Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
[H]aving myself engaged in group improvisation over a period of time I can testify to its power to liberate aspects of one's musicality and sense of musical responsibility in a way that no other musical activity can achieve. I have been lucky enough to encounter musical experiences of power and beauty of an altogether different kind from that of either listening to, performing or even creating composed music; the degree of involvement is of a quite different kind, as one might expect from the exploration of one another's musical personalities in a loving way … Cardew does not exaggerate in describing the experience as erotic.
Christopher SmallOccasional constraints
One of the most enjoyable things about improsivising with a group is the frisson which comes from knowing this is a ‘one off’ event, unprecedented and unrepeatable. And a large part of this comes from sensing the uniqueness of the circumstances of the occasion – the ‘occasional’ constraints. The improviser is generally much more alert to these than performers who are tied closely to notation and rehearsal. The poet Peter Riley calls improvisation ‘the exploration of occasion’. There is respect for the particularities of circumstance and an intimate engagement with them. Far from being a kind of cage which the musician at best tolerates and at worst ignores (or even contests), these constraints are normally invited into the improvisation: the occasion is brought to sound.
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