Re: Improvisation = fast Composition ?

[Ian Popperwell <popperwell@iname.com>]

Hi,

>I'm in the school of thought that composition is a slower form of 
>improvisation for *some* composers, and that there are so many 
>techniques and avenues for composition (as there are with looping), 
>that not all composers can be gerenalised with the same philosophy. 
>Certainly the approach that I have used to create symphonic 
>compositions in the past has been very much like the approach I give to 
>live looping today. Working on segments, looping them... moving on to 
>the next segment.
>
>However, I know other composers who work at their manuscripts in a 
>completely different way.

I'm aware that, whilst I don't define my improvisation as "composition", I 
do
see it as a potentially useful tool in the process of writing. 
Improvisation
does often influence and provide the raw material for my compositions. I
try to
(as often as I can get it together) record my improvisations - both in my 
own
practice time and when playing/jamming with other musicians - what I come 
out
with is spontaneous and relatively unpolished, it does though speed up my
process of composition when I return to the recordings. Improvisation 
either
alone or with others, can generate such a wealth of raw material (that I 
often
can't believe I have in me) that can be honed down, edited or discarded. 

My understanding of music theory is patchy and I don't 'write' music, I use
improvisation and jamming to generate ideas, test them out and develop 
them -
then memorise what I come out with. I've found that looping can make doing
this
alone a far less solitary process that enables widere expression musically
that
I'd be unlikely to give voice to by merely playing a single part at a time.

Writers sometimes use a similar technique of kind of free association 
writing,
where you write whatever's in your head for (say) 30 minutes. Then, when
you've
done, you've either got some usable ideas or you've at least got yourself
writing, either way, its useful + there's the bonus of finding out a 
little of
what's lurking in your unconscious!

Also thinking now about some of the boundaries and blurrings between 
creative
jamming and improvisation...

Ian.