Related research

Given the limited amount on research that explicitly focus on improvisation over 20^th-century classical repertoire – i.e. the main focus for the project – the main research examined have therefore been in three adjacent categories:

Improvised interpretations of Late Romantic repertoire,

Improvisation based on the musical language of 20th-century classical composers, and

Improvisation in the practice of classical musicians.

Improvised interpretations of Late Romantic repertoire

In musicologist Ritchie J. Cole’s (2015) PhD thesis Foreignizing Mahler – Uri Caine’s Mahler Project as Intertraditional Musical Translation, the author presents us with an in-depth study of how pianist Uri Caine approaches his adaptations of music by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). As a basis for his research, Caine uses interviews, annotations and hundreds of manuscript papers.

Drawing on concepts from the field of linguistics, Cole uses the translational strategies domestication and foreignization to analyze how Caine’s adaptations relate to the source material. With domestication, the source material is adapted to the target culture, making it more familiar and easily understandable for that audience. This, as Cole points out, is the type of jazz arrangements found in swingin’-the-classics’. With foreignization, it’s a question of accentuating the ‘foreignness’ and uniqueness of the source material, so that the reader is brought closer to the writer. Such a strategy – which Cole ascribes to Caine’s interpretations of Mahler – results in “literal, exaggerated readings that better convey authors’ characteristic use of their own languages for a new audience.” (i)

Another aspect that Cole highlights is Caine’s approach to classical form, which goes far beyond the typical approach of adapting classical works to jazz forms, i.e. repeating a chorus structure as the basis for improvisation. This way, Caine’s approach to form “reveal new and innovative ways to integrate improvisation into forms previously left untouched by the jazz tradition", something that can inspire similar means of approaching other non-jazz compositions with a jazz mentality (p. 208). 

In their artistic research project (un)Romantic / Improvising Interpretation carried out at NMH (the Norwegian Music Academy), singer Live Maria Roggen and pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus (2024) examine how repertoire from the Romantic song tradition can be used in creative exploration, and how notions such as “romantic” can be challenged when doing so. One of the initial questions made by the musicians, coming from different genre backgrounds, was how to find their approach to the music. Roggen, coming from a jazz background, talks about a problem as a jazz singer approaching this repertoire, that she can’t “put on an act” and pretend to be an opera singer.

Roggen: I find the language analogy useful to describe the building up a bank of materials, or building up expression rooms. Because within the frames of outer limits and forms, you create your own personal ways. And the interesting part relative to our work with creating a language between us, is “how do you intuitively express yourself within this?” (Roggen & Nyhus, 2024)

Nyhus, coming from a classical background, refers to their work as a type of creative interpretation (skapande fortolkning), where you go beyond the type of conventional interpretation, where performers have a limited freedom in relation to rhythm and timing, to moving beyond the score. As Nyhus puts it: "that point when it tips over, away from the traditioning, and into the creation of something new, that’s what I find exciting: when does that happen?".

The duo describes an imaginary axis going from interpretation, which is fairly close to the original, over to something that resembles composing, where the contour of the music is still intact, the main outline of the story. An example of sketches are presented below:

Figure 1.5. Sketches from (un)Romantic / Improvising Interpretation (Roggen & Nyhus, 2024). 

The duo describe their work as a reflective process, where they would send snippets from pieces back and forth between each other. One important stage of their work was when they started dissolving the material:

Nyhus: I think that we’ve made a kind of intentional mis-imitation. We have listened to something, and then we’ve imitated it, but with error, or with alteration, or with cracking.
Roggen: So actually, we’ve planted the seed to dissolve it from the early beginning?
Nyhus: Then we have listened to ourselves, or remembered what we did, and imitated that again, that creates a feedback loop, but a feedback loop where alteration, or error, is added as parameter. (Roggen & Nyhus, 2024)

Improvisation based on the musical language of 20th-century classical composers

In his project Beyond Borders- Broadening the Artistic Palette of (Composing) Improvisers in Jazz, Dick van de Graaf (2017) describes how jazz improvisers can use pitch organization systems from 20th century composers as a way of broadening their palette. The systems in question are the Tone Clock by Dutch composer Peter Schat and the Modes of limited transposition by French composer Oliver Messiaen.

One conclusion drawn by de Graaf is that both Schat's Tone Clock and Messiaen's various modes present well-defined tools that can be freely adapted by composers and improvisers to expand the musical palette. He further notes – in the exercises based on the Tone clock model – that experiments with twelve-tone series are best suited for compositional work, while improvisation based on the system works best for practical reasons based on segments of the scale. Based on Messiaen's symmetrical scales, he presents a number of examples, both improvisational and compositional, of how these tonal libraries can be used as creative tools both within and beyond traditional functional harmony.

The idea of expanding on a composer’s musical language is also prevalent in the musical practices of organ improvisers. A comprehensive survey of the practices of improvising organists is beyond the scope of the project; the examples selected here are merely chosen to illustrate approaches to improvisation based on musical languages, approaches from a musical tradition where the link to historical improvisation is intact.

In Karin Johansson (2008)’s study of professional organ improvisers, she describes a conception of improvisation as expansion, which can involve “[p]laying with a looser and more distant relationship to written music” (p.114). Here, performers might leave the score, which is then used as a source for inspiration or finding improvisational ideas. These ideas can be “anything from moods or styles to themes and effective gestures that are modelled, copied or transformed”. (p.114)

A lot of tuition in this improvisational tradition focuses on the teaching of compositional styles, such as analyzing the musical parameters that give a particular piece its identity, and then transferring them to improvisations that will “sound like pieces that could have been made by the same composer” (p. 115). Organists can also use elements from the composers’ musical languages and incorporate them as models for practicing improvisation. As explained by one of her respondents, this can take on the character of ‘playing games’:

This is like Messiaen… but if you change a mode and use (plays), it’s not quite Messiaen anymore but Duruflé (plays)… more diatonic and not as modal. And I tend to pretend that I am Duruflé, haha… … I kind of take on the role of that person, and that’s my basic approach – I play games. (‘Calle’ in Johansson, 2008, p. 124)

As Johansson notes, the model here is not only represented by formal structures, harmonic progressions or aural memory, but rather connected to musical identities in a wider sense. The role of the improviser, thus, becomes similar to an actor who takes on a role, as in “stepping into the clothes” of a particular composer (p.125). This involves not only musical language, but also the emotional characteristics connected to a musical identity.

Similar descriptions are found in Svein Erik Tandberg’s (2008) PhD thesis, where he conducts interviews with organ improvisers of different traditions, including tradition bearers of 20^th century music. One of Tandberg’s respondents, Olivier Latry describes how he aims to create musical forms using a similar language to Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupré, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Cochereau, representants for the French tradition of organ improvisation. Here, improvising in a particular language – e.g., harmonies, voice leading, colors, and means of expression – helps the performer to understand a style, by closely adhering to the example.

First one has to approach by copying, but the aim is to find one’s own personal style. Within the framework of improvisation studies one can absorb the main musical characteristics of – as for example – Franck, Dupré or Messiaen. Afterwards one should try to “forget” all of these and attempt to create one’s own music. (Latry in Tandberg, 2008, p. 403)

Also, Latry emphasizes having a good command of harmony and counterpoint, so that extemporisations “offer their listeners some of the qualities one would expect from fully composed music” (p. 403).

Improvisation in the practice of classical musicians

There’s also a growing amount of research studies dedicated to improvisation in the practice of classical performers, a few of which are covered here. This has been done in a highly selective way, with an emphasis on improvisational strategies – e.g., how to move beyond the score, how to handle musical languages, etc. – and negotiations related to performance values surrounding such processes. Studies that explicitly focus on earlier historic periods have not been included here.

Focusing on improvisational strategies, an interview-based study by Després et al. (2017) examine the processes of five expert-level classical music improvisers. Drawing on jazz and free improvisation research based on retrospective protocols – i.e., interviews with musicians about a specific improvisation that they had just played – the researchers, adopting similar methods, revealed a set of strategies that were grouped under five top-level categories; preplanning strategies, conceptual strategies, structural strategies, atmospheric and stylistic strategies, and real-time strategies. 

Focusing here on the category of structural strategies, Després et al. presents a continuum ranging from micro-structural strategies (phrasing and articulations) to macro-structural strategies (formal construction of the improvisation). On this continuum are strategies between the micro and macro level, strategies that relate to the idea bank and the development of the improvisation. All of the participants in the study described using prelearned musical motives from their knowledge base in the course of their improvisations. One of the participants describe how this can involve quoting a theme:

… when I learn a musical work, I try to use the licks of that work to my benefit. So I remember exploring [musical example] and changing the rhythm. Rather than sixteenth notes in ternary rhythm, I do it in 4/4 [musical example]. It (sounds) pretty . . . and then I explore [this pattern with different] chords. (Raùl in Després et al., 2017, p. 152)

Development strategies comprise the following:

embellishing, varying or recombining using grace notes, variation techniques, or blending various musical ideas; repeating or sequencing the ideas that have been played; creating a period, or an antecedent/consequent phrase; varying intensity, focusing on the creation of musical peaks or the alternation of tension and relaxation; and contrasting approach, by developing contrasting material in relation to what has just been played. (Després et al., 2017, p.152)

Formal strategies related to the architecture of the improvisation, including setting a harmonic structure underlying the improvisation, building a bridge between distinct musical sections, and setting the duration (Després et al., 2017).

In Juniper Hill’s (2017) interview-based study, she examines the experiences of musicians as they work with incorporating improvisation into classical music performances. Hill notes how her respondents cover a wide spectrum of improvisational activities;

Some improvise subtle nuances of interpretation while remaining fairly faithful to pre-composed scores; others improvise their own cadenzas within canonical repertoire; others delight and impress audiences by extemporising entire pieces in their concerts; and others use improvisation for practical functions in church services, at weddings, and as accompaniment for modern dance and theatre performances. (Hill, 2017, p. 229)

From the perspective of advantages, improvisation is seen as a developmental tool for “deepening understanding of traditional repertoire, improving technique and aural skills, expanding interpretative and expressive possibilities, discovering a personal voice, and lessening performance anxiety” (p.225).  Hill’s respondents also address challenges, such as

lacking the aural skills to realize musical ideas on their instruments, the memory facility to spontaneously access a musical vocabulary, a practical understanding of music theory that can be applied in their own playing, and in some cases even decision-making skills. (Hill, 2017, p. 236)

Many of the challenges addressed are related to hierarchies of classical music culture, in particular 20^th-century ideals such as being “faithful to a composer’s intentions”, and notions that improvisation in classical music is wrong and “inauthentic”, beliefs that make performers “crippled from realizing much of their creative potential” (p.237-238). In conclusion, Hill emphasize the important role that improvisation plays as classical performers assert their right for greater artistic autonomy.

The question whether classical musicians are excluded from improvisation is addressed by Jonathan Ayerst (2021), who points out four cognitive and emotional barriers to improvising; self-beliefs, beliefs about improvisation, negative emotions, and attention and conscious control. In particular, he points out the “grip of determinacy” (p. 450) as a culprit for improvising musicians, since it’s “impossible to improvise according to the ideals of composition in which every note is determined” (p. 448). In relation to his main question, Ayerst states that exclusion takes place:

whenever individuals are prevented from improvising, either from without: by dominant voices (e.g. teachers, experts, composers) and socio-cultural contexts (in which it is forbidden); but also from within: that is, whenever individuals, because of similar reasons and beliefs, intentionally exclude improvisation from their musical practice. (Ayerst, 2021, p. 448-449)

Similar to Hill, Ayerst suggests that it’s through “the act of improvisation that ideology is revealed and changed” and that it can help us to “regain game-like perspectives which are only lightly determined” (p. 449).

Julia West (2022) considers how improvising over classical music can serve as a way of connecting the past with the present, as a way of interacting with the messages “behind the notes” (p.14). One of the approaches that West suggest is to focusing on certain parameters of the music:

The notes of a melody, phrase, bass line, or other motive could be used as “building blocks” for the construction of new material. The vertical sonorities that provide the harmonic foundation for the chosen material could be maintained as notated while instrumentalists playing the “building blocks” could play with the musical features, altering the rhythms or the order of the notes, or even varying mood or articulation. (West, 2022, p. 15)

She also proposes establishing roles for members of an ensemble, where, for instance, “bass instrumentalists could vary features of an excerpt while treble instrumentalists play exactly what is written” (p.15), or vice versa, as well as re-organizing the notes of a melody while another group sustains a chord from the same passage. West also considers working with repetitive units – i.e. playing a loop – as beneficial for internalizing chord changes in a simplified version,

before the process of building on the harmonic foundation of the repertoire through improvisation. Each repetition could ease the students into incremental exploration of variability, perhaps helping the students to move on and refocus after some perceived error. (West, 2022, p.15)