wildbill@ucbvax.UUCP (William J. Laubenheimer) (04/13/84)
Although most of the time a classical musician will stick to what is
written, there are many places where nothing is written. One modern
piece of which I have some memory (I played it in high school) had absolutely
no indications regarding pitch, specifying only the approximate duration
and the manner in which the note was to be played (with the bow, with the
fingers, bang the bow on the music stand, bang your neighbor over the head,
etc.) - this was supposed to be serious music, anyway. Another case in
point is the second (slow) movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3,
which is specified in the score only as a sequence of three or four chords,
presumably for the continuo. The current view is that this is in fact
merely a starting point for the concerto group, which was supposed to
improvise appropriately.
The most obvious example of improvisation in the classical world
is, of course, the cadenza of the post-Baroque instrumental concerto.
For the uninitated, this is a segment just prior to the end of the first
and last movements where the orchestra remains silent and the soloist(s)
are given a chance to ``strut their stuff'' for a couple of minutes.
The passage is normally as virtuoso as the soloist can handle, and is
supposed to be an improvisation and expansion on the themes presented
in the movement. At the time these works were being written, these
would frequently be truly improvised. Mozart (who usually premiered
his own works) was often so rushed for time that his cadenzas
consisted of notations to play this phrase, then work around
to this other, and so on, then signal the orchestra to finish it all off.
Although many ``standard'' cadenzas exist (e.g., Beethoven's both
for his own and for many of Mozart's piano concertos, Joachim's and Kreisler's
for the Brahms violin concerto), many artists even today continue to
write their own for varying reasons. Recently, I attended a post-concert
discussion with Alfred Brendel, who had played the Mozart piano concertos,
K.459 and K.466, with the San Francisco Symphony that evening. Brendel
mentioned that he had written his own cadenzas for the works because
he felt that the standard ones (Beethoven's) were based too much on the
Beethoven style of ``exploding'' the movement, fragmenting the themes
and then reassembling them. This seemed to him to be incompatible with
the serene nature of the movements. Brendel was quick to mention that
he sees nothing wrong with Beethoven's violent cadenzas for his own
piano concertos, which fit right in there.
Another point of variation, while not properly improvisation,
concerns the duration of dotted notes in Baroque music. Depending
on who's leading the orchestra, these can range from played as written
to played as if there were one or even two extra dots attached. It
makes a surprising difference.
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy WAS here! ucbvax!wildbilltwiss@stolaf.UUCP (Thomas S. Twiss) (04/16/84)
Don't forget the baroque continuo players. Lots of improvisation there.
Also much organ work and church music is improvised. And re: cadenzas.
I know some players who don't even write them out. They just take the
ride when it comes around.
Tom Twiss
...{decvax|ihnp4}!stolaf!twiss