Improvisation as a Creative Dialogue

Abstract

Our paper will describe the creative process of Zaum: Beyond Mind an interactive sound theater performance, and examine the role of improvisation in shaping the piece. Zaum is a modular performance for voice, bandoneon, piano and electronics-integrating both live interactive elements and fixed sounds -with lighting, and video projection. While the creative process included traditional modes of composition, a significant aspect in melding the contribution of two composerseach with a different approach to composition -shares important attributes with improvisation. It is to do with creative listening, adjusting our individual contribution in response to changing contexts, and developing a shared sense of musical pacing and narrative. Improvisation also played a significant role in developing the technological, interactive elements of the piece with a co-evolution of the programming and the performance over a lengthy process of exploration and adjustments. This process, therefore, entails multiple dialogues, musical as well as verbal, between us as a duo and between us and our instruments. On the way we discovered that analytical reflection, despite its connotations of cerebral processes popularly portrayed as in opposition to the spontaneity required in improvisation, played a crucial role in the shaping of the piece.Short video excerpts from performances available at:

Rethinking the musical ensemble: A model for collaborative learning in higher education music technology

“…It is common for laptop ensembles to utilize what Tsabary (2014) terms a 'comprovisational' approach, a blend of composition and improvisation (Dudas 2010;Ben-Tal and Wilkins 2013). Even composed works where participants each utilize the same composer-prescribed software will often utilize a combination of what Nettl, talking about improvised musics, identified as structural markers or signposts (Nettl 1974) and passages of extemporization (see Albert 2012 for examples).…”