Improvisation

Summary

Dominique Pagani discusses improvisation mainly in connection with jazz, which builds melodic development on top of its rhythmic regularity, taking risks as it does so1. He presents it as almost an antonym of interpretation: in jazz, the musician creates at every moment what is heard2. He returns several times to one phrase: "improvisation is not improvised." One must master the instrument to express the inner sound, and jazz develops between improvisation and arrangement34. He also places it in history. For most of that history, the musician improvises and takes on every role: designer, performer and interpreter5. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were known for their improvisations, and this tradition fades in the nineteenth century. For him, therefore, improvising or writing does not separate classical music from jazz6. What he gives as specific to jazz is collective improvisation on a double scale: the C mode and the blues scale7.

1. 1B for Bach16 Dec 2014 · 8:12
2. 2#17 Interpretation25 Mar 2021 · 1:35
3. 3#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:50:40
4. 4#17 Interpretation25 Mar 2021 · 1:32:39
5. 5#17 Interpretation25 Mar 2021 · 15:54
6. 6From Bach to the Pygmies22 Jun 2022 · 15:01
7. 7From Bach to the Pygmies22 Jun 2022 · 17:42

Summary produced automatically from 7 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.