CMRC Seminar (Summer Week 9): Anything goes? Considering improvisation in contemporary music practice and research

In order to narrow the focus of this discussion, I am referring to improvisation either as improvising in free improvisation contexts, or when making decisions when playing and performing open scores, graphic scores, devised music. 

                                                                               

Improvisation is often referred to as ‘real time composition’ and as being ‘non-idiomatic’;

What does it mean to compose in real time? 

What is the process behind making decisions on the spot? 

Is improvisation non-idiomatic? What does ‘idiomatic’ mean?

                                        

Improvisation is often thought as being freeing and as allowing musicians to be original and ‘authentic’;

Does improvising mean to create something new? What does ‘new’ mean? 

What does it mean to be ‘authentic’? 

                                                

Improvisation if often considered inaccessible and hard to understand;

What does it mean to understand music? 

Why do we want to understand it? 

                                    

Improvisation could be considered as a method or as a strategy, rather than a genre;

What can we learn through improvisation?

How do we learn to be improvisers? 

How can improvisation be useful in pedagogy and music learning?