Long-term, shared experiences: the experience of collective musical improvisation

Written by Phillip Morton

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About

Long-term, shared experiences: the experience of collective musical improvisation

Background

Free collective improvisation0 is commonly presented as a practice that seeks to create a musical performance spontaneously by deliberately avoiding the use of an "explicit referent" (Pressing 1984). In its absence, improvisers rely heavily on their experience to act and react in a performance context (Savouret 2010), constituted by different socialities, the acoustics of the venue and, more generally, the environment. In the context of a given ensemble that has been practicing regularly over a long period of time, this experience acquired through the events encountered is enriching, both individually and collectively. This experience can be described as leading to a state of "having lived a sufficiently rich life not to be surprised by an unexpected event" (Barberousse 2015, p.11) or, in other cases, to the point of being able to welcome such an unexpected event and integrate it into the creative process. We can therefore postulate that experience is a fundamental element in ensuring the success of performance. It also plays a crucial role in the development and transformation of an ensemble, as well as in the construction of the human-machine relationship within a technological environment.

In the light of these elements, it can be argued that an experienced music ensemble is a group with the appropriate tools, constructed and adapted in real time to respond to the musical situations that arise for the musicians. We are thinking here, for example, of ways of co-constructing form and, in particular, negotiating the end of an improvisation (Parker 1997).

In the context of this call for papers, our aim is to carry out an in-depth exploration of the multiple facets of the notion of musical experience, based primarily on observation of the daily practice of improvisers, in public performance but also in rehearsal or in experimental laboratories.

+ - Research methodologies Click to collapse

Research methodologies and research-creation

In order to study collective musical improvisation in its evolutionary dimension, it is essential to use research and research-creation methods that allow processes to be observed over a long period. How can we measure and analyse the phenomena of evolution and sedimentation of aesthetics and practices? For example, what are the potential contributions of a genetic approach to improvisation (Canonne & Guerpin 2018), as a musicological analysis of the different performances, public or otherwise, of a given ensemble? Which (auto)ethnographies can be implemented?

+ - Collective experience Click to collapse

Collective experience in improvised musical practice

Based on the above definitions of the concept of experience, our aim is to understand how collective experience is constructed in an ensemble of improvisers. Although it is well established that musicians who play together frequently tend to think about improvisation in a similar way (Canonne & Aucouturier, 2015), what about, for example, the familiarity they develop and the verbal exchanges that take place during rehearsals and informal moments? And how does individual experience feed into collective experience?

+ - Experimentation Click to collapse

Experimentation and the construction of musical experience

An experiment can also be understood, through the scientific process, as the establishment of specific conditions that allow for experimentation (Saladin 2015) and the observation of phenomena that would not be perceptible in the context of public performances. It can thus be seen as an amplification of ordinary experience, on which it is ultimately based. What strategies for collective work and training are implemented during rehearsals in preparation for public performance? What are the criteria for selecting or excluding results of these strategies, and how do they contribute to the ensemble’s experience? How does this influence the creation of the musical ensemble's sound identity?

+ - Musical renewal strategies Click to collapse

Musical renewal strategies

In the case of ensembles working over a long period of time, what means do they adopt to prevent habits from becoming fixed and to hinder the creation of a sound identity? How do they manage to produce new music over a long period of time?

Conversely, some players in the field of free musical improvisation adopt a radically different approach to those with a rehearsal-based approach (cf. previous paragraph). They stand out by creating improvisational situations in which the unexpected is maximised, for example through ephemeral encounters between musicians (Borgo 2002), which are a means of avoiding the sedimentation of relationships between them and the emergence of a collective sound identity (Bailey 1993). Does this incessant search for the unexpected lead musicians to establish strategies for succeeding in this type of ephemeral performance? If so, how do these strategies unfold and develop over time?

+ - Experience, technologies and the human-machine relationship Click to collapse

Experience, technologies and the human-machine relationship

Finally, we seek to question the possible roles of new technologies in creating new experiences. If we postulate that "improvised musical encounter is modeled as a negotiation between improvising musicians, some of whom are people, others not" (Lewis 2007, p.23), then the above questions can be extended to the human-machine relationship. We know that this relationship can evolve, through long-term practice, from an understanding of the machine as a tool to a conception of the machine as a co-creator (Assayag 2021, Thelle & Waerstad 2023). How does the development of improvisational computer environments unfold in the long term? How can the experience of playing and familiarisation lead humans to better understand the agency of machines?

In 2008, at a time when publications on this theme were still rare in France, Filigrane published an issue devoted to improvised music. Since then, interest in this practice has grown, as evidenced by the increasing number of books on the subject.

The aim of issue 31 of the journal is to provide a new overview of research on improvisation focusing this time on free improvisation and long-term experience.

We are inviting researchers to submit research, and research-creation or artistic research articles, but we also want to give voice to ensemble musicians so that we can hear their stories, through interviews for example, and learn about their collective experience of different improvisation practices.

+ - Notes on the term free improvisation Click to collapse

*
In the context of this call for papers, the term ‘free improvisation’ seems justified given its common usage among contemporary improvisers. Nevertheless, it has been and continues to be questioned and contested. The expression ‘free collective improvisation’ therefore refers here to practices resulting from the development and hybridisation of a multitude of stylistic currents ranging from free jazz to noise music, including European free music, post-cagean indeterminacy, electroacoustic music and drone music. This designation attempts to encompass sometimes contested, even contradictory, terms such as open improvisation, non-idiomatic improvisation, absolute improvisation, and total improvisation, including their sub-aesthetics and sub-genres.

Source and credits

URL

https://journals.openedition.org/filigrane/2427#tocto1n6

References

Références / References

Assayag Gérard, 2021, « Co-créativité humains-machines. Une réflexion sur les indisciplines symboliques », Revue Francophone d’Informatique et Musique, 2021, n° 7-8-Culture du code.

Barberousse Anouk, 2015, L’expérience, Paris, Flammarion (coll. « Corpus »).

Bailey Derek, 2011, L’improvisation : sa nature et sa pratique dans la musique, traduit par Isabelle Leymarie, Outre Mesure., s.l., Contrepoints, 160 p.

Canonne Clément et Guerpin Martin, 2018, « Pour une génétique de l’improvisation musicale (première partie) », Genesis. Manuscrits – Recherche – Invention, 15 décembre 2018, no 47, p. 155‑167.

Canonne Clément et Aucouturier Jean-Julien, 2016, « Play together, think alike: shared mental models in expert music improvisers », Psychology of Music, 2016, vol. 44, no 3, p. 544‑558.

Denzler Bertrand et Guionnet Jean-Luc (eds.), 2020, The practice of musical improvisation: dialogues with contemporary musical improvisers, New York, NY, Bloomsbury Academic, 213 p.

Wilson Graeme B. et MacDonald Raymond A. R., 2012, « The sign of silence: Negotiating musical identities in an improvising ensemble », Psychology of Music, 1 septembre 2012, vol. 40, no 5, p. 558‑573.

Lewis George, 2007, « Live Algorithms and The Future of Music », CTWatch Quarterly, mai 2007, Socializing Cyberinfrastructure: Networking the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 2, p. 19‑24.

Ollivier Stéphane et Parker Evan, 1997, « Le style Parker », Les Inrockuptibles, août 1997, n° 112.

Pressing Jeff, 2001, Improvisation: Methods and Models, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 298 p.

Saladin Matthieu (ed.), 2015, L’Expérience de l’expérimentation, Dijon, Les presses du réel (coll. « Ohcetecho »), 266 p.

Savouret Alain, 2010, Introduction à un solfège de l’audible : l’improvisation libre comme outil pratique, Lyon, Symétrie, 192 p.

Thelle Notto Johannes Windju et Wærstad Bernt Isak Grave, 2023, « Co-Creatives Spaces: The machine as a collaborator », 2023, Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, p. 244‑250.

Bibliography

Bibliographie indicative / Suggested bibliography

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Borgo David, 2005, Sync Or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age, New York London, Continuum, 236 p.

Born Georgina, Lewis Eric et Straw Will (eds.), 2017, Improvisation and social aesthetics, Durham, Duke University Press (coll. « Improvisation, community, and social practice »), 345 p.

Broecking Christian, This Uncontainable Feeling of Freedom: Irène Schweizer - European Jazz and the Politics of Improvisation, traduit par Jeb Bishop, 611 p.

Canonne Clément, 2017, « L’improvisation libre à l’épreuve du temps : logiques de travail et dynamiques créatives d’un duo d’improvisateurs », Revue de musicologie, 2017, vol. 103, no 1, p. 137‑167.

Castanet Pierre Albert et Otto Patrick, 2016, L’improvisation musicale collective, Paris, L’Harmattan (coll. « L’univers esthétique »), 354 p.

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Dahlhaus Carl, 2010, « Qu’est-ce que l’improvisation musicale  ? », Tracés. Revue de Sciences humaines, traduit par Lucille Lisack et Marion Siéfert, no 18, p. 181‑196.

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Lewis George E., 1993, « Voyager: Improvised Duos Between Human and Computer Musicians », Liner Notes, 1993, (coll. « Avant/Disc Union »).

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