Volume 15, numéro 1, 2022

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This article explores the cultural hegemonies perpetuated by typical music-theory curricula and advocates for the use of improvisation—as both classroom activity and guiding philosophy—as a way forward.

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Although extant literature has argued for the pedagogical value of free improvisation within music education settings, these studies have largely overlooked how musicians develop their musical and sociocultural knowledges through this process of making music. In response, I use this paper to examine the mechanisms of learning within Thomson's notion of the performance as classroom. To do so, I situate this analysis within the noise music genre and analyze a video of American noise artists Crank Sturgeon to unveil how musical knowledges form within this performance. In doing so, I assert that the distributed and non-anthropocentric understanding of collaboration at the heart of noise music expands the borders of performance as classroom to engage not only the performer on stage but the audience and music making technologies in the process of developing a supposedly individual artistic practice.

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Notions of subjectivity and individuality pervade the discourse around jazz and non-idiomatic improvisation. While subjectivity plays an important role musical improvisation, the tendency to focus on the subjectivity of the player(s) – analysing their particular improvisatory approach(es) – has muddied the broader structure at issue: where the musical event goes beyond the players and leads them to unforeseen musical outcomes. In this paper I reassess the role of subjectivity in improvised music by interpreting it through a hermeneutic lens. I connect musical improvisation with three ideas characteristic of hermeneutics: prejudice/fore-understanding, conversation, and in-between. In each case I will describe how these topics describe improvisation and suggest means of arriving at a more nuanced understanding of the role of subjectivity in improvised musical performance.

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This article explores the practice of intergenerational listening and its implications for re-imagining social connection in the COVID-19 crisis. Using an approached based in conversation and exchange facilitated through video-conferencing platforms, the authors critically reflect on the possibilities for developing a new sense of social connection by listening to the everyday sounds (Tuuri and Peltola 2019) of particular spaces. More specifically, the principal aim is to investigate the impact of re-imagining the daily sounds of spaces under locked-down as sources of intimacy, accompaniment, and creativity. These sounds include the ‘buzz’ of a cherished clock, the creak of a screened in porch, or records regularly listened to in a family living room. Supported by literature on ‘listening at a distance’ (Finer 2018) and the ‘sonic imagination’ (Street 2019), we ask: how can intergenerational, socially-distanced listeners engage with sound and space to improvise new forms of social connectivity? Asking these questions, we argue, can inform research and action into the roles that intergenerational listening and improvisation can play in the representation and the valuing an ageing population (Lanphier 2019) in an emerging post-pandemic musical landscape.

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This study explores the idea that musical instruments can function as masks in the context of collective free improvisation. Just as masks are used in theatre improvisation to build confidence and facilitate creative expression, musicians can use their instruments in similar ways, increasing their level of comfort and allowing them to connect and communicate with others in ways not available through traditional social exchanges. Through a variety of interviews, questionnaires, and performances, 30 instrumentalists and vocalists participated in this study and shared their experiences performing with their peers. Through analysis of recorded performances, interview and questionnaire responses, it was discovered that the vast majority of participants identified with the idea that their instruments functioned as masks. Most of these individuals believed their instruments helped them express parts of themselves that could not be expressed through other means, and many believed their instruments allowed for the creation of a persona, in which they felt they could “be” someone else when performing. Participants were in agreement that they only felt their instruments functioned this way in the context of collective free improvisation. The strong feelings of connection, confidence, and communication experienced by participants strengthen the case for incorporating free improvisation into music education.

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This article explores the nature of organisational behaviour within a long-standing improvised music group and its reciprocal relationship with their musical practice. It uses ideas from Ingrid Monson (1996) relating to social activities expressing the values and aesthetics of musical practice and adopts research findings from business management literature, in particular Kenneth Bettenhausen’s (1991) notion that the task patterns of a group play a role in shaping attitudes and behaviour, informing our understanding of the way improvisational music practices correlate with social and organisational behaviour.

The Australian piano trio, The Necks, perform minimalist extended improvisations with ritual-like patterns in performance and social behaviour. Being self-managed with the same line-up since 1987, they present a unique case study in how a band’s organisational behaviour has a mutual relationship to its musical practice. This study traces out their organisational patterns to show how these have developed in tandem with an improvisational ethos in which members undertake slowly evolving group minimalist improvisations guided by an unspoken set of behavioural patterns with adaptable parameters for change. The findings reveal an underlying narrative of tension between group homogeneity and individual autonomy, experiences of group flow, the use of varying modes of communication for varying contexts, similarities between their musical improvisation parameters and their social interaction, and strategies for implementing change and innovation. The article sketches how their social and organisational behaviour converges with their musical process: a slow rate of change, effortless, and yet with a long arc of possibilities.

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William Allaudin Mathieu (born in 1937) is a consummate musician, a pianist, composer, author, and teacher — and, in my view, one of the most influential musicians of his generation. In his early twenties he composed music for the Kenton and Ellington Big Bands, was the founding musical director of the famed Second City of Chicago (Improv Theater) and was a pioneer in the 1960s of the application of theater improvisation games into the musical sphere. He is the author of four influential books, including the best selling "The Listening Book" (1991). In a teaching career spanning more than fifty years, Mathieu has been an important influence and guide to many musicians worldwide.

As I demonstrate throughout this essay, W.A. Mathieu reminds us that in highlighting the world of improvisation we must be careful not to romanticize spontaneity, for doing so might well involve our falling into the trap of dualistic thinking that separates if not excludes such activity from composition. Overall, Mathieu implores us to reflect deeply about false dichotomies as improvisation/composition, and by extension think more broadly about the perils of dualistic thinking in general. In exploring themes in discussion of improvisation, I highlight some of the ways in which we can begin to draw connections between Mathieu’s ideas and the usefulness of improvisation to pedagogy in music education and beyond.