Idiomatic – Interpretation – Authorship

An evaluative system of improvisation should focus on the continuous departure of predefined structure and methods. A brief look at conventional performance is needed to clarify Bailey’s term of idiomatic improvisation. The existence of idioms in improvisation assumes at least loosely determined approaches to harmonic, rhythmic and timbral elements of the music. Components which can be learnt and internalised to such a degree that performances might be hardly more than a pastiche of their roots, for example by utilising precisely defined harmonic structure and scales. A jazz performance of such a kind, claiming to be improvised, could hardly be considered as anything but shallow196_{. It bears, however, similarities with the interpretative approach} in the performance of classical music.

Classical performance requires the musician to transcend the technical requirements of rendering the work: it “demand[s] a solution for most of the technical problems of making music before the music can be performed”197_{. This process requires the} establishment of the relationships between the notes in the vertical (harmonic) and horizontal (motific and melodic) arrangement by skilfully adjust timbre, dynamics and tempi, in order to create the representation of the work198_{. The linear sequence of} instructions – the score – is used to prescribe the composer’s view of how the relationship between musical elements, compositional processes, intentional meaning and structural design become perceivable within a cohesive form. Jazz performances might move beyond the established harmonic, rhythmic and melodic material, because

196 _{An approach to jazz which seems to be considered as appropriate for teaching, in particular as it}

enables a convenient way to develop evaluating and grading systems.

197 _{Prévost in Cardew 2006, 295.}

the alterations applied by the performers stretch the music beyond the obvious forms of musical variation. The placement of the musical references in the overall structure (the way audiences are led through the development of musical material) is also significant for the possible perception of the musical discourse. Many jazz genres leaves more fundamental decisions on rhythm, pitch and harmony to the performer, in addition to the elements mentioned with regards to classical interpretation. This introduces a degree of nonlinearity to the musical activity: because musical references can be made purely from memory. They neither rely on any chronology in time nor in the order of motifs, harmonies or rhythms that appeared in the original. Nor do they rely on the order these were learned199_{. References to existing material are part of the jazz aesthetic and are a} point of departure as well as appreciation through repetition. Performers are taking on an increasing amount of authorship and responsibility for the presentation of the music. They increase their authorship as they enter the realm of creation200_{. The increase of} authorship within this context does not imply to aim for a commodification by expanding capitalistic revenues of the musical results (by bypassing the traditional function of the composer201_{). It is to engage in a continuously enquiring freedom, to} “materialize fluidity and futurity within practices of performance [... as] an exploratory, nomadic principle that asserts itself and shapes its contours [... by] stepping into nonpositionality”202 _{within the cultural and traditional. The more such shifts have} occurred or ‘infiltrated’203 _{jazz performance, the closer we get to free jazz. The interest} also shifts increasingly towards an appreciation of how the music has been constructed from idiomatic stylistic and motific components within the moment of its performance, rather than how a preconceived work was rendered. The balance between anchor points to familiar components and intentional departures from the expected, tilts towards the unknown. But within the perception of musical structures a “paradox lies in the tension

199 _{Weick proposes the terminology of “retrospective form” in jazz “not just because of its temporal}

quality of looking back, but also because it suggests the quality of bricolage, and the activity of a bricoleur.” (Kamoche 2002, 173) and uses the definition of bricoleur by Thayer: “a person who makes things work by ingeniously using whatever is at hand, being unconcerned about the "proper" tools or resources.” (Thayer 1988, 239) which links nicely back to the initial qualities listed for improvisation (Chapter 3, 7-9).

200 _{Dell 2002: poiesis.}

201 _{This transferal of functions from the Composer to the Performer has been vehemently criticised by}

Xenakis (Xenakis 1992, 38) as an insufficient compositional process, arguing that leaving essential parameters in the music to the performer will in consequence have their conditioned background leaking into the performance of the composition.

202 _{Bell 2003, 25.}

between the imperative to repeat antecedent structures and the necessity to do so in a way that expresses originality”204_{, to find public appreciation for the activity. Such} views and sentiments are common, and dismissals of freer forms of music making might best be represented by a statement of the jazz critic “Albert Murray [who] angrily exclaims against free jazz that ‘art is supposed to be a bulwark against chaos.’”205

Cornelius Cardew discussed the “felt structure”, the interpretative directions generating the “need” or “wish” to deviate from the directive given in the score206_{. Physical} processes and methods of execution are based on rules and directives formulated to govern the performer’s activity. Rules are either supplied as notation, descriptions or other idiomatic elements informed by culture, tradition, aesthetics and morality. A Modernist characteristic is to scrutinise the existence of rules and traditions, or even to ignore these altogether. A possible strategy could be to engage in an activity within an unfamiliar medium, to ensure a fresh approach freed from established techniques, methods and thoughts. Cardew looked for the musical innocent for the interpretation and realisation of Treatise (1963 - 67). It was not a question of replacing the conservatoire-trained musician but looking for an interpreter who could draw from a far richer bank of knowledge and experience and for whom “moral discipline is an essential part of the training”207_{. He hoped for a wide range of perspectives, utilising personal} experience acquired in several different disciplines, to develop an interpretation of the graphic score in a beneficially free and fresh manner.