Warming up 2/26/08

[furtwaengler]

It is in the morning, the exhilarating morning.

[pianowolfi]

A very exciting piece! Recently I've been thinking about the difference between improvisation and instant composition. This one seems to be  actually more like the latter. You know precisely what you're doing though it's played spontaneously on the spot.

If this is only a warm-up..how would you sound after it...

You're using so many elements in this, too many to describe...

[Derek]

Enjoying this very much! Thanks for posting it 

[furtwaengler]

Thanks to Pianowolfi and Derek, pillars of this improvisation community, for the very kind comments is what was being written. And yes, thank you!

A very exciting piece! Recently I've been thinking about the difference between improvisation and instant composition. This one seems to be  actually more like the latter. You know precisely what you're doing though it's played spontaneously on the spot.

Wolfi, I've wondered about this and am unsure. I think instant composition exists, and I believe you've experienced it in what you've achieved in many of your own improvisations. Thinking compositionally with what I've posted here, I'm inclined to think it would need a lot of editing - but this is a struggle...There's always been a need for my real compositions to be "worked out," and I think I've never been successful though I've longed to be, BUT the on the spot improvisations have always come across much more inspired and musical (but often simply musical impulses, rather than anything set in stone.) It's been a struggle with conscience to declare improvisations finished musical pieces that could be played by others on a stage. I think this sounds like instant composition because I'm doing things that have been built in my language. I've not spoken this, but I've spoken things like it, and its drawing from my vocabulary, forming something about as cohesive as this post (stream...of...consciance...).

If this is only a warm-up..how would you sound after it...

I have a trumpet playing friend whose idea of warming up is taking his trumpet out of his case. I'm similar to this...This was recorded when I was "fresh." But I confess that I choose names very flippantly. I named "Moment of Silence" because of the big moment of silence in the middle, and I actually named "Warming Up" because at a point towards the end if you listen closely, there is audible a singer warming up in another room. I've another called "Barbershop" which is a very militant, high energy piece, but towards the beginning Stanley walked into the choir room where this had taken place, and asked I, "Looking for somebody," and replied he, "Just the barbershop." Very flippant names.

[lontano]

It is in the morning, the exhilarating morning.

I wish I could wake up with that sort of spiritual energy every day!

If you continue to record such things, post them, or at least compare them to what was intended the previous Morning!...

You have the talent and the drive to take this concept further, so do it if you can!!!

Lontano

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for the encouragement, lontano. I wish I could compose like I (sometimes) improvise (is that a parodox?). I need to learn more how to set ideas into structures.

I am inspired by pianowolfi's centuries project (if I'm understanding it correctly). It seems a great outlet for personal expression. I've been thinking of recital ideas, mainly the typical recital with composers I'd like to exhibit...but am toying with adding a compositional version of one of my more successful improvisations. I've improvised in concert before...but this is something different, preexsisting, more worked out that I'm thinking.

(I'm a great music lover, but I have to admit this sister board is my favorite part about pianostreet. Is it a guilty pleasure? I don't know.)

[lontano]

Thanks for the encouragement, lontano. I wish I could compose like I (sometimes) improvise (is that a parodox?). I need to learn more how to set ideas into structures.

I am inspired by pianowolfi's centuries project (if I'm understanding it correctly). It seems a great outlet for personal expression. I've been thinking of recital ideas, mainly the typical recital with composers I'd like to exhibit...but am toying with adding a compositional version of one of my more successful improvisations. I've improvised in concert before...but this is something different, preexsisting, more worked out that I'm thinking.

(I'm a great music lover, but I have to admit this sister board is my favorite part about pianostreet. Is it a guilty pleasure? I don't know.)

I don't know how familiar you are with the solo piano improvisation period of Keith Jarrett (recordings mostly during the 1970's into the late 80's), but I personally love his mastery of the extended free-form improv. While some of his work (most of which I'm very familiar with) is a bit uneven, and that's to be expected under the circumstances, the bulk of his output in this unique (I believe) style of performance is absolutely remarkable. It blends many styles into a very personal virtuosic expression of all he had discovered along his way, and I personally feel a deep kinship for it in the improvisations I've made. Even my mother, a dedicated classical music lover, heard some of Jarret's solos and said they sounded like my "Unconscious Flight" (included in the few I've posted here, (aren't mothers kind  )), but in truth that brief and amateur bit I played was definitely directly influenced by KJ. Sadly I could never develop it any further, but I recommend his solo recordings to anyone looking to hear (and learn) from a true master of the art. (The only time I saw KJ in concert he was on tour performing Bach's WTC  1st book, quite well I must say.)

Just my thoughts on it all. Take care,

Lontano

PS: I don't know about Pianowolfi's "century project". Please point me there!

[furtwaengler]

IIRC, Derek is a fan of Keith Jarrett, and you may like to explore his improvisational talents. Believed or not, my experience with Jarrett is basically limited to his Shostakovich, Bach and Mozart, other than a couple things on youtube (in which I found it unbearable to watch him!)...I've just not explored this genre of improvisation (and my exploration of jazz itself has been limited to what my many trumpet buddies show me). Probably there are many artists in this genre who I'd love if I knew of them...I've just spent so much time in classical music exploring the music, and performance that I hardly have look outside it.
 

PS: I don't know about Pianowolfi's "century project". Please point me there!

https://www.centuries.ch/

[lontano]

I hope you aren't confusing Jarrett's purely original extended improvs with his takes on jazz standards or his jazz combo works. They are very different styles. I honestly can't listen to "jazz" (of just about any style) for very long, while I can listen to Jarrett play solo for an hour or more without getting bored. Honestly, I know of no other pianist who plays anything like Jarrett in purely original extended solo format. But to each his own.

L.

[furtwaengler]

Oh, I don't know, lontano. We'll just keep it at my experience with Jarrett is extremely limited! I'll have to look it up.

[lontano]

Thank you for Wolfi's link to his "centuries" project. This is a whole new concept in "semi-structured extended improvisation" (as if there were many other examples (I can't recall any!)).

This is a challenging project. If I understand it, he's established a collection of more/less "memorized improvisations" inspired by various visages, thoughts and experiments with the keys themselves, and placed them into a collective format for performance.

I went to his website and read and listened to all that was available, and overall I was glad I did. It appears to be a very fine endevour, based on what I can hear so far. Wolfi is a fine musician!

Previous attempts at semi-similar projects flutter in my memories, but I won't say what they are right now. I am interested in hearing (one of the possible) results of a complete performance.

I live in the US, so my chance of experiencing a "centuries" production is unlikely in the near future, yet I hope some day it may cross the waters...

Lontano