The Art of Improvisation in Literature and Music

Abstract

The article deals with the art of improvisation as “extemporization”, i.e., spontaneous production of a (spoken, musical, etc.) text(ure) without a detailed previous preparation, which takes place in real time, during the performance. As a primal principle of intuitive responding to stimuli from the environment or from performer’s interior, improvisation is an indispensable part of everyday life. As history of arts clearly demonstrates, improvisation has always been an important principle of artistic creation as well – particularly in the “temporal” and performing arts. However, it was gradually ousted from most artistic discourses (e.g., from written literature and composed music) and only survived at their edges. This article does not deal so much with the spontaneous improvisation (e.g., two-year old child banging on the piano) but focuses on structured improvisation, where the essential concept of spontaneity is creatively confronted with tradition (the referential corpus, improvisational principles and patterns) and improvising community (competition). More specifically, it discusses two cases of improvised traditions in literature and music that are still vital (in both of them, the original connection of literature and music remains visible to some extent): the sung improvised poetry of Basque bertsolari which is based upon ancient, yet vibrant tradition of oral literature, and modern jazz improvisation as it has evolved from the mid-twentieth century on. Both cases demonstrate that the most complex forms of improvisation are not primarily a matter of elusive (mystical) inspiration, but should instead be understood as art in terms of Aristotelian skill (technē). As the contemporary cognitive theories confirm, improvisation in the arts provides freshness and breaks the ossified patterns, so its rehabilitation process – already perceivable in music and theater but only partly in literature – needs to be further promoted.