Improvisation on Improvisation

Lateral Addition 2025

1 online resource (1 audio file)

"I don't believe in structured improvisation. Improvisation is unplanned and unstructured. "Improvisation is a predicament." [1] Once a predicament is structured it could be resolved easily. That is perhaps why Cage was trying to "make improvisation a discipline." [2] Improvisation, however, could be part of a greater structure. Improvisation is all about undercurrents, the things that are never mentioned but exist. It's about being obligated to bring forth something, to silence nothing. As long as there is a task, there is a score. As long as there is a score, often, choices are a priori to decisions. In improvisation, however, even if there is a score, it does not emerge from choices; it begins with decisions. (E.g.Cardew's Schooltime Special) Improvisation is sometimes thought to be about sudden and fast processes of making choices, but to me it's all about the slow periods of decision making. The present actions emerge in the background of constantly deciding, the incessant beginnings. When I improvise, the question is not where and how to end, but where and how to begin. Even the ending happens in response to a question about how to begin again..."-- provided by distributor.

Composition (Music)
Music.
Sound.
Musique.
music (discipline)

Music.

Ferdowsi