Improvisation and the Symphony Orchestra: Providing Inspiration and Meaning

Sep 27 2006

I close by recommending free improvisation in general and in every respectable form to all those for whom [music] is not merely a matter of entertainment and practical ability, but rather principally one of inspiration and meaning in their art. This recommendation, to be sure, has never been so urgent now, because the number of people whose interest belong to the former category and not to the latter has never been so great. Even if a person plays with inspiration, but always from a written score, he or she will be much less nourished, broadened, and educated than through the frequent offering of all of his or her powers in a free fantasy practiced in the full awareness of certain guidelines and directions, even if this improvisation is only moderately successful. (Hummel, 1828/1829, p. 468; Goertzen, 1996, p. 305)

For many persons today the mere mention of “improvisation” evokes two words: jazz and fear—a curious response, considering that music and improvisation have been inextricably linked throughout history. Johann Nepomuk Hummel, an influential composer and one of the greatest improvisers of his time, wrote an instructional book for piano that had a significant effect on piano pedagogy in the first half of the 19th century. Hummel’s thoughts on the importance of improvisation in music education are expressed in his book providing some perspective on an issue that has the potential to enrich both performers and audiences.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) musicians in an improvisation workshop at Heinz Hall. In the spirit of Hummel’s recommendation, we spent the day improvising—treating improvisation as a context for understanding music. The intent of the workshop was to bring out the improvisational skills of the symphony musicians and connect these experiences to symphonic repertoire and to the musical lives of the community that listens to the PSO.

Think of a symphony audience as a group of musicians listening and interacting with what they are hearing, similar to an audience interacting thoughtfully with a public speaker and/or public dialogue. Just what are the musical thoughts of the symphony audience? Do these listeners “speak the language” of the music they are hearing? Will they have musical “conversations” about what they have heard after the concert? The conversation I imagine is not a discussion of the visual aspects of the performance or the order of the program. Rather, I imagine a musical conversation—one that involves improvisation as a demonstration of musical understanding.

Remember, performers are listeners, too. Through improvisation we attain musical experiences that are interactive, meaningful, personal, spontaneous, and “in the moment.” Improvisation in music is analogous to conversation in language, and just as there is a relationship between thought and language, there is a relationship between musical thought and improvisation. Improvisation unites with musical thought to engender meaning. As we increase our improvisation vocabulary, we deepen our musical thoughts and improve our musicianship. This relationship is always in motion. As improvisation develops, musical thought (understanding) develops; as musical thought develops, musicianship develops; as musicianship develops, musical ideas are created and so on, providing the necessary ingredients for comprehension and creativity.

Following is a summary of the model presented to the PSO for developing musicianship through improvisation. The session involved six content areas: 1) Learning Repertoire; 2) Learning Patterns and Progressions; 3) Improvising Melodic Phrases; 4) Learning to Improvise – Seven Skills; 5) Reading and Writing Music; and 6) Learning Solos.

Learning Repertoire by Ear

Learning by ear is fundamental to musicianship. It is the most important, and possibly the most misunderstood area of music education. Perhaps learning music by ear can best be understood by comparing it to conversation in language. When we interact in conversation, we do not attend to individual letters of the alphabet, we group language into meaningful “chunks.” (The same is true for reading.) A phoneme, the smallest phonetic unit, has no meaning out of context; even words alone are not sufficient for comprehension. We have to put words into the context of noun phrases and verb phrases to provide meaning. For example, the word play in the sentence The play had three acts has a different meaning from the word play in the sentence I play the trumpet. As words are spoken, the listener establishes a context for meaning (through these noun phrases and verb phrases) while anticipating and predicting what will be said next (Pinker, 1995). The listener yearns for meaning. It is no coincidence that one of the first words children say is “again” and one of the first questions they ask is, “what does that mean?”

Interaction and context are also necessary when listening to music. For comprehension, one also groups music into chunks; notes and intervals are not enough. For example, the note “A” may function as the resting tone in A major or as the leading tone in Bb major. Even in more subjective musical forms, notes participate with other notes to provide the potential for musical meaning. Thus, to improvise, read, write, and comprehend music we must put tonal patterns and rhythm patterns (musical “words”) into the context of harmonic progressions, tonality, meter, and style.

How does this translate into practical experiences for performers and audiences? Like conversation in language, interaction is crucial to the process of learning to improvise music meaningfully. Consider that every piece has a yearning. In other words, as you begin to understand the piece you are playing, try to anticipate the harmony, meter, and expressive elements aurally. To establish a feel for the harmony, sing and play a bass line generated by the roots of the chords in the harmonic progression. Your repertoire could come from a variety of musical sources, e.g., themes, excerpts, folk tunes, spontaneous songs, and jazz and classical music.

In the PSO workshop, we used a wide range of musical styles as a source of inspiration, including Simple Gifts. There are many settings of this tune, the most obvious orchestral version being Appalachian Spring, by Aaron Copland. With this connection to symphonic literature, Simple Gifts was a good place to start our improvisation journey. First we sang the melody and bass line by ear. Next, we played the tune in several keys, without the aid of notation. Learning by ear is fundamental when learning to improvise. Because the musicians in the workshop learned the piece without notation, the source of inspiration for the music was a person; thus, the music was understood primarily in terms of its aural aspects. The harmonic, rhythmic, and expressive contexts of the piece provided a point of departure for improvisation. The PSO musicians became fully aware of the musical material for improvising Simple Gifts, by ear.

Learning Patterns and Progressions

Paying attention to the tonal, rhythmic, and expressive elements of Simple Gifts, we acknowledged the recurrence (reuse) of harmonic, melodic, rhythmic and expressive elements in the piece: tonal patterns (chords such as DO MI SO; FA LA DO; SO FA RE TI), melodic phrases, and harmonic progressions (e.g., I, V7, I); rhythm patterns and phrases e.g.,

and

and expressive elements such as dynamics, articulation, and tone quality. We used these elements as the source for improvisation. We improvised different tonal and rhythm patterns and phrases based on this vocabulary.

Learning musical patterns is similar to learning words in a language; becoming familiar with these patterns will improve the vocabulary for improvising. Improvising a series of rhythm patterns or a progression of tonic and dominant patterns in music is similar to speaking a sentence or a phrase in language. Learning to improvise familiar harmonic progressions and rhythm patterns for a large body of repertoire will improve comprehension in music. Certain progressions and phrases will become familiar just as common sentences become familiar. When you hear something new or different, it will have context.

The workshop continued with the following suggestions for improving musicianship through improvisation.

Improvising Melodic Phrases

Sing the first phrase of Simple Gifts. Then, instead of continuing with the original second phrase, improvise a second phrase by singing a melody that continues the harmonic progression. Try to play what you sing. Trust yourself. It will help to think of a chord tone (such as the root or the third of the chord) at the end of the phrase as an arrival point for your improvised phrase. Begin to feel what it’s like to anticipate a note or line, and arrive there, or somewhere else!

For example:

Improvising – Seven Skills

Implement the following Seven Skills when learning to improvise. Review the melody and bass line for the tune you are improvising to help you with these skills.

Improvise rhythm patterns while singing the bass line of Simple Gifts. Get a feel for the harmonic progression by ear.
Understand the essential voice leading of the tune by ear. Where do notes “like to go” in this genre? Eventually improvisers understand that there are unlimited relationships among notes. But, it pays to learn the most fundamental voice leading for context by ear. In this style of music, with a tonic – dominant – tonic harmonic progression (I – V7 – I) in major, DO likes to go to TI or SO and then back to DO; MI likes to go to FA and then back to MI; SO in a tonic chord could stay on SO for the dominant and then to SO again or back to DO for tonic. Through singing this by ear, a feeling for the harmony will emerge. This understanding will also help direct your understanding of musical syntax. For example, in language you would not say Music to I play love. In this case, “I” likes to go to “love” which likes to go to “to” which goes to “play” which goes to “music.” I love to play music.
Using the pitches in Skill #2, learn the harmonic rhythm (when the harmony changes) for the tune (in this case Simple Gifts).
Improvise rhythm patterns to the harmonic progression for Simple Gifts using the pitches learned in Skill #2. Interact with the melody.
Improvise tonal patterns to the harmonic progression on each large beat of Simple Gifts. As the harmony progresses, sing and play patterns that outline the chord changes. These are arrival points in the music that you can land on or delay.
Combine tonal and rhythm patterns in the progression of Simple Gifts and improvise your own melody.
Decorate and embellish the melodic material in Skill #6 and improvise a melody. Use your understanding of the chord tones in the tonal patterns and chord roots in the harmonic progression as arrival points to anticipate what you will say.

These Seven Skills should give you and your students something specific to work on when learning to improvise. Once you have internalized these skills, let go of any “over analysis” and concentrate on creating melodies.

Reading and Writing

Music is invisible. Notation, though referred to as “music,” is actually symbolic of music. Reading notation should bring out your musicianship. In “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf writes:

…when one takes a sentence of Coleridge into the mind, it explodes and gives birth to all kinds of other ideas, and that is the only sort of writing of which one can say that it has the secret of perpetual life (p. 101).

The reader’s mind “explodes and gives birth to all kinds of other ideas.” Imagine that happening when reading (and listening to) music. The symbols of music make sense in the context of comprehension and improvisation. Too often notation is taught without regard to listening, comprehension, and improvisation. How can a person actually “read” in a language they do not “speak?” Improvisation will improve your ability to read with comprehension.

Take the time to document and develop some of your ideas by composing music. Writing music provides a means for expressing musical ideas and allows for reflection and revision. Powerful relationships exist among listening, improvising, reading, writing, and analyzing music. Each has the potential to influence the other in significant ways when presented in the context of improvisation.

Learning Solos

Learning to sing and play others’ improvisations will increase your music vocabulary and improve your own improvisations. Learn to sing and play improvised solos that are performed live by other musicians by ear. Learn to sing and then play recorded solos as well. Notate the solos and then analyze them. Use the new vocabulary you have learned; incorporate these ideas into your own improvised solos.

Being “in the moment” is essential to improvisation. Did you ever skin your knee when you were a kid? Skinning your knee is part of playing and learning, and part of the process for learning to improvise. If you want to be reminded of this state of mind necessary to improvise, hang around a pre-school-aged child—the younger the better. There is much to be learned from the improvisation and play of children. Here are some ideas that will inspire you to improvise:

1. Let go of fear — let a musical idea come to mind.
2. Be inspired by the musicians improvising with you.
3. Pause; leave some space.
4. Play with the musical idea — repeat it — develop it.
5. Change the phrase length: make it longer (augmentation); make it shorter (diminution).
6. Change the articulation.
7. Change the dynamics.
8. Change the register and range.
9. Develop motives and re-use material.
10. Listen for the way great composers and improvisers re-use material in interesting ways.
11. Try for unity and variety in your improvisations.

Many symphony musicians have the opportunity to work with students. When orchestral musicians perform enrichment concerts for students, they must do more than talk about music. The musicians must interact with the students musically. The ideas presented in this article will engage the students musically. Sing and play music in a variety of tonalities (major, minor, Dorian, Mixolydian) and meters (duple, triple, 5/8, 7/8). Sing familiar melodies and bass lines, and have the students do the same. Move to the meter of the music. Have the students hear and anticipate the resting tone (tonic) of the piece you are singing/performing. This is the beginning of understanding the piece. Play what you sing. Sing what you play.

Improvisation is the expression of musical ideas, and it involves a process of meaningful interaction with music and other musicians. We should all strive for musical inspiration and meaning through improvisation. The word educate means to bring out. As musicians, we have opportunities to bring out music in others. We are all improvisers, and we must maximize our musical experiences when we are in the moment of performance and interacting musically with others. We should all strive for musical inspiration and meaning through improvisation.

References

Azzara, C. D. & Grunow, R. F. (2006) Developing musicianship through improvisation. Chicago: G.I.A. Publications, Inc.

Goertzen, V. (1996). By way of Introduction: Preluding by 18th- and 19th-century pianists. Journal of Musicology – A Quarterly Review of Music History, Criticism, Analysis, and Performance Practice, 14(3), 299-337.

Hummel, J. (1828/1829) Ausführliche theoretisch-practische Anweisung zum Piano-Forte-Speil (Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, 2nd edition) (first edition was published in 1828).

Pinker, S. (1995). The language instinct. New York: Harper Perennial.

Woolf, V. (1929) A room of one’s own. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.