A serendipitous start to the year

[ted]

I have rarely been satisfied with the endings to my improvisations or compositions. In part, it is probably a result of my old teacher, the New Zealand composer Llewelyn Jones. He repeatedly voiced the critical opinion that I must learn how to "round things off". I could never understand what he meant.

The last improvisation I recorded was in late September. On New Year's Day I recorded a more or less conventionally romantic improvisation and dared not listen to it for two days. To cut a long story short, I think I might have, in some vaguely personal sense, finally cracked the romantic conclusion - at least once.

Romantic improvisation of any impact is so impossibly difficult to bring off. Climax, anti-climax, ebb and flow, and nothing can be calculated else the lot goes down the drain in a caricature.

The final ten minutes or so of this greatly pleases me for some reason; how I wish Llew could hear it. Pardon my rare moment of fancy and introspection.

[pianisten1989]

I really liked it, but I kind of see what your teacher meant. It's like, imo, a new part begins before the old one is finished. I get the thing that you can't do a cadenza-ish thing before every ending, but now it's a bit rushed... Some times a feel like "Uhm, where did that come from?" Maybe that's what he meant.

But don't take this the wrong way, I would be really happy if I came up with an improvisation like this. So really good job

[ted]

Thanks for listening. I agree that my permanent infatuation with spontaneity and surprise, with every idea a springboard to another, to some extent precludes my completely understanding normal forms of any sort. For better or worse, I'm afraid that is the nature of the beast.

a new part begins before the old one is finished

where did that come from?

Very perceptive of you. That is exactly how it sounds.

[rachfan]

Hi Ted,

The thing I liked best in your improv was it's lush neo-romantic style.  You're so right, it's hard to maintain the nuances, the sighs, the surges and the breathless high peaks in this musical genre, but I do believe that you succeeded brilliantly with this one!  The ending worked well in my opinion.   

Thanks for sharing your recording.

David

[furtwaengler]

It's quite a flight, and it whisks into nothing (silence), which I think is a serendipitous start, and a wonderful conclusion.

[utterlysneaky]

I liked it, and specifically the last 3-4 minutes and ending. It had that sense of a youthful scriabinism in it, in seed form.

[m1469]

Ted, very beautiful.  Listening to you again is giving me a whole new sound-tapestry and it is very inspiring for me and helpful for me in feeling a fresh sense about improvising.  Thank you for this one, too!

[ted]

rachfan, m1469, furtwaengler and utterlsneaky:

Thank you for listening and for your interesting comments, which I shall take on board. I don't know if you are familiar with the symphonies of Havergal Brian, especially the late ones. He has this extraordinary feature where a burgeoning climax builds threateningly and then suddenly drops out of existence for some sort of unrelated prosaic phrase which trots on as if nothing had occurred. "Aaahh ! That little attack of wind has passed, let's keep walking." The first time I heard it I thought the score must have had a missing page, but it happens too often for that.

I didn't like it at first but now I love this endearing effect, which I often use in improvisation. Most people seem to listen to chords more than anything else but being the perverse creature I am, I am invariable struck primarily by rhythm, phrase and dynamics in somebody's musical personality.