No description available.

Although free improvised music (FIM) originated in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, it has come to possess meanings and roles unique to its individual contexts of production in todays transnational scene. By focusing on the Lebanese free improvised music scene which emerged in Beirut in 2000, my study aims to address the gap in scholarship on Lebanese expressive culture, particularly music, as a tool to negotiate identity. My thesis addresses the way FIM in Lebanon allows four musicians of the war generation (Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui, Bechir Saade, and Raed Yassin) to express their individual identities as well as their complex relationship with conflict. I propose that, in a society still coming to terms with the atrocities of civil war and constant political instability, the practice of FIM may have a role in reflecting conflict, facilitating inter-cultural dialogue, as well as breaking aesthetic, socio-economic, and sectarian barriers.

Syftet med studien är att definiera musikaliska redskap och plattformar för studenter i ämnet improvisation på eftergymnasial nivå. Mitt intresse för ämnet ligger i de positiva möjligheter improvisationen erbjuder vår undervisning och är utgångspunkten för detta arbete. Jag upplever att forskning som inriktar sig på improvisationsundervisningens didaktik för ensemble på högre nivå med fördel kan utökas från vad vi idag har att tillgå, därav utgår studien från ett didaktiskt perspektiv på undervisning.   För att söka svar på mina frågor har jag använt mig av den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun i mötet med mina informanter. De fyra utvalda musiklärarna har alla undervisat improvisation i ensembleformat, de flesta med inriktning mot rytmisk och improviserad musik.   I resultatet presenteras bland annat en syn hos de intervjuade musiklärarna som visar på vikten av ett personligt och ärligt musikutövande där den instrumentaltekniska färdigheten först får liv och mening då studenten har en konstnärlig åsikt att förmedla. Sedan diskuteras bland annat lärarnas kompetens som improvisationspedagoger i relation till Hanken och Johansens (1998) musikdidaktiska utgångspunkter, samt ämnets möjliga utveckling och framtida undervisningsstruktur. / The study aims to define musical tools and platforms for students in the subject of improvisation at the collegiate level. My interest in the subject, and starting point for this work, lies in the positive benefits of working with improvisation. I feel that research today, focused on teaching improvisation for ensemble at a higher level can be extended from what is currently available. I have therefore chosen didactics as my theoretical basis.   In search of answers to my questions, I am using the qualitative research interview method with my informants. The four selected informants have all been teaching improvisation in ensemble, most with a focus on rhythmic and improvised music.   The results are presented including a view of the interviewed music teachers on the importance of a personal and candid music performance in which instrumental technique emerges when the student has an artistic opinion to impart. Thereafter, the study will discuss the teachers' pedagogical skills as improvisation teachers in relation to Hanken and Johansen's (1998) music didactic viewpoints, and possible development and future educational structure for the subject of improvisation.

This thesis addresses the aesthetics, ideologies and practicalities of contemporary European Improvised Music-making - this term referring to the tradition that emerged from 1960s American jazz and free jazz, and that remains, arguably, one of today's most misunderstood and under-represented musical genres. Using a multidisciplinary approach drawing on Grounded Theory, Ethnography and Social Network Analysis, and bounded by Berlin's cosmopolitan local scene of 2012-13, I define Improvised Music as a field of differing-yet-interconnected practices, and show how musicians and listeners conceived of and differentiated between these sub-styles, as well as how they discovered and learned to appreciate such a hidden, 'difficult' and idiosyncratic art form. Whilst on the surface Improvised Music might appear chaotic and beyond analysis in conventional terms, I show that, just like any other music, Improvised Music has its own genre-specific conventions, structures and expectations, and this research investigates its specific modes of performance, listening and appreciation - including the need to distinguish between 'musical' and 'processual' improvisatory outcomes, to differentiate between different 'levels' of improvising, and to separate the group and personal levels of the improvisatory process. I define improvised practices within this ifeld as variable combinations of 'composed' (pre-planned) and 'improvised' (real-time) elements, and examine the specific definitions of 'risk', 'honesty', 'trust', and 'good' and `bad' music-making which mediate these choices - these distinctions and evaluatory frameworks leading to a set of proposed conventions and distinctions for Improvised Music listening and production. This study looks at the representation of identity by improvising musicians, the use of social and political models as analogies for the improvisatory process (including the interplay between personal freedom of expression and the construction of coherent collective outcomes), and also examines the multiple functions of recording, in a music that was ostensibly only meant for the moment of its creation. All of this serves to address several popular misconceptions concerning Improvised Music, and does so directly from the point of view of a large sample of its most important practitioners and connoisseurs. Such findings provide key insights into the appreciation and understanding of Improvised Music itself (both for newcomers and those already adept in its ways), and this thesis offers important suggestions for scholars of Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Sociology of Music, Improvisation Studies, Performance Studies and Music/Cognitive Psychology, as well as for those concerned with improvisation and creativity in more general, non-musical, terms.

No description available.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Ce mémoire porte sur l’improvisation libre, pratique musicale apparue au cours de la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle en musique savante occidentale et en parallèle avec le courant du free jazz. Évoquée fréquemment par l’emploi du terme de « musiques improvisées », dans un premier temps, nous abordons le rapport entre cette appellation et la musique qui s’y rattache à travers son emploi chez certains auteurs en musicologie dans l’optique d’en montrer les différentes acceptions. Dans un second temps, nous réfléchissons sur la dualité des origines de la pratique d’improvisation libre afin d’expliquer en quoi celle-ci peut causer une certaine confusion lorsqu’elle est abordée en musicologie. Cette étude se concentre ensuite sur les aspects de pluralisme esthétique et de multiculturalisme qu’on peut rencontrer en improvisation libre. Nous explorons plusieurs explications quant aux fondements de la pratique musicale à partir d’une analyse de ses origines culturelles et historiques. Suite à cela est abordée la question de transculturation, un concept qui a été évoqué à plusieurs reprises ces quinze dernières années concernant les musiques improvisées, sans jamais avoir été appliqué de façon très spécifique à ces dernières. Le mémoire est complété par une analyse de l’improvisation The Usual Turmoil (1997) du tromboniste George E. Lewis et de la kotoïste Myia Masaoka, qui a pour objectif de mettre en application certains éléments de la réflexion théorique précédemment élaborée et de trouver les prémisses d’une méthode propre à l’analyse de l’improvisation libre. / This memoire treat about a specific musical practice which is free improvisation, and which appeared during the second half of the twentieth century in western art music and with the free jazz wave/trend. Frequently referred by the term « improvised music », we will first go through some definitions from authors in musicology to show the different underlying problematic of the term. We will return to the duality of the origins of free improvisation practice in order to explain why such duality caused confusion in musicology studies. We will then look at some specific aspects concerning multicultural and esthetic pluralism in free improvisation. We will try to bring forth some explanations from our analysis of the cultural roots of free improvisation. Furthermore, we will address the question of transculturation, a recent concept frequently used during the last fifteen years in improvised music studies and which had never been deeply studied. Finally, with the analysis of The Usual turmoil, a duet improvisation by the trombonist George E. Lewis and koto player Miya Masaoka, we will be able to consider free improvisation from an analytic point of view.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de s’interroger sur la prégnance éventuelle de paradigmes romantiques chez les pianistes improvisateurs solistes issus du jazz. Du modèle de la virtuosité soliste au style et plus généralement à l’esprit romantique,est-il possible de déceler, chez eux, une part d’héritage assumée ou non ? Concernant des pianistes aussi différents que les virtuoses de la musique savante romantique du XIXe siècle en Europe et les pianistes de jazz américains du siècle suivant, le terme d’héritage pourrait sembler inadapté voire abusif. Or il ne faut pas sous-estimer l’apport de la musique savante écrite aux musiques improvisées, en particulier dans le domaine pianistique. Tous les pianistes improvisateurs se sont plus ou moins trouvés confrontés à des pages extraites des répertoires classique, romantique ou contemporain, tout au moins pendant leurs études pianistiques qui pour certains, ont été extrêmement approfondies. Peut-on discerner dans le jeu de certains virtuoses les influences des deux grands génies romantiques au caractère si différent que furent Chopin l’intimiste et Liszt l’extraverti au travers de cette virtus latine reliant habileté et transcendance, apanage du héros prométhéen qui vole le feu pour l’offrir à l’humanité ? La musique improvisée est fréquemment une entité de partage, le récital de soliste restant l’exception. C’est à l’occasion de ce moment privilégié que les rares élus, dont la relation à l’instrument sur lequel ils jouent est à chaque fois nouvelle, accèdent au statut de héros en valorisant énergie, action et savoir humain. De Jelly Roll Morton, autoproclamé « inventeur » du jazz à l’improvisation totale de l’ère post-bop, en passant par les pianistes de stride et Art Tatum, la représentation du romantisme revêt des aspects protéiformes allant de l’émancipation des aspects fonctionnels liés à la danse aux préoccupations programmatiques d’un Brad Mehldau se remémorant Schumann. / The aim of this thesis is to question the possible impact of romantic paradigms for soloist improviser pianists coming from the jazz scene. From the soloist virtuosity to the style and more generally to the romantic spirit, is it possible to find in their work a certain heritage, whether it is overtly admitted or not? However, 19th century classical music virtuosi and jazz pianists from the following century are so different that it seems natural to wonder whether the word ‘heritage’ is the proper one to use. Yet, the contribution of written classical music to improvised music pieces shouldn’t be overlooked, especially when examining thepianistic domain. Every improviser pianists have been faced with pieces from the classical, romantic or contemporary repertoire to some extent, at the very least during their piano studies which, for some of them, were extremely advanced. Through the Latin virtus connecting dexterity and transcendence – the prerogative of the Promethean hero stealing fire as a present for humanity - could it be possible to find in the playing of certain virtuosi the influence of the two great romantic geniuses, Chopin the intimist and Liszt the extrovert, whose characters were so different? Improvised music is frequently a moment of sharing (soloists’ recitals being the exception) and it is the moment when a few chosen ones can reach the status of heroes, emphasizing energy, action and human knowledge. From Jelly Roll Morton, self-proclaimed “inventor” of jazz music, the stride pianists and Art Tatum,to the complete improvisation of the post-bop era, romanticism is represented through many different protean aspects such as the emancipation of functional aspects connected to dance or again the programmatic concerns of a certain Brad Mehldau, reminiscing about Schumann.

En s’appuyant principalement sur le travail de Gilbert Simondon (1989) et sur celui de Bernard Stiegler (2010, 2012, 2013), ce mémoire de maîtrise explore la relation entre les notions d’individu et de collectif. D’une part, cette relation est conceptualisée et développée à travers les concepts de transindividuation et d’individuation collective ; et d’autre part, celle-ci est explorée via les théories de l’improvisation libre (free improvised music). S’intéressant aux différentes modalités de cette pratique musicale (Bailey, 1992 ; Saladin, 2002, 2010, 2014 ; Corbett, 2004, 2016 ; Peters, 2009), cette recherche conçoit l’improvisation libre comme une approche radicale permettant d’aborder autrement la relation entre les notions d’individu et de collectif. L’agencement, la confrontation et la négociation des singularités individuelles des musiciens.nes en présence étant au centre de la pratique de l’improvisation libre, la méthodologie mobilisée vise à cerner les dynamiques permettant de saisir la complexité de cette relation. En s’appuyant particulièrement sur la research-from-creation et la creation-as-research (Chapman & Sawchuk, 2012), l’aspect méthodologique de ce mémoire est ancré dans la recherche-création. En ce sens, les principaux matériaux d’analyse ont émergé de l’expérience de séances d’improvisation libre dans laquelle l’immédiateté et l’éphémérité de la création ont été vécues, discutées et ultérieurement analysées à travers les concepts de rythme et de présence propres à la rythmanalyse d’Henri Lefebvre (1980, 1992). / Relying mainly on the work of Gilbert Simondon (1989) and Bernard Stiegler (2010, 2012, 2013), this master’s thesis explores the relation between the notions of individual and collective. On one hand, the relation is conceptualised and developed through the concepts of transindividuation and collective individuation ; and on the other hand, it is explored through free improvisation / free improvised music theories. Looking at the different modalities of that musical practice (Bailey, 1992 ; Saladin, 2002, 2010, 2014 ; Corbett, 2004, 2016 ; Peters, 2009), this research conceives free improvisation as a radical approach to tackle differently the relation between the notions of individual and collective. The assemblage, confrontation and negotiation of individual singularities of musicians being at the centre of free improvisation, the chosen methodology tends to define the dynamics allowing to understand the complexity of that relation. Relying particularly on research-from-creation and creation-as-research (Chapman & Sawchuk, 2012), the methodological aspect of this thesis is anchored in research-creation. In that sense, the main analysis materials have emerged from the experience of free improvisation sessions in which the instantaneity and ephemeral aspect of creation were lived, discussed and subsequently analysed through the concepts of rhythm and presence inherent to Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis (1980, 1992).

Denna studie syftar till att öka kunskapen om vilken syn frilansande och undervisande improvisationsmusiker har kring skapandet av ett personligt uttryck och hur de anser att ämnesområdet kan hanteras i musikundervisning. I bakgrundskapitlet ges en överblick av begreppet personligt uttryck och därefter följer en presentation av tidigare litteratur och forskning inom ämnesområdet. Nästkommande kapitel om teoretisk bakgrund beskriver det sociokulturella perspektivet i egenskap av teoretisk utgångspunkt. Studien utgörs av kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra frilansande improvisationsmusiker med stor pedagogisk erfarenhet i ämnesområdet. I resultatet beskrivs analysen av hur improvisationsmusikers syn på hur ett personligt uttryck kan skapas och hur de som pedagoger ser på undervisning inom detta område. Det framkommer bland annat att ett personligt uttryck handlar om att bejaka sin smak och vilja samt att självförtroende, hantverksskicklighet och inspiration är aspekter att ta hänsyn till. I det avslutande diskussionskapitlet lyfts delar av studiens resultat till diskussion i relation till det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande samt till tidigare forskning. Häri resoneras det utifrån teman som det kollektiva minnet, musikens språk, musikers verktyg, ett unikt uttryck samt skolans funktion. / This study aims to increase the knowledge of what opinions freelancing and teaching musicians within the improvised music genres have on the creation of a personal expression and how they consider the subject can be handled in music education. The background chapter provides an overview of the concept of personal expression, followed by a presentation of previous research in the field. The next chapter describes socio-cultural perspective, serving as a theoretical basis. The data material consists of four qualitative interviews with freelance improvisers with great educational experience. The result chapter presents the analysis of the musician's view of how a personal expression can be created and how they as teachers consider teaching in this area. The chapter includes how a personal expression is about to affirm ones taste and desire and that confidence, skill and inspiration are aspects to take into consideration. The concluding discussion chapter highlights aspects from the study's result chapter in relation to the socio-cultural perspective on learning and to previous research. Here the themes are among others the collective memory, musical language, musician's tools and the role and function of the school.