that is self-structuring. While the rules sound complex when written, this piece is easily grasped aurally.
In an ensemble:
One of our practice methods during rehearsals for the series was
to open the dictionary at random, plunk down a finger, and use
the resulting word as a central image for group improvisation.
The image gave everyone something to focus on, something that
pulled the music together and gave it coherence. Often the music
produced this way was programmatic: it told a story, the musicians
trying to give a literal sense impression of the meaning of the
word and their associations. Essay questions was conceived as
a way to introduce these images in a theatrical, interesting way
that allowed the audience to see and understand the motives that
drove the music. The following are some of the more successful
essay questions that we played:
Throughout the performances, Alex's tendency was to provide us
with an ambiguous question that roused our feelings and ideas
about politics. This particular reading began in a fragmented
way, as we all tried to voice our "opinions" at once.
Soon, however, ore got out of each others' way, and cooperated
to play three different sections with differing moods. There was
no conscious decision to represent our different feelings, but
I feel sure that the three moods reflected our three viewpoints.
This question brought an immediate response, in the form of the
song "Happy Birthday" played simultaneously in several
keys at once. We then expanded on the song, incorporating key
changes, playing deliberate wrong notes, and interpolating the
Beatles' "Birthday-,A sense of humor prevailed throughout..
The use of a common song made it easy for the audience to follow
along as we made mincemeat of the familiar melody.
The graphic image and logical paradox provided by this question proved the best improvisational seed of the series. The image is strikingly clear: the music needs to travel up, and is over when it reaches the top. Additional aspects of the performance were a certain hesitancy, as if the snowflake were being blown by .intermittent gusts, and a spiraling feeling, as if it were rising, then falling a bit before rising again. The bass, with long low tones and delicate high notes, very efficiently brought across the idea of immense height and distance from the ground.
This is the same piece presented as an exercise in chapter seven, with the exception that instead of playing an established melody, there is no limitation on the musical content.
'That looks hard," remarked an audience member after one performance of this piece. Indeed it is. The concentration required to ensure that there are no gaps in the music, while being careful not to step on anyone's improvisation, is enormous. It is perhaps wise to add other rules to this piece to make the task easier: setting a fixed length of phrase for each musician, choosing a conductor to direct the action, or simply setting a fixed playing order.
This was the piece we used to end the program each night, first
explaining to the audience what we were about to do. This was
a no-holds-barred, anything-goes formula in which we explored
the borders between music and noise. Michael often detuned his
guitar, I put duct tape on the piano strings or played found percussion
instruments, Alice played her mouthpiece without the oboe attached,
Alex threw fingering to the wind, playing both in and out of intonation.
The audience frequently became involved, singing or banging along.
One night, half of our two-person audience walked out during this
piece. The following are synopses of two performances of this
piece:
12-19-87 Alex, Nick, Michael.
American Youth Hostel, Fort Flagler, Nordland, Washington.
The piece begins with Nick tapping a comb on the piano. The guitar
and bass spew a flurry of atonal notes that rises to a long cacophony.
The music continues to alternate between languid airiness and
frenzied walls of rapid notes. Michael plays with feedback from
his amplifier. The audience starts to sing on random tones. Michael
applies his guitar transducer to his neck, singing through the
amplifier. An audience member finds a vacuum cleaner in the back
of the room and turns it on and off. The music is now at a loud
and furious pace, and both audience and players begin to shout
loud non-sequiturs; "He'll never find his hair," "He's
hiding in the closet," "Wake up and get ready for school."
"Stop the music," shouts one of the musicians over and
over. The guitar is now tuned as low as it will go. It and the
bass slink around on slippery feet while the piano plays one note
over and over. The audience is really getting into percussion
now, banging metal chairs together. Alex plays 'Round Midnight,
while Nick plays Georgia On My Mind in a far-removed key. Finally,
an audience member begins a chorus of Silent Night, after which
the musicians get up and applaud. Total time about 18 minutes.
12.20.87 Nick, Michael, Alex, Alice.
Peninsula College, Port Angeles,
Washington.
Nick strikes a circular saw blade, making a sound like a temple
bell. The other instruments imitate the sound. Michael places
objects on his guitar strings as he plays. Alice plays percussion
while Nick dances around the auditorium, interpreting his movements
on soprano recorder. The music becomes fast and florid, then drops
off to slow or sudden bass notes with only the wind instruments
keeping up the fast fluttering. Then, even that becomes intermittent.
Alice enacts a car wreck, while the instruments accompany her,
rising to a peak, and then becoming a dirge as Alice chants "why?"
As the music gets simple and plods along, Michael singsongs "time
to get uu-uup." The bell returns and is echoed again by the
others. The bell this time is like a railroad crossing bell rising
and falling with the wind. Then, the men are quiet as Alice improvises
a delicate atonal aria to end the piece.
Total time about 10 minutes.
The guitars keep an unbroken eighth-note pulse, but without dividing it into recognizable measures. The guitars play different groupings of single notes - threes, fours, fives - changing from time to time.
The guitars play groups of three notes, all them triads (major, minor, augmented, diminished), in any closed inversion. Both guitars begin on a C major triad, then take turns changing one note to form a different triad (for example, the first move could be from C major to C minor, A minor, E minor, C augmented, or C# diminished). The guitars never make the same change. If they wind up on the same triad in the body of the piece, it is by accident. Eventually, both guitars make their way back to C major, which ends the piece.
The bass is the melodic instrument. Listening to the tensions produced by the superimpositions of two chords, the bassist picks a melodic line through the harmonies that changes and expands as the chords change and expand.
Jane is one of my favorite structures. While it is fairly rigidly structured, and requires some basic knowledge of chord theory for the guitars to keep to the rules, it provides a large possibility for variation as different pairs of chords are juxtaposed. The bassist needs to have a good ear and a solid melodic sense in order to pull together and make sense out of the shifting web of harmony implied in the guitar parts.
Note choice is slim for the guitarists, who have a maximum of six specific possible changes at any one time. This improvisational predicament has been called "controlled choice" by composer Lukas Foss, who sees it as the opposite of improvisation(2)
Cherries and Conversation are two examples of a method I sometimes use to chart an otherwise unstructured improvisation. The chart provides landmarks, anchors, and suggestions for the players. None of the musicians who developed and performed these structures with me had much experience at improvisation, yet every performance of these two pieces was inspired. Each piece, in addition to the chart, had a central idea or image that helped to tie the improvisation together, and which provided the titles. The additional theatrical touch of walking through the audience with a basket of cherries helped to reinforce the image, while also bringing the audience into the action. Incidentally, the term Pizz, short for Pizzicato (Plucking rather than bowing the strings) is an intentional pun on the cherry pits.
The idea of letting the performers play solo during the improvisation helped give a change of color, and was facilitated by letting the performer signal the beginning and end of their solos with a trill or glissando.
The eleven pieces presented in this chapter should give you an
idea of the range of possibilities open to the improviser, though
this is by no means a comprehensive collection. The art, discipline,
and urge of improvisation can be applied to an unlimited variety
of structures, both spontaneous and planned. Most of these pieces
were developed for a specific group of performers and specific
performance setting. If I were to repeat these pieces, I would
include other pieces in the program that were specifically designed
for the new situation.