Expanding horizons – Improvisational explorations of 20th-century classical music by Peter Knudsen

"Expanding horizons" is an Artistic research project carried out between 2021 (August) and 2024 (November) at NTNU, Trondheim. The objectives were to contribute to knowledge on how different kinds of departure points can be useful for musicians when approaching 20th-century Western classical music through improvisation, an understanding of how one can navigate and negotiate the musical language of this repertoire, and insights into how the tension between different performance values can be navigated in this process. The research questions were: When applying improvisation to works of 20th-century classical music, 1. What role does the choice and preparation of musical representations play? 2. How can we navigate and negotiate musical structures such as melody, harmony and form? 3. How can we navigate the tension between fidelity to the work and creative expression? Based on selected pieces from this repertoire and practical explorations together with participating musicians, various approaches to creating improvisational frameworks were then explored. These included a wide range of scores, including lead sheets and indeterminate notation, as well as ear-based methods. From the perspective of integrating improvisation into the performances, approaches such as repeating elements, working with layers, creating transitions, and introducing open sections were examined. A key point was to use melodic material as a way of building strong connections with the source material, rather than relying on harmonic representations of the music. In terms of balancing respect for the original work with creative freedom, a “healthy dose of disrespect” pervaded much of the explorations, allowing deviations from the originals when they were musically justified. Throughout the work processes, an idea of focal points emerged, as aspects to focus on when reworking a classical work into an improvisational version. These focal points included the score, historical and performative contexts, expressive qualities, and the improviser’s personal voice.

All in Twilight – David Härenstam & Peter Knudsen

The information below is the text taken from the album. It can be added that two of the tracks are outside of the scope of the project, track 6 and 9, tracks featuring guest musicians that show other sides of the duo. The music is available via major streaming services.

Liner notes

This is an album that encourages the listener to approach notions of musical genres with an open mind and – perhaps more importantly – with open ears. The collaboration started with the idea of somehow doing a meeting between classical guitar and jazz piano. When discussing potential repertoire, we soon realised that there was a mutual fascination for the music of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu that could work as a common ground for our explorations, in particular his guitar suite All in Twilight. Working with the material involved taking a certain amount of liberties with the music. Although all of the notes of the original music are there, the suite is rearranged for a duo format where parts are distributed between the two instruments. Also, improvisation plays an important part in the new versions, as a way of uncovering possibilities for musical expression with Takemitsu’s music as a departure point. Sometimes these improvisations take on the shape of new sections that are inserted into the music, like the freely improvised introductions of I and II, or through repeating passages from the composition where new musical ideas gradually emerge. This approach can be heard in all of the four movements in different ways. At times, the improvisation is taking place in coexistence with the original, like in part IV, where the piano adds colour and subtle comments to the guitar.

Ultimately, the work is driven by a deep admiration for the original music and its expressive potential. The composition All in Twilight is a fascinating work with its richness and the wide musical spectrum of the four movements; from the brush-like enigmatic gestures of I to the pensive melancholy of II, from the intensive drive of III to the gentle playfulness of IV. When it comes to the Japanese elements of Takemitsu’s writing, we didn’t do anything in particular to emphasise them; those ingredients were already there, as natural parts of the musical mesh. Also, combining Takemitsu’s music with improvisation and jazz elements isn’t as far-fetched as one might think; the composer actually had a deep fascination for American jazz, from the big band music he heard on the radio in his youth to the study of George Russell’s jazz theory book The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, a book that would have a significant influence on Takemitsu’s composing.

The other pieces of the album all feature different approaches and ways of combining composition and improvisation: In Erland von Koch’s Utanmyra-variationer, a guitar piece based on the Swedish folk music tune Visa från Utanmyra as immortalised by pianist Jan Johansson, we created our arrangement as a dialogue between the guitar and the piano. The improvised sections that are introduced gradually are based on the main tune, repeated passages from von Koch’s variations, and as an open interlude between the written variations. To make room for these additions, two¹ of von Koch’s variations were omitted. One of the ambitions with the improvised sections in this version is to bring out some of the Johansson-esque elements that are embedded in the DNA of von Koch’s piece. The attentive listener can also detect elements from Concierto de Aranjuez in the improvised guitar cadenza.

Thin Places is a new composition by Stefan Klaverdal, performed together with the composer himself on live electronics. As Klaverdal describes the piece: “In celtic tradition ‘thin places’ are spots in the landscape where the distance between this world and others are closer, or the veil between is thin. The music in this piece moves between a sort of improvisation and strictly notated music and I imagine it to be a host of several such thin places metaphorically spaced out in the piece, where you cannot know if the music is notated or improvised.”

Fuoco by Roland Dyens, from the suite Libra Sonatine, is actually based on an earlier guitar recording by Härenstam of the same piece, with new piano overdubs that join the guitar – at times – and, in other places, add improvised melodies on top of the guitar part. To reinforce the intense character of the piece – fuoco meaning fire in Italian – the percussive guitar ostinato towards the end was repeated, as a basis for a piano solo.

Dépaysement is a brand new composition by Knudsen, paying tribute to French composers such as Maurice Ravel and Henri Dutilleux. The title, Dépaysement, refers to the feeling of disorientation that you can get from being in a foreign or different place, away from your natural environment. As the composition unfolds, improvised sections are interwoven with the written parts.

In a Sentimental Mood brings the worlds of classical music and jazz together on many levels simultaneously. Besides being a wellknown jazz composition by Duke Ellington, the particular version we are doing is based on an arrangement for classical guitar by Jason Vieaux, but where improvised solos are added by Knudsen and guest bassist Svante Söderqvist. The composer himself, Ellington, brought a lot of influences from French classical composers into his writing – partly through his frequent writing collaborator Billy Strayhorn – and was one of the composers that had a big impact on Takemitsu’s approach to composition. In fact, Takemitsu even referred to Ellington as one of his main “teachers”, alongside Debussy and Nature, making his music a good choice for closing an album that moves across genre boundaries.

Track list

1. All in Twilight – I (Takemitsu) 5:26

2. All in Twilight – II (Takemitsu) 4:31

3. All in Twilight – III (Takemitsu) 3:10

4. All in Twilight – IV (Takemitsu) 3:54

5. Utanmyra-variationer (von Koch) 10:54

6. Thin Places (Klaverdal) 6:28

7. Fuoco (Dyens) 4:00

8. Dépaysement (Knudsen) 6:08

9. In a Sentimental Mood (Ellington) 6:05

Total length: 50:36

℗ & © Daphne Records 2023

Album credits

David Härenstam, guitar · Peter Knudsen, piano

Guest appearances by Stefan Klaverdal, live electronics (track 6) and

Svante Söderqvist, double bass (track 9).

Arrangements on tracks 1–5 and 7 by Peter Knudsen & David Härenstam,

arrangement on track 9 by Jason Vieaux.

Tracks 1–5 recorded by Otto Wellton at Kingside Studio, Gnesta on March 23–24, 2022.

Track 6 by Stefan Klaverdal recorded at Kulturhuset Ravinen, Båstad on July 7, 2022.

Track 7 recorded by Leif Hesselberg at St. Peder’s Church in Slagelse (Denmark) on June 14, 2014

with piano overdubs recorded by Peter Knudsen at Örebro University on January 15, 2019.

Tracks 8–9 recorded by Otto Wellton at Kingside Studio, Gnesta on September 29, 2022.

Mixed and mastered by Per Hallgren. Audio editing by Peter Knudsen.

Produced by Peter Knudsen & David Härenstam. Cover photo: Rachel Wolfe.

Photo of Härenstam & Knudsen: John Malander.

Executive producer: Stephan Jansson.

This recording has financial support from the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

1. This is actually incorrect; one of the variations were omitted, not two, as stated in the liner notes.

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Peter Knudsen - Expanding horizons – Improvisational explorations of 20th-century classical music - 2025