source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 09:43:16 -0800 Subject: Improvisation and our musical soundscape From: Kelly Rappuchi and Glen Peterson > Although improvisation may be a skill helpful to the > mastery of a particular musical instrument I am not convinced that in > itself it adds anything to ultimate musical experience. Nor do I feel > that improvisational skill leads to more creative musical expression. In > fact it much more readily falls into the realm of noodling than much of > the so-called Western classical repertoire. Ever heard Derek Bailey's album "Aida"? What about the Indian greats like N. Rajam, Nikhil Banerjee, and Debashish Bhattacharya? How about Stephan Grapelli, Miles Davis, Alan Holdsworth, etc? Each of these improvisors has improved the quality of my life. Yes, I am defensive because I love improvised music! I think that some of the highest art comes from improvisation. There's a certain candidness, an honesty in improvisation that I just don't get from composed music. Granted, you can achieve a much higher level of complexity in a composed piece, but otherwise, the process is basically the same, and the results are just as valid. One must make allowances for the fact that only a very small percentage of available recordings have really good improvisation on them. I think that if you lived in India, the situation might be reversed! The very foundation of western musical culture is written music, so it makes sense that our improvisation is a little shaky. Imagine the volume of written music that has existed in the WORLD, EVER. The best composers from EVERY generation are there. For the most part, the better pieces have survived and much of the junk has been tossed generations ago. Now imagine next to it, a MUCH smaller pile, the volume of recorded, improvised music sitting next to it. Only one or 2 generations of performers have made this music, and from this, one generation of record company executives have selected what they thought would SELL THE BEST and released it on record. Now, if you were to take a random sampling of these two selected pools of music, where are you more likely to find a great work of art? I am not surprised that you said this, but it makes me REALLY want to share some GOOD improvised music with you. Drop me your address and I'll mail you a tape. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 11 Jan 1997 20:24 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA26275; Sat, 11 Jan 1997 20:28:01 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA26229 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA05057; Sat, 11 Jan 1997 11:27:58 -0800 Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 11:27:58 -0800 Message-Id: <009AE385E94045A0.6255@vbv40.ezh.nl> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu