Bjørn Alterhaug
Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dept of Music, Norway
John Pål Inderberg
Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dept of Music, Norway
Improvisation as Phenomenon and Creative practice
Improvisation as a concept and phenomenon has remained a largely unstudied and untheorised topic, especially in terms of its relevance for contemporary work in cultural studies, anthropology, pedagogy, sociology, and philosophy – in other words, it is an interesting and obvious topic for interdisciplinary research. Improvisation is the human practice from which all music derives; as such, it represents a tool for communication and interaction that seems crucial in a global context. With its dialogic character it has the potential to play a vital role both as an artistic phenomenon, as a social force and in this context as a research topic and new perspectives on learning and acting.
The directness and dialogic nature of improvisatory practice, which is something that happens “face to face”, makes it particularly relevant and interesting in relation to communicational aspects. In the book “The Other Side of Nowhere,” Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble (editors) argue that music “specifically, creative improvised music and free jazz – can reinvigorate our understanding of the social function of humanities research within the broader context of how that research plays a role in shaping notions of community and “new forms” of social organization.”(21).
Improvisation is a potential for action latent in all human activities. When we improvise, this activity is an existential act, which on a basic level is detached from qualitative assessment. Improvising thus involves initiating processes based on previous experience and activities, which in turn will generate new processes in which learning, insight, and knowledge acquisition form part of a meta level and make up a platform for further development in a variety of contexts. Within such areas of proficiency, for example in music, one may establish so-called idiomatic quality criteria by which improvisational skills can be measured. However, the most important aspect of improvisation is “the open, unfinished, unexplored space” where one has every possibility to create, “to bring different identities together,” and where descriptive phrases only to a limited degree can serve as a meaningful description of what takes place in the course of performance.
