31/03/2012 - Romance

[chopinatic]

Been a long time since my last post, or even my last improvisation. Its very messy, and rushed and rusty, but I thought Id do one impromptu. It was made after listening to gershwins etude on the man I love, so it has a similar feel I think.
Please comment and enjoy

Chopinatic

[pianowolfi]

Wow, this is so great, nostalgic, intense!! Nothing seems rusty at all!
You know, as soon as I read "The man I love" that song begins to sound in my mind, I love that song! But this is much more than only the feeling of that song, it's a whole world of expression!
I feel like somehow you have progressed to a completely new level with this.
You're a great musician!

[Derek]

This is fantastic. 

[chopinatic]

Wolfi, your words have actually moved me. Thank you for your kind words, I always appreciate your comments.
Thanks derek

[quantum]

Such fluid romanticism. Rusty? I think not.  And that coda  an unexpected surprise. 

[chopinatic]

Such fluid romanticism. Rusty? I think not.  And that coda  an unexpected surprise. 

Thanks Quantum, Ah the coda I Dont know what I was thinking at the time!

[ted]

Good to see you back and well done, I enjoyed it very much. It reasserts for me several important aspects of this type of impassioned romantic playing. Firstly, there is the supreme importance of phrasing and rhythm. Of course the "what", the notes you play are important too, but put it this way - it is very easy to play a huge bunch of conveniently appropriate notes brilliantly and say absolutely nothing - thousands of professionals do it all the time. There has to exist, it seems to me, and the same thing goes for playing composed pieces I would say, the feeling that something is going somewhere, a feeling of dynamic surprise and purpose which catches the breath and provokes the question, "what will happen next". And then when something does happen, the really finest improvisation seems to say, "Ah, that wasn't what you expected was it ? But now you've heard it, it's the only thing you can imagine happening, isn't it ! Got you there !"

I received this sensation once or twice in your piece, as I did in John Wilson's composition. It cannot be manufactured from a recipe, and as I get older, most music fails to produce it altogether. But it can be given the right soil, in the form of constantly cultivating eclectic rhythmic and textural variety in one's figurations - another reason why I regard grinding away at regular monotonous forms every day - scales and so on - as wholly destructive of improvisational impulse.

Then once this extremely rich and varied soil is established in the mind, admittedly over many years, the greater the likelihood that critical mass will be reached during any given attempt at improvising.

I noticed a good many new grips and figurations in this piece I had not heard from you before. Whatever you have been doing during your absence, I say carry on doing it !

[furtwaengler]

I am listening to a new Chopinatic. You have advanced into a high plane of creativity and mastery, it appears!

[chopinatic]

Good to see you back and well done, I enjoyed it very much. It reasserts for me several important aspects of this type of impassioned romantic playing. Firstly, there is the supreme importance of phrasing and rhythm. Of course the "what", the notes you play are important too, but put it this way - it is very easy to play a huge bunch of conveniently appropriate notes brilliantly and say absolutely nothing - thousands of professionals do it all the time. There has to exist, it seems to me, and the same thing goes for playing composed pieces I would say, the feeling that something is going somewhere, a feeling of dynamic surprise and purpose which catches the breath and provokes the question, "what will happen next". And then when something does happen, the really finest improvisation seems to say, "Ah, that wasn't what you expected was it ? But now you've heard it, it's the only thing you can imagine happening, isn't it ! Got you there !"

I received this sensation once or twice in your piece, as I did in John Wilson's composition. It cannot be manufactured from a recipe, and as I get older, most music fails to produce it altogether. But it can be given the right soil, in the form of constantly cultivating eclectic rhythmic and textural variety in one's figurations - another reason why I regard grinding away at regular monotonous forms every day - scales and so on - as wholly destructive of improvisational impulse.

Then once this extremely rich and varied soil is established in the mind, admittedly over many years, the greater the likelihood that critical mass will be reached during any given attempt at improvising.

I noticed a good many new grips and figurations in this piece I had not heard from you before. Whatever you have been doing during your absence, I say carry on doing it !

I find alot of my improvisations are very predicitable, always a predictable cadence, predictible direction and dynamics etc, here i did try to change the direction and predictability of the piece as often as possible, Its something i want to do in more of my improvisations. I think there should never be a 'Recipe' for improvising, thats the beauty of it, every attempt is vastly different, there are rearly two the same.

Thanks for listening and commenting, as always, i always appreciate your comments ted

[chopinatic]

I am listening to a new Chopinatic. You have advanced into a high plane of creativity and mastery, it appears!

Thankyou Furtwaengler,
Hopfully its a continuous change, I just need to make sure i carry on posting, i often have many months of not posting!

[ted]

I find alot of my improvisations are very predicitable, always a predictable cadence, predictible direction and dynamics etc, here i did try to change the direction and predictability of the piece as often as possible, Its something i want to do in more of my improvisations. I think there should never be a 'Recipe' for improvising, thats the beauty of it, every attempt is vastly different, there are rearly two the same.

Thanks for listening and commenting, as always, i always appreciate your comments ted

Of course, the predictability you describe might not matter particularly to listeners, any more than Chopin's. Indeed, they probably see it as a very positive feature of your playing. However, if you yourself are experiencing that reaction a little too strongly for comfort, as I have many times over the years, it is a pretty easy problem to fix. What I did was to consciously broaden regardless of whether or not my reactions to my own sounds were positive. It turned out to be largely in the mind, like most things in music. I coined the term "attractor" for these predictable ways of playing, after the phenomenon in mathematical chaos because it seemed appropriate. Trouble is, that some attractors are potentially fertile musically while others are just habitual physical and emotional reflex. I have always found it far from easy to assess them with any degree of certainty.

You will never lose anything you already have in this regard, so don't worry about that. Specifics ? Play anything different and be objective and, for a start, cold. How can I describe this, it's very difficult ......

Ah yes, be an observer rather than a participant, view your new sounds as "interesting" new life forms. Be vitally concerned but not emotionally dependent - for a while. For instance, if a certain chord change is getting too much of a reflex, just play any other harmony, change the key, anything. Also, most of the emotional attractors in classical and romantic music are, let's face it, abominably restricted rhythmically. Rhythm is a titanic liberator from emotional habit in improvisation.

Time to take a few of your emotional eggs out of the one basket perhaps ? I know exactly how you feel, I have been there innumerable times, and that is how I fix it. Works for me. Might work for you, might not, I cannot know.

[ted]

For me, the really big opening of the gates did not occur until I was in my mid-fifties, when I realised that the forms themselves of improvisation were also part of the creative dynamic, and have nothing at all to do with those traditional constructs, the static prisons, hamstrung by notation, of Western classical and jazz structures. Prior to that, I improvised and composed with them hanging over me to a certain extent. I shall always love their finest flowers of course, always enjoy my Chopin, Gershwin, Joplin and dozens of others. It isn't a question of iconoclasm or "either/or", but a deep realisation of what moves me, and having, at long last, set out along the right path.

This might not be your way, or the way of anybody else at all. Neither should a young creator attach urgency to these things. We are beset, all around us with a hideous amount of anxiety, pushing and shoving, action at all costs; "let's all push the accelerator even if we don't know where the car is going" appears to be the maxim of everybody. Real contemplative transportation of the soul through art cannot operate through a mess of mindless imperatives - "just do it" - what a revolting aphorism that is, but how it typifies our age.

[chopinatic]

Time to take a few of your emotional eggs out of the one basket perhaps ? I know exactly how you feel, I have been there innumerable times, and that is how I fix it. Works for me. Might work for you, might not, I cannot know.

Yes, I think it is time, I always feel scared of trying new things, I feel, if i have a good sound currently I would not want that to be effected by exploring too much, or trying too hard. I often think maybe I shud just play how I feel rather than explore, and then I often feel like I cant express how I feel so I need to explore more! I guess its just taking that next step! after all if everyone played it safe, there'd be very little of anything in this world!