Free improvisation:  history and perspectives View larger

Free improvisation: history and perspectives

In English Languages

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Editor Alessandro Sbordoni – Antonio Rostagno
Series Nuova Consonanza
Size 14×21 p. IX+335
Year 2018
ISBN 9788870969665

Price 30,00 €

The book, on the initiative of Associazione Nuova Consonanza-Rome in collaboration with Sapienza-University of Rome, addresses two relevant aspects of the conceptual and practical field of improvisation in general, and of ‘free improvisation’ in particular, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. On the one hand, some precise historical moments are investigated, documented and discussed; on the other hand, some theoretical and analytical criteria are brought into focus.
The main objective is to clarify the historical context within which the activities of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (GINC) took place, introducing also other similar experiences such as the Chicago Art Ensemble, or other figures such as Giacinto Scelsi, Giovanni Guaccero, Cornelius Cardew, Mario Bertoncini, Walter Branchi, Alvin Curran and other protagonists of the improvisational scene in Rome (and beyond) in those decades.
A second part is concerned with philosophical, analytical or theoretical aspects of improvisation, within and beyond the experience of GINC: musical improvisation as a form of interpersonal relationship, new ways of subjectivity, empathic intentions inside and outside European culture, new paradigms of musical practice (such as Sbordoni’s idea of ‘composing in dialogue’), renewed questions about the relationship between composition and improvisation in other levels of the musical world from the 1960s to the current practices.
A final section of the book focuses on two important experiences in improvisation: the GINC, of ​​course, and Giacinto Scelsi considered as an improviser (a very delicate subject), with presentation, analysis and discussion of new sources and transcriptions.

Essay's AuthorEssay's Title

Alessandro Sbordoni

Introduction (Free download)

Paul Steinbeck

«Like a cake made from five ingredients»: the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s social and musical practices

Giovanni Guaccero

The use of improvisation in Rome in the 1960s and 1970s: motivations, languages and the relationship with context

Alessandro Mastropietro

Roma-Firenze 1965: parallel debuts, audio documents and some thoughts on the experimental frame of the launch of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza

Alberto Massarotto

Cornelius Cardew in Rome. The experience of a discordant voice

Luigi Pizzaleo

Music, language, crisis. Mario Bertoncini, Walter Branchi and the piano

Alvin Curran

Before the driveless car, there was improvisation. Some fleeting thoughts on 50 years of making unpopular music

Alessandro Bertinetto

Why is improvisation philosophically so appealing? Some modest and incomplete suggestions

Walter Branchi

The sound to be heard becomes the sound to be listened to

Vincenzo Santarcangelo

Enacting new consonances. From within the activity of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza

Daniele Goldoni

Presence and immanence. Improvisation between liberation and the ‘new’

Alessandro Sbordoni

Composing as a dialogue

Giovanni Giuriati

Performing in empathy: collective musical improvisation of Southeast Asia

 

Antonio Rostagno

Panel. Multiple-authorship and improvisative practices 

(Cantautorato – Metal-rock – Film music)

Some introductory words (free download)

Vera Vecchiarelli

Author song? The particular case of Fabrizio De André’s Via del campo

Gianluca Chelini

Heavy metal music: where improvisation fails

Renata Scognamiglio

Notes on film music and the ‘improvisation issue’

Luisa Santacesaria

Group improvisation in Italy today: an imaginary concert series

Giancarlo Schiaffini

Mechanisms in free improvisation. Creativity and error

Vincenzo Caporaletti

The GINC’s music in the light of audiotactile theory

Alessandra Carlotta Pellegrini

Larry Austin, Franco Evangelisti and the GINC through the papers in the Evangelisti Archive

Maurizio Farina

Relations and interaction between the Association and the Improvisation Group: overview and focus on the years of Evangelisti’s presidency (1972–78/79)

Irène Assayag

The «magical perspectives». Giacinto Scelsi and collective vocal improvisations in Rome

Marco Fusi

Giacinto Scelsi improviser.Building a performance practice in dialogue with the complexities of his creative routine

Mariam Asatryan

Improvisation and determination in ‘Elohim’ by Giacinto Scelsi