The History of Improvisation

Improvisation is a musical activity that for many musicians is associated with jazz. It is true that most music we call jazz is improvised. It is also true that improvisation is a most integral part of the jazz club scene today. People who come to listen to jazz are expecting solos that follow the melody. On the other hand in classical music we expect everything to be performed exactly as written. However the process of removing improvisation from classical music only began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Only for the last hundred years was improvisation banned from mainstream classical music.

I imagine that when humans first picked a pair of wooden sticks and started banging rhythms and singing, there were no instructional materials available. So I would assume that rudimentary music was partially improvised simply because it was impossible to repeat anything exactly without writing it out.

From what we know about ancient music notation, the first developed systems were those of writing chords and scales rather than complete musical pieces. That is why most diatonic scales have Greek names- Lydian, Mixolydian, Phrygian, Dorian, Ionian, Aeolian and Locrian. Surprise, surprise! That is exactly how we teach jazz theory. Starting with chords and scales, we then develop the ability to improvise.

In Johann Sebastian Bach's foreword to Inventions and Sinfonias, he suggests that these pieces are examples of how one should improvise inventions. At the Moscow College of Improvised Music, improvising fugues was a part of the curriculum. I also remember theory class taught by Yury Kholopov at Moscow Conservatory. Everyone in the group was asked to improvise every musical form that was studied.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been known to change his clavier parts on the go. Most of his larger piano works, like Sonatas and Fantasies, have a number of different cadences written down, but Mozart himself would play a new cadence every performance. Beethoven at 17 years of age, when he was introduced to Mozart, impressed him with his "improvising skills" in 1787.

Franz Shubert's Dances are also known as chains of waltzes. They were to be performed as a free combination of any of the waltzes, or as they were also called "landlers." At the time these pieces were written, improvisation was one of the requirements for any pianist. While romantic piano music was becoming more complex, both Frederick Chopin and Franz Liszt have been famous for their improvisations. Early in his career Liszt used to play a potpurri from an opera the day following its performance. Some of Chopin's editions have different versions of the same piece, some of which are almost three times longer!

So the idea of improvisation belonging to less serious music is not very credible. Up until the twentieth century musicians used to improvise. In the twentieth century, most classical music takes a very technological and formal approach, which makes improvisation often impossible due to the extreme restrictions on music material. That formal restrictive approach is also largely responsible for the smaller audiences that enjoy "contemporary classical" music.

Another unique event in the twentieth century music is the invention of jazz. Being a symbiotic art form, jazz is unrestrictive, democratic and open to all kinds of ideas. It is no surprise that improvisation becomes a very significant part of it from the very beginning. Similar to ancient music, early jazz is not written out; therefore it is slightly varied every time the same piece is performed. At the beginning of the jazz era, most jazz musicians simply could not get a formal musical education. However jazz caught the eye of serious composers almost immediately. Jazz inspired many of the compositions of Claude Debussy, including Children's Corner, and Aaron Copland wrote a clarinet concerto for Benny Goodman.

Today it is hard to find any serious jazz player without a conservatory education. There are no restrictions for anyone to enter music schools other than talent, and almost every musician studies a significant amount of classical music. In my opinion, training in improvisational skills for classical musicians is just as necessary. Improvisation erases the gap between the theory and the practice of music. It makes music come alive, helps musicians understand the great composers better and gives them tremendous creative freedom.

In my own artistic life I find myself performing all kinds of music, and I enjoy exchanging ideas between different musical forms. I always try to explain the similarities between genres and historical connections between musical styles. I also wrote a number of instructional materials that assist in learning improvisation in particular. Being a composer and a pianist, I had to learn both of these skills, and improvisation is simply a combination of both.