The Improvising Mind: Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment 9780191594595

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The Improvising Mind Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment Aaron L. Berkowitz

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of

Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries ©Oxford University Press, 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First published 2010 Reprinted 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978-o-19-959095-7 Cover image: 'Improvvisione' by Louis Montegut, La Scena Illustrata, xxii/16, 15 Agosto 1886, page 5. Courtesy of the Yale University Library.

Dedication

To incredible improvising minds Robert Levin and Malcolm Bilson For their music, teaching, and inspiration To wonderful, engaging ethnomusicologist and advisor mind Kay Shelemay For her mentorship and support To brilliant, sharp neuroscientist and educator mind Daniel Ansari For his collaboration and teaching To pioneering, synthesizing neurologist and musician mind MarkTramo For his mentorship and encouragement To compassionate, insightful physician, educator, and advisor mind Thomas Koenig For his support and guidance To extraordinary, extraordinarily warm physician and humanist minds Leon Eisenberg (in memoriam) and Carola Eisenberg For their inspiration and friendship To generous and unique familial minds David, Amy, Leah, and Daniel Berkowitz For their love and support

Acknowledgements

About half way through medical school, I decided that I would like to take some time away from the M.D. curriculum to explore interests in music, cognitive neuroscience, music cognition, anthropology, linguistics, and languages (among others) before completing my medical training. I realized that graduate study in music would allow me to study many of these areas, but I was unsure of whether a graduate music program would accept a medical student, and whether the school of medicine would allow for such a nontraditional venture. I could not have imagined how incredibly supportive both sides would be in helping me to carve out my own path. The faculty, staff, and students of the Harvard University Department of Music and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine were not only endlessly encouraging and accommodating, but provided ideal conditions for pursuing (and combining) my interests and passions. To see if graduate study in music would even be a possibility for me, I emailed Harvard Music Professor Kay Shelemay to ask her advice, since I noted in her online biography that she had participated in the Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard. I received an email reply from her less than a half hour later. A wise mentor, she foresaw my entire course of study so clearly from one single email, that I cannot help but quote from her reply directly: What an unusual and interesting query. I would be happy to talk with you further about your interests. Given your dual musical and neuroscience background, the emerging field of cognitive ethnomusicology could be a wonderful possibility. Given, too, your interests in obtaining regular ethnomusicology training, I would think you could consider any challenging ethnomusicology program as long as there are institutional resources that would permit a dissertation that potentially moved into an area of cognitive neuroscience. Y.le certainly do have resources for such an endeavor here at Harvard, both within our department in terms of the broad ethnomusicology offerings and in combination with colleagues across the disciplines who could provide feedback and guidance in more technical areas that might be involved in a dissertation.

From that email to the dissertation that I completed under her guidance, Kay Shelemaywas a wonderful mentor in every sense of the word. She recruited me to Harvard and nominated me for the University's Presidential Fellowship to fund my education, helped me to create a curriculum drawing from the wi(l)dest possible range of disciplines, and recommended me for countless

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I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS fellowships, grants, and other professional opportunities-some of the many "resources for such an endeavor here at Harvard," that she mentioned in the above-quoted email. She saw the possibilities latent in my original em ail inquiry, and tirelessly helped me to realize them. Just as she predicted in the email above, I was able to create a curriculum in cognitive ethnomusicology, write a dissertation that moved into the area of cognitive neuroscience, and gain feedback and guidance in more technical areas from colleagues from across the disciplines. It is upon this dissertation research that the present book is based. I can truly say that it is because of Kay Shelemay that I was able to study at Harvard, and the research that I present here would not have been possible without her mentorship, support, and guidance. Upon my arrival at Harvard, I discovered a veritable embarrassment of riches. One of those riches was another individual without whom this book would not be: Robert Levin. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest living musicians, and it has been a true privilege to study with him, and, for the research for this book, to study him. Through his performances and classes, I was introduced to the fortepiano and the study of historically informed performance, both of which became central to both my study of music and to my research. As will become clear in what follows, his incredible improvisations inspired not only awe, but allowed me to see an ideal research nexus for the confluence of my interests in music cognition, ethnomusicology, historical performance, and the comparison of cognitive processes in music and language. Maestro Levin's larger-than-life musicality is matched only by an equally boundless generosity: he consistently made time in his touring, composing, writing, and teaching schedule to work with me at the keyboard, coach my chamber music projects, attend my performances, discuss my research and suggest resources, and share his experiences through the profoundly insightful interviews that are cited throughout the book. This book's subject matter was inspired by him, and, no less importantly, my entire conception of music has been transformed by his teaching, performances, and recordings. I hope that this book provides some sense of-and tribute to-his extraordinary musicianship. It was Robert Levin who introduced me to Malcolm Bilson and encouraged me to take his summer fortepiano seminars at Cornell (my participation in these was generously funded by a Harvard Music Department John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship). Though I have only been able to work with Maestro Bilson several times over the years, he has been an amazingly inspiring teacher, endlessly generous with his time and profound musical insights in lessons, masterclasses, conversations, and interviews. My time with him has had a profound effect on my music-making, and I hope that the excerpts from our interviews and lessons together do justice to his wonderful artistry,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

character, and the profound clarity with which he conveys his musical ideas to his students. Both he and Robert Levin are pioneers in the field of historical keyboard performance, and the opportunity to work with them during this project was both a privilege and a delight. Professors Christopher Hasty and Alexander Rehding at Harvard generously agreed to serve as members of my dissertation committee. They encouraged me to work across disciplinary boundaries throughout my time at Harvard, and set an excellent example by the interdisciplinarity of their own farreaching courses and writings. Conversations with them were very helpful in developing, shaping, and conveying my ideas from my first year as a graduate student through the completion of my dissertation. As should be clear from all of the above, the faculty of the Harvard Music Department provided extraordinary mentorship and inspiration. This inspiration was nurtured by the wonderfully warm and supportive environment of the music department thanks to its wonderful staff: Nancy Shafman, Kaye Denny, Charles Stillman, Lesley Bannatyne, Fernando Viesca, Jean Moncrieff, Karen Rynne, and Marcus Baptiste; librarians Andy Wilson, Sarah Adams, Douglas Freundlich, Kerry Masteller; and piano tuner Lew Surdam. The department-and by extension its students-would not run without their tireless efforts, constantly joyful presence, and selfless service to Harvard's musical community. I enjoyed the chance to get to know each of them during my time at Harvard. The Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative supported me with a research grant to conduct the brain imaging study described in Chapter 7. My collaborator for this research, Daniel Ansari (currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Western Ontario), generously offered to help me realize the study for which I had procured this grant. Daniel is an absolutely brilliant scientist, and I learned an extraordinary amount working with him. He helped me to codify and clarify the study design, worked countless hours designing the technical set-up and helping me to analyze the data, and guided me in learning the art of science at every level, from conceiving of a study, to analyzing, interpreting, and presenting the results. We enjoyed many late-night discussions on the phone, over email, and in person in Hanover, Cambridge, and London, Ontario. As with all whom I have mentioned so far, without his help, the research presented in this book would not have been possible. I am also very grateful to his laboratory team including !an Lyons, !an Halloway, Bibek Dhital, Luci van Einerem, and Nick Garcia for patiently and generously aiding me with data analysis. Additionally, I am indebted to Daniel's wife, Emily Abrams An sari (a classmate of mine in music at Harvard and now a professor in the Department of Music at University of

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Western Ontario}, who introduced Daniel and me, and encouraged us to work together. I also extend thanks to Tim Ledlie, who helped with the analysis of the behavioral data from our experiments. At Johns Hopkins, my mentor in neurology, Dr. David Newman-Toker, and the Deans of Student Affairs Dr. H. Franklin Herlong and Dr. Thomas Koenig were unparalleled mentors. From the moment I proposed a leave from the M.D. curriculum to pursue a Ph. D. in music to my return six years later, their generosity, support, advice, insights, and encouragement were unflagging. They aided me in every step of my medical education up to and including my transition to the beginning of my Ph.D., continued to provide their sage counsel during my studies at Harvard, and were actively involved in helping me to prepare my return to and completion of the M.D. curriculum. They are model physicians, educators, scientists, and mentors, and I am endlessly thankful for the support and flexibility they provided in facilitating a seamless combination of a medical degree and a Ph.D. in music at two separate institutions. During my first year of graduate school, Christopher Hasty kindly introduced me to Aniruddh Patel, one of the world's leading experts on comparisons of music and language cognition. Ani has been extremely encouraging and supportive of my work over the years, and generously offered invaluable comments on Chapters 5 and 8 of this book, which discuss music-language comparisons. William Bares (a fellow graduate student in music at Harvard) and I traded writing over the last years to provide feedback for each other. I am as grateful to him for his insightful and astute comments as I am for the opportunity to have read his work. Fellow graduate student at Harvard and now professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro Aaron Allen found the cover image, Improvvisazione, and kindly passed it along, generously sharing the fruits of his research with me. Journalist Amanda Martinez and friend Jason Ditzian (quite an improvising mind himself) both read and commented upon this manuscript at various stages of its development, and I am thankful for their helpful suggestions and our engaging discussions. I began these acknowledgements with a story from nearly eight years ago, and I will now turn to one even older. At some point in college, I heard a National Public Radio program on music and the brain. One of the physicianscientists interviewed was Mark Tramo, one of the pioneers in this field. There is no way that I could have imagined that he would be a member of my dissertation committee more than a decade later. As a student and later as a guest lecturer in his ''Music, Mind, and Brain" class, I had the opportunity to study under him directly, and learn about the field of music cognition from one of

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS j

its foremost leaders. His guidance, encouragement, and mentorship were an invaluable part of my time at Harvard. I was fortunate to have the opportunities to serve as a teaching assistant in the music department at Harvard and as a guest professor in the departments of music and psychology at Tufts University in 2007. I am grateful to my students of these courses for our lively discussions about music and the mind-I probably learned more from them than they did from me. While serving as a teaching assistant for a music history course at Harvard, I had the great fortune to befriend one of the course's truly "VIP" auditors: Dr. Carola Eisenberg, pre-eminent psychiatrist, former Dean of M.I.T. and Harvard Medical School, cofounder of Physicians for Human Rights, and one of the most inspiring, generous, and loving human beings I have met. She introduced me to her husband, Dr. Leon Eisenberg, a pioneer in psychiatry and social medicine with an incredible wit, hum or, and intellect, and also an extraordinarily inspirational, generous, and loving person. The three of us shared many memorable evenings together during my last few years at Harvard, and they became my "adopted grandparents" in Cambridge. Leon passed away in the fall of 2009 and will be sorely missed, but ever-present in his influem;:e on the world and all of the individuals who had the privilege of interacting with him. Somehow, he even found time to read and comment upon this manuscript in an earlier iteration. I had the great privilege of serving as a resident tutor in Cabot House during the last four of years of my graduate work at Harvard. The stimulating and nurturing environment of undergraduates, other tutors, visiting scholars, the house masters Jay and Cheryl Harris, and their wonderful assistant Susan Livingston provided my Harvard home, where I was able to conceive of and complete the research for this book (and many other projects) amongst engaged and engaging peers, students, and friends. A number of libraries and their librarians generously made resources available to me for consultation in my research. John Montag of Nebraska Wesleyan University photocopied and sent Carl Czerny's Opus 300, John Shepard and Matthew Weber of the jean Gray Hargrove Music Library of the University of California-Berkeley provided access to Philip Antony Corri's Original System of Preluding and granted permission to use images from it, Sarah Adams of the Isham Music Library of Harvard University provided access to the Andre Ernest Modeste Grftry and James Hewitt sources and granted permission to reproduce images from them, the Music Division of the Library of Congress granted permission to use images from the August Friedrich Christopher Kollmann volume, and Gaby van Rietschoten of Koninklijke Brill NV granted permission for the use of images from a microfiche of the Johann Gottfried Vierling treatise.

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I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to Martin Baum, the Senior Commissioning Editor for Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience at Oxford University Press, whose enthusiasm for this book and support of my work on it was encouraging from my initial proposal to the current printing. His assistant Charlotte Green was incredibly kind, supportive, and helpful at all stages of the publication process. Production editors jennifer Lunsford and Abigail Quanrud and copy editor Gayathri Bellan were warm, patient, prompt, precise, and infinitely helpful in all aspects of the production process, making it an enjoyable and easy process. I would also like to thank Catharine Carlin at Oxford University Press in New York for her initial interest in the book and for connecting me to Martin Baum. Last but not least, my family has stood by me and my endeavors for as long as I can remember. They have been a constant source of love, wisdom, advice, support, and encouragement, and have traveled to an inordinate number of my concerts, talks, and various academic and professional rites of passage of all sorts over the years. Though these acknowledgements have been rich in superlatives and insistence that the present work would not have been possible without the support of the individuals thanked, these sentiments are meant with utmost sincerity. I dedicate this book to each and every one of the people mentioned above, and I thank them again for their friendship, mentorship, encouragement, and support during what I will remember as enjoyable, fruitful, stimulating, and inspiring years at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Aaron Berkowitz Baltimore, 20 I 0

Prelude

On Saturday April2!, 2001, Robert Levin filled in for Alfred Brendel as the piano soloist in a performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra-on just a few hours' notice. From the stage, Levin announced, "I should warn you, the cadenzas are going to be improvised!" According to Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer, "He might equally well have said, 'Fasten your seat belts!'" 1 One review of his performance described his improvisations as follows: His improvisation of cadenzas ... showed extraordinary daring: his solo ravings in the fourth concerto first movement cadenza reached such a level of brilliant madness that it seemed as if Beethoven himself were seated at the keyboard. His control here was fabulous. The intervveaving of themes from the work during the cadenza showed a fine intellectual understanding, coupled with a drive to make Levin's Steinway at once an instrument of fine music and the outlet of the manic and despairing genius of the composer of the work driving the soloist to heights of excellence ... Conductor Seiji Ozawa narrowly missed a nasty accident during this cadenza. He stood nervously watching the pianist's hands, quite unsure when the Devil would leave Levin alone and allow the orchestra to come back and bring the work to its conclusion. At one point, Ozawa mistakenly raised his arms to the orchestra, dropping them just in time to allow Levin to continue his unfinished machinations unhindered. 2

Levin's improvised cadenzas clearly put this reviewer on the edge of his seatand conductor Seiji Ozawa at the edge of his podium! The review is particularly notable for its juxtaposition of extremes in describing Levin's improvisations: brilliant madness versus fine intellectual understanding; Levin under the Devil's control versus Levin's fabulous control; outlet of manic and despairing genius versus machinations. Indeed, improvisation embodies these dualities. As members of the audience hearing improvised music, we are fascinated by the magic of its spontaneity, and yet we can also recognize the music as within the framework of a style, be it that of Beethoven, the Baroque period, or bebop.

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Richard Dyer, "The Daredevil Made Levin Do It," Boston Globe, April23, 2001, Arts Section. Jonathan Richmond, "BSO, Levin Brew Brilliance," The Tech Onli11e 121, 21 (2001), http://www-tech.mit.edu/V121/N21/BSO_-_Ion_Richm,2la.html (accessed April 12, 2008).

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The same dichotomies depicted in this review can be found in Levin's own descriptions of improvisation. In the first quotation below, he describes the experience of improvising a cadenza. In the second, he discusses the structure ofMozart's cadenzas. As the orchestra starts to play the approach to the cadenza I start to think, "Well how am I going to begin this?" ... And in some wild way, I move back and forth over the material: this, that, something, but very often the orchestra arrives at the 6-4 chord and I think, "I don't have any idea what I'm going to do, except that I've got to start now." So I start to play, and I see what's going to happen ... I am both a creator and a kind of a witness. I watch myself, and sometimes I can be quite aghast at what I do. I remember particularly one time in Bremen playing a cadenza to the first Beethoven concerto [Opus 15 in C major] and arriving on an F-sharp major chord, because in Beethoven you can do things like that [i.e., modulate]. There I was on an F-sharp major chord, six fifths away from C major and I did this and stared at the keyboard, and at that point, literally I got outside of the whole thing and ... I looked at the keys and I said, "Help me, get me out of here," and I literally, at that moment, fancied the keys saying, "You got yourself into this, you get yourself out of it, this is not our problem." I really felt the keys saying that to me. I thought, "Alright, I've got to get going again." I started to play, and I sort of slipped on the banana peel of a diminished seventh chord, and the next thing I knew I was twenty yards from home, and I have no idea how it happened, but it did. 3

In contrast, in a chapter from a book on performance practice, Levin describes Mozart's cadenzas as follows: Mozart's cadenzas consistently display several important structural and rhetorical features ... The typical cadenza is divided into the following sections: l. Introduction (optional): passage-work of a bar or more that provides a virtuoso springboard for what follows ...

2. First section, often derived from the primary group. Care is taken to remove harmonic stability from the quoted material. This is usually done by avoiding the root position tonic triad, whose presence would immediately destroy the tension of the initial 6-4 with fermata ... The first section leads to an arrival on V7 or on the tonic 6-4; this is often underscored by a fermata, and an optional bridge of passage-work leads to the second section. 3. Second section, often derived from the secondary group. Again the stability of root position tonic is usually avoided, and non-modulating sequences are sometimes made chromatic (or more chromatic) ... Like the first section, the second culminates in a clear arrival, here on the tonic 6-4, elaborated by passage-work and a fermata. Sometimes the dominant note appears alone (with octave doubling), but it is clear that I~, not dominant, is meant.

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Robert Levin, Interview by author, Cambridge, MA, September 10, 2007.

PRELUDE

4. Conclusion: a flourish or running scale that prepares the trill, which ends the cadenza . . . . The generalizations above do not apply with equal validity to Beethoven's cadenzas ... [W]hile his cadenzas may begin by quoting the primary group, then the secondmy group, he does not feel bound to stay within the principal key and its related scale degrees .. , Thus a performer wishing to improvise or prepare a cadenza for a Beethoven concerto would have fewer tonal constraints. This might seem easier, but the lack affirm guidelines makes the task more formidable ... 4

Levin's descriptions in these two different contexts exemplify two distinct aspects of his musical knowledge. He can improvise cadenzas in the heat of the moment, when time for abstract thought and planning simply does not exist, making him equal parts "creator" and "witness." Yet, when removed from the real-time demands of improvising, he can equally easily provide a thorough and precise theoretical description of the form and contents of such improvisations. Like the extremes in Richmond's review-brilliant ravings possessed by the Devil on the one hand, and control and understanding on the otherLevin's accounts reflect a similar dialectical tension between the experience of improvised performance and the knowledge used in that process. The ability to improvise in a style relies on an intimate knowledge of the musical elements, processes, and forms of that style. However, the temporal and physical constraints of improvised performance allow little or no room for recourse to theoretical musings about such knowledge. The knowledge must be internalized, mentally and physically, if spontaneous fluency is to be achieved. Three questions arise with regard to this knowledge, and they will serve as the core of the present inquiry into cognition in improvisation: 1. What is this knowledge-that is, what are the elements and processes of

which it is comprised? 2. How is this knowledge acquired and internalized? 3. How is this knowledge used in performance? Noam Chomsky asks and seeks to answer analogous questions with regard to language in Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use. 5 Indeed, one goal of exploring these questions in the present study is to allow for comparisons between music and language as cognitive systems with respect to their 4

Robert Levin, "Instrumental Ornamentation, Improvisation and Cadenzas," in

Pe1jormnnce Practice: Music after 1600, ed. Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan Press, 1989), 283-284. "What constitutes knowledge of language? How is this knowledge oflanguage acquired? How is this knowledge of language put to use?" Noam Chomsky, Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, a11d Use (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1986), 3.

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I PRELUDE underlying knowledge bases, the acquisition of this knowledge, and the use of this knowledge in performance in these two systems of humanly organized sound. To answer these questions with respect to musical improvisation, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the tools of historical musicology, ethnographic interviewing, cross-cultural comparisons, and cognitive neuroscience. I explore improvisation in Western classical music from the mideighteenth century to the early nineteenth century as a case study, examining pedagogical treatises on improvisation from this period, interviews with pianists Robert Levin 6 and Malcolm Bilson 7 about how they learned to improvise in this style, and Levin's and Bilson's improvisations from recordings and pedagogical scenarios. 8

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Born in 1947, Robert Levin is one of today's foremost pianists. After studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris as a teenager, he embarked on a tireless performing, recording, and teaching career, while in parallel making significant contributions to musicology and composing completions of many of Mozart's unfinished works. He is widely known for his improvisations, including cadenzas and embellishments in concerto performances. Levin is currently the Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, having taught previously at Hochschule fiir Musik in Freiburg, SUNY College at Purchase, Conservatoire Americain at Fontainebleau, and the Curtis Institute. See Robert Levin, "Curriculum Vitae," Harvard Music Department Website, http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/ faculty/levin.html (accessed August 10, 2008); Stanley Sadie, "Levin, Robert," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www. oxfordm usicon line. co m! subscriberI article/ grove/ music/ 4 3 6 36 ( accessed August 10, 2008). Born in 1935, Malcolm Bilson is one of the pioneers of the early music movement, having revived performance of Classical period repertoire on historical instruments (i.e., fortepianos) in the 1970s. His recordings of the complete pianos sonatas and concertos of Mozart, the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven (with several of his students), and the complete piano sonatas of Schubert on historical pianos were some of the first explorations of this repertoire on period instruments, and remain landmark achievements. Bilson is a Professor Emeritus ofCornell University, where he taught from 1968 to 2005, and he continues to give lectures and masterclasses worldwide. See Cornell Department of Music, "Malcolm Bilson," Corn ell Department of Music Faculty, http:/ /www.arts. cornell.edu/music/ faculty/Bilson.html (accessed August 10, 2008); Robert Winter, "Bilson, Malcolm," In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://v.'Ww.oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43694 (accessed August 10, 2008). The mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century includes the "Classical style," that ofHaydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, among others. For discussion, see Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1972), 19. In this book, "Classical music" (with capital "C") will be used to refer to this style, while "classical music" (with lower case "c") will be used to refer to the music that is colloquially referred to as such.

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Though musicians in many improvisation traditions learn through immersion in a musical system, Robert Levin and Malcolm Bilson did not learn how to improvise in the Classical style by being immersed in the musical culture of the eighteenth century in any traditional sense. Their learning took place in the 1970s, nearly 200 years later. The ways in which these two revivers of Classical improvisation in the twentieth century interfaced with the materials of the middle to late eighteenth century when learning to improvise, as well as their own pedagogical practices and improvisations in the style, provide a fascinating example of the reconstruction of a tradition, the recreation of a link in a process of transmission long broken. Through an examination of materials from both the past and the present, I hope to elucidate the knowledge base necessary for improvisation in this style and its transmission and acquisition from the perspectives of both pedagogue and learner. Based on Levin's description of the experience of playing cadenzas quoted above, improvisation involves many aspects that appear to be inaccessible to consciousness, at least in the moment of improvising. However, though some knowledge and processes remain subconscious for the improviser, the conscious manifestations of such knowledge and processes can be studied: pedagogy, in which improvisers are forced to explore ways to transmit their knowledge, either by example or through verbal description; improvisers' discussions of improvising; and the improvisations themselves. Furthermore, examining the links between the improvisations of performers and the pedagogical models from which they have learned can provide additional insights into the musical style itself, as well as its means of transmission. Some have argued that "by its very nature-in that improvisation is essentially evanescent-it is one of the subjects least amenable to historical research. " 9 As a result of the evanescence of improvised music, we can only speculate as to how improvised music actually sounded before the age of recording by referring to contemporary verbal descriptions. 10 Yet improvisation is not impenetrable to historical research, as I hope to demonstrate. While one cannot study the actual improvisations of eras past, the examination of pedagogical treatises and improvisational models for teaching purposes from 9

Bruno Nett! et al., "Improvisation," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http:// {accessed April 4, 2008). For discussion of contemporary accounts of improvisation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see Robert Wangermee, "L'Improvisation Pianistique au Debut du XIXe Siecle," in Miscellanea Musicologica Floris van der Mueren (Ghent: Drukkerij L. van Melle, 1950), 227-253; Valerie Goertzen, "By Way of Introduction: Preluding by 18th_ and Early I9 1h-Century Pianists," journal of Musicology 14 (1996): 299-337. w1vw .oxfordmusiconline .corn/subscriber/article/grove/music/ 13 738

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I PRELUDE earlier periods offers important insights into improvisation practices and contemporary conceptions of musical style. 11 In order to understand the transmission of musical systems in improvisatory traditions more broadly, I will compare my findings with those from scholarship on pedagogy and transmission in numerous other improvisational musical cultures including jazz, Indian music, Javanese music, South Slavic oral epic poetry singing, and Iranian classical music. These cross-cultural comparisons will demonstrate which aspects of the pedagogy and learning of improvisation may be unique to eighteenth-century classical music as well as those that may be more universal. 12 In addition to utilizing these musicological and ethnomusicological tools, I also draw on the resources of cognitive neuroscience, assessing brain activity during improvisation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The findings from flv1RI studies are then assessed in light of how improvisers view their creative processes, and how pedagogical strategies may train the network of brain regions involved in musical improvisation. Each of these different methodologies presents unique perspectives. In and of themselves and through the connections between them, they allow for the exploration of cognition in improvisation from a variety of angles. Musical improvisation is an exceptional feat of human cognition. It is also a highly specialized instance of a more general facet of human behavior: the spontaneous rule-based combination of elements to create novel sequences

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For a discussion of theoretical issues relating to reconstructing the past through a combination of ethnography and examination of historical sources, see Phi lip V. Bohlman, "Returning to the Ethnomusicological Past," in Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Etlmonmsicology, 2nd edn., ed. Gregory F. Barz and Timothy J. Cooley (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 246-270. For other ethnomusicological studies of classical music, see Peter Jeffery, Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of Gregorian Chant (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bruno Nettl, Heartland Exwrsions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995); Henry Kingsbury, Music, Talent, and Petformance: A Conservatory Cultural System (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001); K.K. Shelemay, "Toward an Ethnomusicology of the Early Music Movement: Thoughts on Bridging Disciplines and Musical Worlds," Ethnomusicology, 45 (2001): 1-29. After a period of criticism of and objection to cross-cultural comparisons in ethnomusicology, there have been several relatively recent defenses of the use of a comparative framework. See for example: Alexander L. Ringer, "One World Or None? Untimely Reflections on a Timely Musicological Question," in Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music: Essays on the History of Etlmomusicology, ed. Bruno Nettl and Philip Bohlman, 187-200 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Andrew Killick, "Road Test for a New Model: Korean Musical Narrative and Theater in Comparative Context," Et1momusicofogy47 (2003): 180-204.

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that are appropriate for a given moment in a given context. Broadly speaking, improvisation is a central component of all human action. One need only to think of righting one's self after a slip on the ice-a novel series of flailing dance-like movements unlike those previously rehearsed for dance, and yet, a combination of actions constrained by the possible movements of the joints and muscles, and their positions at the moment of slipping. So too can spontaneous speech be considered improvisatory. When speaking, one draws on prelearned words, phrases, and rules for their use. Yet one is also capable of describing events, thoughts, and feelings that one may have never described before. Thus, speech and movement are to a large degree improvised, in that they require novel combinations of pre-existing elements to fit the ever-changing contexts and situations that one faces. One constantly responds spontaneously to the surrounding environment, be it in adapting one's walking to the changing terrain under foot, or planning and producing one's speech in concordance with the conversational context at hand. 13 Thus, beyond exploring cognition in musical improvisation in the present study, I also hope to provide insights into more general cognitive phenomena beyond music that similarly involve spontaneous, novel, rule-based behavior. Specifically, I will compare musical improvisation and how one learns to improvise with spontaneous speech and language acquisition, respectively.

Overview Chapter 1 serves as an introduction, defining improvisation and providing a background for the study of cognition in improvisation, including discussion of learning, memory, and comparisons between language and music. Following the introduction, I have divided the book into two main parts. Part I (Chapters 2-5) focuses on pedagogy and learning in improvisation (cf. Questions 1 and 2 on p. xv), while Part 11 explores cognition of improvised performance (cf. Question 3 on p. xv). In Chapters 2 and 3, I examine pedagogical treatises on improvisation from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These treatises provide insights into the prerequisite skills and knowledge required for improvisation, and the means by which these skills and knowledge were transmitted from pedagogue to student. Which elements of the style are explicitly conveyed, and 13

The improvisatory nature of human behavior is eloquently described by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in his article "Improvisation," Mind 85, no. 337 (1976): 69-83 (Quoted in the Coda of this book). See also R. Keith Sawyer, "The Improvisational Performance of Everyday Life," journal of Mundatze Behavior 2 (2001): 149-162 and Creating Conversations: Improvisation in Everyday Discourse (Cresskill: Hampton, 2001).

XX

I PRELUDE which are only demonstrated rather than discussed verbally? How could a learner use these treatises to develop improvisational fluency? Chapter 2 provides background on the treatises themselves, discusses the prerequisites necessary for learning to improvise as described by the treatises' authors, and presents the contents of these treatises. Chapter 3 explores the pedagogical strategies used by the treatise writers. For each teaching tactic described, I discuss the cognitive processes that would appear to be necessary for learning to improvise by way of such pedagogical strategies. I also present examples from the present-day improvisation pedagogy of Robert Levin and Malcolm Bilson from my own experiences beginning to learn Classical improvisation from them. In Chapter 4, I approach learning to improvise in the Classical style from the perspective of the learner, drawing on interviews with Robert Levin and Malcolm Bilson. How did they go about reviving the practice of Classical improvisation? What were their learning processes? Throughout Chapters 2-4, I compare the pedagogical strategies and learning processes for Classical music with those in the improvisational traditions of other musical cultures. Chapter 5 compares music and language cognition from the perspective of acquisition. Based on the findings of Chapters 2-4 and relevant research and theoretical work on language learning, in this chapter I compare answers to the first two questions posed on p. xv for music and language (What is the knowledge base? and How is it acquired?). After studying the knowledge base necessary for improvisation, how this knowledge is acquired from the complementary perspectives of pedagogical treatises and learners, and how this learning process compares to language learning in Part I, in Part I! of the book (Chapters 6-9), I turn to cognition in improvised performance. In Chapter 6, I explore how the knowledge base described in Chapters 2-4 is put to use in performance, again drawing on interviews with Robert Levin and Malcolm Bilson. What is the experience of improvising for the performer? What can be discovered about cognition in the moment of performance from the study of this experience? As in Chapters 2-4, I compare these findings with those from studies of other musical cultures. In Chapter 7, I present research on the neurobiological basis of improvisation as studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which I conducted in collaboration with cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari. I will discuss our neurophysiological findings along with those of others in the context of the insights gleaned from the interviews described in Chapter 6. Chapter 8 compares music and language cognition from the perspective of performance. Here, I examine the findings of Chapters 6-7 for musical

PRELUDE

improvisation in the context of the theoretical and neuroscientific study of linguistic production, specifically spontaneous speech. In so doing, I compare music and language with respect to Question 3 from p. xv (How is knowledge used in performance?). In Chapter 9, I take the Mozart-style cadenza as a case study. just as a cadenza in the Mozart style interweaves themes from the concerto movement preceding it, this chapter intenveaves the themes from all of the previous chapters. I examine what is written in eighteenth-century pedagogical treatises about cadenzas, the model cadenzas that Mozart composed, interviews with Robert Levin on cadenza improvisation, and analyses of transcriptions of Robert Levin's own improvised performances of cadenzas in the Mozart style. The Coda offers some final reflections on topics explored throughout the book.

'* * In this book, I seek to combine manifold methodologies (historical examination of treatises, interviews, cross-cultural comparisons, musical analysis, and brain imaging) and draw on research from an equally eclectic variety of disciplines (musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, cognitive psychology/ neuroscience, and linguistics). In so doing, I hope to shed light on the similarly diverse and interconnected facets of the improvising mind, and the possible parallels between these and analogous aspects of language cognition.

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Contents

Dedication v Acknowledgements vii Prelude xiii Introduction Defining improvisation: Spontaneous creativity within constraints 1 Stylistic constraints 2 Performance/Performer constraints 3 Learning and memory 7 Implicit and explicit learning 7 Implicit and explicit memory 8 Declarative and procedural memory 8 Comparisons of music and language 10

Part I Cognition in the Pedagogy and Learning of Improvisation 2 The pedagogy of improvisation I: Improvisation treatises of the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries 15 The treatises of the present study 18 Prerequisites for learning to improvise 24

Formulas in the pedagogy of improvisation 27 Cadences 31 Rule of the octave 33

Movimenti 34 Conclusion 35

3 The pedagogy of improvisation 11: Pedagogical strategies 39 Transposition 41 Transposition cross-culturally 42 Transposition, automatization, and proceduralization 42

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CONTENTS

Variation 46 Variation cross-culturally 50 Variation: Concepts for cognitive economy 52 Recombination 56 Combinatoriality in eighteenth-century musical thought 64 Recombination cross-culturally 67 Recombination, transitional probabilities, and statistical learning 69 Models and the acquisition of style 73 Conclusion 77 4 Learning to improvise: Learners' perspectives 81 Incubation, internalization, and assimilation: Exercises and repertoire 82 Rehearsal: Finding paths through the knowledge base 88 Learning to improvise through improvising in performance 94 Learning through teaching 94 5 Music and language cognition compared I: Acquisition 97 Competence and performance: Perceptual competence and productive competence 97 The knowledge base in language and music 100

Phonology 102 Morphology, the lexicon, and semantics 103

Syntax 107 Acquisition of the knowledge base in language and music 108

Phonology 109 Semantics, syntax, and pragmatics 109 Nativist approaches to language acquisition: Noam Chomsky and universal grammar Ill Empiricist approaches to language acquisition: constructivism and cognitive-functional usage-based linguistics 112 A cognitive-functional usage-based approach to learning to improvise 115 Conclusion 118

PART 11 Cognition in Improvised Performance 6 Improvised performance: Performers' perspectives 121 Creator and witness 121 Creator and witness cross-culturally 125 (No) memory and improvisation: A neuropsychological explanation for the creator-witness phenomenon 128

CONTENTS

7 The neurobiology of improvisation 131

Studying music cognition in the laboratory 131 The neural correlates of improvisation 1: Berkowitz and Ansari (2008) 132 Study design 132

Behavioral results 136 Quantification of rhythmic improvisation: lnterpress interval variability 137 Quantification of melodic improvisation: Variety of note combinations and percentage of unique sequences 137 Brain imaging results 138 The neural correlates of improvisation 11: Limb and Braun (2008) 142 Conclusion 144 8 Music and language cognition compared II: Production 145 Speaking and improvising: Theoretical perspectives 146 Speaking and improvising: Neurobiological perspectives 150

9 Cadenza 153 Cadenza pedagogy in the eighteenth century 154 Definition of cadenza 154 TUrk's guidelines for cadenzas 155 Models: Mozart's cadenzas 157 Background 157 Structure 158 Mozart's cadenzas to the first movement ofK. 271; Nr. 16 (Figure 9.8) and Nr. 15 (Figure 9.9) 162 Cadenzas Nr. 16 and Nr. 15 162 Cadenza Nr. 16 continued 162 Cadenza Nr. 15 continued 164 Robert Levin's Mozart cadenzas 165 Note on the transcriptions 166 Levin l (Figure 9.10) 166 Levin 2 (Figure 9.11) 168

Levin 3 (Figure 9.12) 170 Conclusion 174 Coda Constraints and freedom: Improvisation in music,

language, and nature 177

Bibliography 185 Index 197

I XXV

The Improvising Mind

Chapter 1

Int roduction

In this chapter, I define terminology and concepts that will b e drawn upon throughout the succeeding chapters. First, I explore two definitions of improvisation, one from the nineteenth century and the other from the present day, high lighting their common core concept: spontaneous creativity within constraints. Following the discussion of the re levance of these aspects of imp rovisa tion to the p resent study of cognition in improvisation, I present some important concepts from the cogn itive psychology of lea rning and memory that serve as usefu l too ls in understanding the material of the chapters that follow. Finally, I introduce the notion of comparisons between music and language cognition. Such comparisons will recur throughout the book, and I will focus on them in depth in Chapters 5 and 8.

Defining improvisation: Spontaneous creativity within constraints Ca r! Cze rny, one of the foremost music pedagogues of the nineteenth centllly, a student of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the teacher of Franz Liszt, defined improvisation as follows: . . . [T]he talent and the art of improvising co nsist in t he spinning o ut, during the ver)' performance, o n the spur of the m omen t, and without special immediate preparatio n, of each original or even b orrowed idea into a sort o f musical composition whic h, albeit in much freer form than a written work, nevert heless must be fashioned into a n organized totalit)' as far as is necessar)' to remain comprehen sible and interesting. 1

Over 150 years later , th e autho rs of the Grove Dictionary of Mu sic define improvisation as: T he creation of a musical work, or the fina l form of a musical work, as it is being pe rformed. It ma)' involve the work's immediate compositio n b)' its performers, or the elaboration or adjustment of a n existing framework, or an )'thing in between. To some extent ever)' performance involves e lem ents o f improvisation , although its degree

1

Car! Czern)'• A Systematic l11trodllctio11 ro Improvisnrio11 011 the Pia11o[orte, Op. 200, Vienna 1836, translated and edited b)' Alice L. Mitchell ( New York: Lo ngman, 1983), I.

2

I INTRODUCTION varies according to period and place, and to some extent every improvisation rests o n a series of conventions o r implicit rules. 2

Though the first definition comes from a m usician of the nineteen th century, and the second fro m music scholars of the twentieth century, they are essentially equivalent. Both definitions highlight that while improvisa tion requires spontaneous creativity, this creativi ty is constrained by "conventions or implicit rules" to make the improvisa tion "an organized totality" that is "comprehensible a nd interesting." 3 T he co nstraints governing improvised performance fall into two broad categories: musical (i.e., stylistic) constraints and performance/performer (i.e., physical/physiological) constraints. 4

Stylistic constraints When one hears improvised music, one can generally identify the style of the music with some confidence (e.g .• jazz, classical, rock, etc.), even though the ac tual music is improvised and thus novel. For a ny im provisation in a style to be understood by listeners as "in a style," it must draw on the musical materia ls and processes defined by the musical culture of which it is a part. T he improviser's choices in any given moment may be unlimited, but they a re not unconstrained. M ihaly Csikszentm ihalyi, a psychologist specializing in the study of creativity, explains: Contrary to what o ne might expect from its spo ntaneous nature, musical improvisation depends very heavily o n an implicit musical tradition, o n tacit rules .. . It is only with referen ce to a thoroughly internalized body of works performed in a coherent St)'le that improvisatio n can be performed by the music ian and understood by the audie nce. 5

2 Bruno Nett! et al. , " Imp rovisat io n, " in

3

4

Grove M11sic On/ine. Oxford Music Online,

http://www .oxfordm usiconline .com/ subscriber/a rticle/grove/music/13 738 ( accessed April4, 2008). For a review of a wide range of published d efinitions of improvisation, see Bruno Nett!, " Introduction: An Art Neglected in Scholarship," in In the Course of Performmrce: Studies in tile World of Musical Improvisation, ed. Bruno Nett! and Melinda Russell (Chicago, IL: U niversity of Chicago Press, 1998), 10- 12. Barry ). Ken ny and Martin Gellrich refer to these as "externally generated" and " internally generated" constraint s, respectively in Barry ]. Kenny and Martin Gellrich, " Improvisation," in Tile Science a~rl Psychology of Music Petfomwnce: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning, e d. Richard Parncutt and Gary McPherson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 11 7. M ih aly Csikszentmihalyi and G ra nt jewell Rich, "M usical Improvisati on: A Syste ms Approach ," in Crea tivity in Performance, ed . Keith Sawyer (Green wich , UK: Ablex Publishing, 1997), 51. This interaction of creativity and constraint is nicely summarized by psychologist P.N. Johnson-Laird's NONCE definition of creativity: "Creativity is Novel fo r

DEFIN ING IMPROVISATION: SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY WITHIN CONSTRAINTS

Music theorist Leo nard Meyer's definition of musical style also highlights this interaction of choice and constraint: Style is a replication of patterning, whether in human behavior or in the artifacts produced by human behavior, that results from a series of choices made within some set of constraints .. . [which] he has learned to use but does not himself create ... Rather they are learned and adopted as part of the historical/cultural circumstances of individuals or group. 6

The rules and constraints of a musical style still allow for infinite possibilities, just as languages with a finite number of words (the lexicon) and a finite set of grammat ical rules (syntax) can still allow for an infinite number of possible sentences. In language, this phenomenon is referred to as "discrete infinity."7 In both music and language, constraints provide a common ground for communication between the perform er and the audience, or between the speaker and the listener. The constraints on the improviser in the moment of performance do not come only from the conventions of the musical style at hand, however. The need for rapid, real-time thought and action pose an additional set of limitations within which the improviser must work.

Performance/Performer constraints In the following discussion of performance/performer constraints, I draw on the work of the late psychologist and improvise r Jeff Pressing, arguably the most important pioneer in theorization a.b out the cognitive basis of improvisa tion. Through his writin gs, h e d eveloped a highly nuanced framework for discussing improvisation from the perspective of cognitive psychology, drawing on extensive experience as a musician and a background as broad as it was deep in psychology, music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology. 8

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the individual, Optionally novel for society [i.e., novelty fo r society does not occur in all creative acts, and is thus nonessential to the definition ], Nondeterministic [i.e., .. . alternative possibilities occur at many points in the process . . . differe nt outcomes [can occur from] the same internal state a nd the same input .. . ], dependent on Criteria/Constrains, a nd based o n Existing ele ments (" raw mate ria ls") (P .N . Johnso n-Laird, "How Jazz M usicians Improvise," Music Perception 19 (2002): 419-420 (emphasis in original)). Leonard Meyer, Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), 3. In the sa me book, in a passage on co mposition that could equally describe improvisa tio n, Meyer states that, "Choosing a m ong alternatives ... depends upon the existence of a set of constraints that establishes a repertory of alternatives from which to choose, given some specific compositional context" (7-8) . T his concept has b een described a nd explored exte n sively in the writings of Noam Chom sky, some of which are cited in the bibliography a nd discussed further in Chapter 5. See Australia Adlib , "In Memoria n Jeff Pressing," ABC Radio National, http://wwv;.abc. net.au/arts/adlib/stories/s85841 8.htm (accessed March 7, 2008) .

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INTRODUCTION

Given the clarity and precision with which he described the elements of his theoretical model of cognition in musical improvisation, I will provide many of his explanations in his own words before describing their relevance to the present study. Pressing described the cognitive processes necessary for improvisation as follows: The improviser must effect real-time sensory and perceptual coding, optimal attention allocation, event interpretation, decision-making, prediction (of the actions of others), memory storage and recall, error correction, and movement control, and further, must integrate these processes into an optimally seamless set of musical statements that reflect both a personal perspective on musical organization and a capacity to affect listeners. 9

Given this impressive list of mental activities that an improviser must juggle at any given moment, Pressing posited several "tools" that serve to circumvent what he called "the rather severe constrains on human information processing and action." 10 Two of these tools, the referent and the knowledge base, are described here. These tools are not only necessary for efficiency of cognitive processing in real-time performance, but also provide the musical materials necessary for improvising in a particular style. Stylistic constraints thus aid in alleviating performance constraints. Pressing defined the referent as "an underlying formal scheme or guiding image specific to a given piece, used by the improviser to facilitate the generation and editing of improvised behaviour ... " 11 Ethnomusicologist Bruno Nett! has used the term "model" for the same phenomenon, describing that the improviser "always has something given to work from-certain things that are at the base of the performance, that he uses as the ground on which he builds." 12 Referents are essentially musical materials or formal structures that

9

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12

Jeff Pressing, "Psychological Constraints on Improvisational Expertise and Communication," in In the Course of Peifonnance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation, ed. Bruno Nettl and Melinda Russell (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 51. Ibid., 51. Jeff Pressing, "Cognitive Processes in Improvisation," in Cognitive Processes itt the Perception of Art, ed. W. Ray Crozier and Anthony J. Chapman (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1984), 346-347. Bruno Nett!, "Thoughts on Improvisation: A Comparative Approach," The Musical Quarterly 60 (1974): 11. Nettl's full description of the term "model," contextualizing the above quotation, is as follows " ... [E] ach musical culture has its set of musical macrounits, e.g., songs or pieces or modes ... the degree to which the sound realizations of the unit are similar varies with the culture, comprising the system of musical conceptualization, the question of freedom for the performer, etc. ... all musics [have] basic musical entities which exist and are performed ... The improviser ... always has something given

DEFINING IMPROVISATION: SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY WITHIN CONSTRAINTS

are used as the basis for improvisation. For example, Levin describes what could be considered the referent for a cadenza in the Mozart style in the quota~ tion on pages xiv and xv of the Prelude. His description of this referent includes the structure of the cadenza, the types of musical materials that are used, and the events that take place in each formal section. Pressing's examples of referents in various musical styles include the theme of a theme and variations, the melody type (e.g., in Indian raga, Arabic maqam, Persian dastgah), and the bass line. 13 Pressing described the role of the referent in cognition during improvised performance as follows: ... [T]he referent provides material for variation [so] the performer needs to allocate less processing capacity (attention) to selection and creation of materials ... [and allows for] pre-analysis ... construction of one or more optimal structural segmentations of the referent and also a palette of appropriate and well-rehearsed resources for variation and manipulation, reducing the extent of decision-making required in performance ... Specific variations can be precomposed and rehearsed, reducing the novelty of motoric control and musical logic of successful solutions of the improvisational constraints, and providing fallback material ... it reduces the attention required on the task of producing effective medium to long-range order, since the referent, in part, provides this. 14

The referent thus provides the underlying or overarching structural outline for an improvisation, and/or, in some cases, the material upon which one improvises. Thus, the process of learning and rehearsing the referent provides raw materials for the improvisational knowledge base that can be drawn upon in the moment of performance. This referent is only part of the larger knowledge base necessary for improvisation. Pressing described this knowledge base as follows: Improvisational fluency arises from the creation, maintenance and enrichment of an associated knowledge base, built into long term memory[:] ... materials, excerpts, repertoire, subskills, perceptual strategies, problem-solving routines, hierarchical memory structures and schemas, generalized motor programs, and more ..

to work from-certain things that are at the base of the performance, that he uses as the ground on which he builds. We may call it his model ... a series of obligatory musical events which must be observed, either absolutely or with some sort of frequency, in order that the model remain intact" (9-12). To avoid terminological confusion, I will use Pressing's term "referent" rather than Nettl's term "model" (though they both essentially describe the same phenomenon), since the term "model" will be used to describe pedagogical models for learning in later chapters. 13 Pressing 1984, 348. 14 Pressing 1998,52.

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INTRODUCTION

[The knowledge base] encodes the history of compositional choices and predilections defining an individual's personal style ... 15

The improviser's knowledge base thus includes referents, in addition to the types of stylistically appropriate materials that are used to realize them in the moment of performance. Nettl's concept of "building blocks" similarly describes this feature of the knowledge base. 16 From the perspective of cognition in improvised performance, Pressing described that the referent and knowledge base allow for "conscious attention [for] the allocation of central cognitive processing ([i.e.,] decision making) and ... unconscious or automatic attention [for] the allocation of peripheral cognitive subroutines: perceptual analysis ... and pre-coded motor sequences ... " 17 That is, by internalizing certain features of a musical language so that they can be conceived of and generated as units when improvising, real-time musicmaking on a note-to-note level can proceed with some degree of automaticity. 18 The limited resources of attention can thus be devoted to higher-level musical processes (e.g., relationships between events, form, feel, etc.). These two levels, more conscious processing of higher-level musical flow and more subconscious semi-automatized action on the microlevel, return us to the dichotomies in the review that opened the Prelude, and Levin's contrasting descriptions of his improvisation in two different contexts. Some conventions and rules are accessible to consciousness (e.g., the referent for a Mozart

15 16

17

18

Ibid., 53-54. "A musical repertory, composed or improvised, may be viewed as the embodiment of a system, and one way of describing such a system is to divide it theoretically into its component units ... the building blocks which tradition accumulates and which musicians within the tradition make use of, choosing among them, combining, recombining, and re-arranging them. These building blocks are, even within a single repertory, of many different orders. They are the tones selected from a tone system; they are melodic motifs; they are harmonic intervals and interval sequences in improvised polyphony; they are types of sections" (Nettll974, 13). Pressing 1984, 356. For additional discussion of the referent and knowledge base in improvisation, see Kenny and Gellrich, 2002. As psychologist P.N. Johnson-Laird describes in his theoretical model of jazz improvisation, "Some acts of creation occur in real time, and do not allow the individual to go back and revise earlier thoughts ... Such creations depend on the artist internalizing the tacit principles of an existing genre along with idiosyncratic variations ... The constraints must therefore be adequate to produce acceptable improvisations, and they must be in a fOrm that can be used rapidly and without the need for much computational power . The artist is acquiring a skill that depends on tacit procedures in which conscious propositional knowledge has little part to play." P.N. Johnson-Laird, "Jazz Improvisation: A Theory at the Computation Level," in Representing Musical Structure, ed. Peter Howell, Robert West, and Ian Cross (London: Academic Press, 1991), 322.

LEARNING AND MEMORY

cadenza as described in the second quotation from Levin at the opening of the Prelude), while others may function without conscious awareness. Improvised performance in any tradition requires years of training to acquire the rules, conventions, and elements of the style that make up the knowledge base. Before exploring the nature of this training in Part I of the present study and how the acquired knowledge base is used in performance in Part 11, I will set the stage for these discussions by providing some background on the psychology of learning and memory in the following section.

Learning and memory Learning and memory are inseparable. Psychologist Arthur Reber, whose research has focused on learning, states that: ... [L]earning and memory are so intimately interconnected ... There can be no learning without memorial capacity; if there is no memory of past events, each occurrence of an event is, functionally, the first. Equivalently, there can be no memory of information in the absence of acquisition; if nothing has been learned, there is nothing to store. 19

Both learning and memory can be subdivided into implicit and explicit processes. The implicit/explicit distinction refers to the degree to which these processes involve conscious awareness.

Implicit and explicit learning Implicit learning is defined as "the acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without conscious operations ... a nonconscious and automatic abstraction of the structural nature of the material arrived at from experience of instances." 20 By contrast, explicit learning is "a more conscious operation where the individual makes and tests hypotheses in a search for structure ... [;] the learner searching for information and building then testing hypotheses ... [;] or, because we can communicate using language ... assimilation of a rule following explicit instructions." 21 The key to distinguishing between implicit and explicit learning is the lack of conscious effort in the former and the presence thereof in the latter. It is possible, however, to learn something explicitly, all the while acquiring additional knowledge

19

Arthur Reber, Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge: An Essay on the Cognitive Unconscious (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 109. 20 Nick Ellis, "Implicit and Explicit Language Learning-An Overview," in Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages, ed. Nick Ellis (London: Academic Press, 1994), 1-2. 21 Ibid., 1-2.

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I INTRODUCTION about it implicitly. For example, when one memorizes phrases in a foreign language, one may explicitly focus on a specific feature of the words, phrases, sounds, and structures to be learned, but one also inevitably internalizes additional attributes of the language implicitly in the process. 22 Thus, "it is probable that a mixture of implicit and explicit learning is involved in many tasks." 23 How implicit and explicit learning interact in the development of improvisational skill will be explored in Part I.

Implicit and explicit memory The implicit/explicit distinction can also be applied to memory, where implicit memory is typically defined as "memory that does not depend on conscious recollection," and explicit memory as "memory that involves conscious recollection." 24 The relationship between the implicitness/explicitness of learning and the nature of the resultant knowledge stored is not always a direct one, and these relationships can change over time. That is, something learned implicitly can be brought to the light of consciousness by analysis or through the need to make implicit knowledge explicit (e.g., in pedagogy). Proceeding in the opposite direction, some believe that explicit knowledge can be rendered implicit "through practice, exposure, drills, etc ... " 25 Thus, one can view knowledge as falling along an explicit-implicit "continuum." 26 The distinction between implicit and explicit memory is related to the declarative/procedural distinction.

Declarative and procedural memory Declarative memory refers to the ability to recall facts and events, whereas procedural memory describes the knowledge of skills. Declarative memory and procedural memory are sometimes referred to as "knowing that" and

22

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24

25 26

For example, one could memorize several sentences, one pedagogical goal of which was to demonstrate word order, but case declination could be learned passively in that process, or vice versa. For discussion of interactions between implicit and explicit learning, see Dianne Berry and Zoltan Dienes, Implicit Learning: Theoretical and Empirical Issues (East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993); N.C. Ellis {ed.) Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages (London: Academic Press, 1994). Michael W. Eysenk and Mark T. Keane, Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Hrmdbook, 5th edn. (East Sussex: Psychology Press, 2005), 214. Ibid., 569. For further discussion of implicit and explicit memory, see Daniel Schachter, Searching for Memory: The Brain, The Mind, and the Past (New York: Basic Books, 1996), 161-191. I discuss implicit and explicit memory in improvised performance in Chapter 6. Susan M. Gass and Larry Selinker, Second Language Acquisition, A11 Introductmy Course, 3rd edn. (New York: Routledge, 2008), 243. Ibid., 243.

LEARNING AND MEMORY

"knowing how," respectively." Generally, declarative knowledge is thought to be consciously accessible, whereas procedural knowledge is thought to be inaccessible to consciousness. 28 For example, one knows "how to ride a bike," but one does not have conscious access to exactly how one is actually maintaining one's balance. However, it is not necessarily the case that all declarative knowledge is explicit and all procedural knowledge implicit. 29 For example, the intentiotts that control actions can explicitly represent to some degree "the input conditions, the action, the outcome, and the link between them," which then operate on unconscious procedures for the implementation of those actions. 30 With regard to improvisation, differing degrees of consciousness for different levels of procedural musical knowledge exist, as was evident in Levin's contrasting perspectives on improvisational knowledge presented in the Prelude. The access to and use of such knowledge in improvised performance will be discussed in Chapter 6, and compared to analogous processes in spontaneous speech in Chapter 8. Procedural memory includes what is often colloquially referred to as "muscle memory" or "motor memory." As Robert Levin stated in one interview, in his improvisations, the fingers themselves play a "fateful role" in determining the outcome of an improvisation. 31 Jazz pianist and scholar Vijay Iyer has similarly described that "For musical performers, the difference between musical and human motion collapses to some degree; the rhythmic motions of the performer and the musical object overlap." 32 That is, one cannot necessarily separate the musical from the bodily in describing knowledge and action in improvisation. 33 The role of motor learning and memory in the design of 27 Eysenck and Keane, 233-247,557, 562; Benjamin Brinner, Knowing Music, Making Music (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 39. As Johnson·Laird describes, "Knowledge for generating ideas is unconscious and embodied in procedures. It is knowledge of how to do things. But, knowledge for evaluating ideas can be conscious and embodied in beliefs. It is knowledge tlwt something is the case" (Johnson·Laird 2002, 421-422 (emphasis in original)). 28 Eysenck and Keane, 456. 29 For discussion, see Gass and Selinker, 243. 30 Zoltan Dienes and Josef Perner, "A Theory of the Implicit Nature of Implicit Learning," in Implicit Learning and Consciousness: An Empirical, Philosopl1ical, and Computational Consensus in the Making?, ed. R.M. French and A. Cleeremans (East Sussex: Psychology Press, 2002), 78. 31 See Chapter 6 for further discussion of this quotation and the experience of improvised performance from the perspective of the improviser. 32 Vijay lyer, "Embodied Mind, Situated Cognition, and Expressive Micro-Timing in African-American Music," Music Perception19 (2002): 395. 33 Additionally, Iyer describes that, "The often implied characterization of the symbolic as high-level and the embodied as low-level is misleading, for these functions may interact

I9

10

I INTRODUCTION pedagogical materials as well as in learning how to improvise will be explored further in Chapters 3 and 4.

Comparisons of music and language Music and language are both systems of organized sound that are both unique to humans and ubiquitous across all known human cultures, though the sounds and systems for organizing them differ across cultures. 34 Language is capable of specific semantic reference, providing for precision in communication. Music appears to lack such precision in most cases, but communicates powerfully in different ways, perhaps accounting in part for the near-universal use of music in diverse cultural contexts from ritual to entertainment. These similarities and differences between language and music have inspired comparisons between them by scholars from a wide variety of disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, to name just a few. 35 In the moment of performance, language and music share, most broadly, three loci for comparison: the producer (speaker/musician), the listener, and the sound system itself used to communicate between the two.l6 Additionally, music and language can be compared from the perspectives of pedagogy and learning. Research in cognitive neuroscience has been carried out to compare music and language perception and comprehension, and there has been extensive theorizing by music theorists and ethnomusicologists comparing music and language as sound systems, research that will be discussed in Chapter 5. However, relatively little attention has been given to the comparison of cognitive processes in musical and linguistic production. What does musical "production, entail? There are different types of musical production (e.g., composing, performing precomposed music, and improvising),

34

35 36

with each other bilaterally. In particular, one should not claim that the high level processes 'direct' the low-level, for in some cases it is not clear that there is any such hierarchical organization ... " (Ibid., 408.) Iyer thus proposes a "heterarchical interconnectivityofbodyand mind" inimprovisation. Pressing suggests the same in "Improvisation: Methods and Models," in Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Compositio11, ed. John Sloboda (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 136. Aniruddh Pate!, Music, Language, and the Brain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Erin McMullen and Jenny Saffran, "Music and Language: A Developmental Comparison," Music Perception 21 (2004): 289-311. See Chapter 5 for discussion and review. Cf. Jean-Jacques Nattiez' three semiotic levels: politique (poietic), esthesique (esthetic), and neutre (neutral) as described in Fondements d'une Semiologie de la Musique (Paris: Seuill, 1975).

COMPARISONS OF MUSIC AND LANGUAGE

and one can seek analogues of these processes in linguistic production. In the case where the act of composition is entirely separate from the act of performance, composition is most analogous to writing in language: the real-time constraints of performance are removed, allowing for starting and stopping, erasing, reorganization, etc. In the case of performing precomposed music, presuming that the goal is the replication of a composition in the moment of performance, this is most analogous to rhetoric or theater: a memorized (or read) speech or part in a play is produced in real time, but not actually conceived of in real time. The performance act in such instances can thus be thought of as one in which the performer does not exactly create, but rather recreates. While both writing and preplanned speeches are important aspects of language, spontaneous speech is the most common aspect of linguistic production. Yet it is also one of the most miraculous: an infinite variety of phrases can be constructed in the moment to respond to the context of the discourse underway. The musical process most closely comparable to this is improvisation. In a large proportion of the world's musical traditions, the composer and performer are not only one and the same, but the music is, to varying degrees, invented in the moment of performance. Of course, the circumstances of performance are such that any performance, even of a previously memorized, precomposed piece will have some improvisation as the performer reacts to the unique circumstances of the performance such as place, audience, performer's mood, etc. From this minimal amount of spontaneous decision-making to the creation of the entire musical fabric in real time, different musical traditions run the gamut in the degree to which performances are improvised. 37 Similarly, spoken language is a "complex mix of creativity and prefabrication." 38 Exploring cognition in improvisation thus provides a new angle for music-language comparisons: that of spontaneous production (see Chapter 8). The metaphor of an improviser "speaking a musical language" is quite common.39 Is learning to improvise music comparable to learning a language? What insights can be gleaned from the comparison of the acquisition of these two sound systems? While music and language learning have been compared,

37

38

39

Pressing sketched a continuum of improvisatory freedom in several musical traditions, with traditional Japanese music and Western classical music being most constrained, and free jazz and alap of North Indian (Hindustani) music being most free (1984, 347). Rosamond Mitchell and Florence Myles, Second Language Learning Theories (London: Arnold, 1998), 12. See for example: Paul Berliner, T11inkingin]azz: The InfiniteArtofimprovisation (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Ingrid Monson, Saying Something: jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

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12

I INTRODUCTION this has only been from the perspective of perceptual competence, that is, the ability to recognize, understand, and appreciate music in one's culture, and how this ability may develop. 40 An improvising musician, like the native speaker of a language, has acquired a musical competence able to be used for both comprehension and production. Thus, the study of how the improviser acquires this productive competence can be compared to the process of language acquisition, and the knowledge base acquired can be compared to that for language (see Chapter 5). Although these music-language comparisons are made primarily in Chapters 5 and 8, they also occur throughout the book, where useful and relevant.

40

Such comparison of music and language acquisition has been explored in Erin McMullen and Jenny Saffran, "Music and Language: A Developmental Comparison," Music Perception 21 (2004): 289-311. See Chapter 5 for discussion.

Part I

Cognition in the Pedagogy and Learning of Improvisation

Chapter 2

The pedagogy of improvisation 1: Improvisation treatises of the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

Dear Miss Cecilia, You are aware that music is in some measures a species of language by which may be expressed those passions and feelings with which the mind is burthened or affected. It is also known to you that we are able to play on any musical instrument, and more particularly on the pianoforte, much which has 11either been written down before, nor

previously prepared or studied, but which is merely the fruit ofa momentmy and accidental inspiration. This is called extemporizing. Sud1 extemporaneous performcmces cmmot naturally, and indeed ought not to assume the strict written forms of written compositions; nay, the very freedom and inartificial

nature of m eh productions gives them a peculiar charm; and many celebrated masters, such as Beethoven and Hummel, have particularly distinguished themselves in tl1is art. Although, for tl1is purpose, and indeed for music in general, a certain share of natural talent is required, still extemporizing may be studied and practised according to certain principles; and I am convinced that any body, who has attained to more than a moderate skill in playing is also capable, at least to a certain degree, of acquiring the art of playing extemporaneously. But for this purpose it is requisite to commence this sort ofpractice at an early period (wl1ich, alas! Most players neglect); and that we should lea m to indefatigably apply tlw experience which we have gained by studying tl1e compositions of others, to our own extemporaneous performances. At present, as your execution is so considerably formed, and as you are beginning to make a progress in tlwrough-bass, you should attempt, sometimes whett alone, sometimes in the presence of your teacher, to connect togetl1er easy chords, short melodies, passages, scales, arpeggioed chords; or, which is much better, leave it to your fingers, to effect this connection, according to their will and pleasure. For extemporizing possesses this singular and puzzling property, that reflection and attention are of scarcely any service in the matter. We must leave nearly every thing to the fingers and to chance. At first this will appear difficult to you; what you play will seem unconnected, or even incorrect; you will lose that courage and confidence i11 yourself which are so necessary to this purpose. But ifyou do not allow yourself to be frightened by this, m1d will repeat these attempts day after day, you will perceive that your powers will become more developed

16

I

THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I

from week to week; 011d, with a more extended knowledge of thorough-bass, you will soon learn also to avoid faults against harmony. At first, you must attempt to extemporize only short movemellts, somewhat similar to preludes or cadences. By degrees you must wdeavour to extend these, by interweaving longer melodies, brilliant passages, arepeggioed chords, &c. If, in default of ideas of your own readily offering themselves, you should avail yourself of sucl1 as you have leamed from other compositions, such assistance is always vety excusable. The scale-passages, and the chords of transition which connect them, are a good means offilling up any little chasm, when no melodious ideas happen to strike tl1e player. You k11ow that all music may be reduced to simple chords. just so, simple chords conversely serve as the ground-work on which to invent and play all sorts of melodies, passages, skips, embellishments, &c. When you have devoted a considerable time to a rational practice in the way here pointed out, you will feel astonished at the great improvement and the variety ofapplications of wl1ich the talent for extemporizing is capable[, .. ] But for all this is required: Great and highly cultivated facility and rapidity offinger, as well as a peifect command of all the keys and of every mechanical difficulty. For you may easily imagine, Miss, that the happiest talent avails nothing, when the fingers are incapable offollowing and obeying its dictates. Besides this, it also requires imimate acquaintance with the compositions of all the great composers; for only by this means can one's own talent be awakened, wltivated, and strengthened, so as to enable us to produce music of our ow11 invention. To this as you k11ow, must be added a thorough practical knowledge of harmony; and, lasty,~ I repeat once more,~u own indefatigable and rationally applied industty. Therefore, dear Miss, exercise yourself cheerfully and courageously in this very honorable branch of the art. If the labour is great the pleamre and reward wl1ich you may gain tl1ereby are still greater [... ] ~Carl

Czerny (1839) 1

In this letter, Czerny describes the basic prerequisites for learning to improvise in the style of this time: a knowledge of harmony ("progress in thoroughbass," "perfect command of all the keys," "a thorough practical knowledge of harmony"), stylistic formulas ("chords, short melodies, passages, scales, arpeggioed chords"), and repertoire ("intimate acquaintance with the compositions of all the great composers"), as well as well-developed technique ("great and highly cultivated facility and rapidity of finger"). Czerny also outlines the stages oflearning through which the student should pass in improvisational training. He advises the student to learn to improvise by attempting improvisation. In that process, he or she can begin by "connecting together easy chords" and other such musical elements. Though this may at first be "difficult," "unconnected," and even "incorrect," continued practice 1

Carl Czerny, Letters to a Youllg Lady on the Art of Playing the Pianoforte, from the Earliest Rudiments to the Highest Stage of Cultivation, Vienna 1839, trans. J.A. Hamilton (New York: Firth, Pond and Co., 1851), 74-77 (emphasis in original).

THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I j17

will lead to further development of the improviser's "powers." The improviser will soon be able to create "short movements" such as "preludes and cadences," and eventually, he or she will acquire the ability to "extend these." But how can a student of improvisation arrive at the final goal, where simply "leaving nearly everything to the fingers and to chance," as Czerny suggests, will produce stylistically idiomatic improvisations? In Levin's descriptions of improvisation in the Prelude, we saw a similar contrast: Levin can provide an explicit description of some aspects of his knowledge base, yet he also refers to being both a "creator" and a "witness" in the moment of performance. What is the nature of the "indefatigable and rationally applied industry" that will lead the student to acquire the knowledge base in a manner fit for spontaneous use in improvised performance? This chapter and the one that follows seek to answer these questions through an examination of the keyboard improvisation treatises for amateurs and music students of the middle-to-late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As ethnomusicologist Benjamin Brinner states in his study of competence and interaction in Javanese gamelan performance, "the organization of knowledge for transmission is one ofthe most readily accessible conceptualizations of competence." 2 The treatises examined here provide rich insights into how the competencies necessary for keyboard improvisation in the middle-to-late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were conceptualized and codified for transmission. The authors of these pedagogical treatises were ostensibly accomplished improvisers themselves. They likely learned through training far more rigorously than could be conveyed in a treatise geared toward students. 3 In writing pedagogical texts, these authors were forced to distill their knowledge in order to make it accessible to amateurs eager to learn the art of improvisation. Some of this knowledge was surely implicit, and the fundamentals of it would need to be made explicit for the learner. In turn, this explicit knowledge transmitted through the treatises would have to be conveyed in such a way so as to render it eventually implicit for the learner, so that the budding improviser could call on it in the moment of performance even when, in Czerny's words, "reflection and attention are of scarcely any service in the matter." Of course, not everything can be distilled by the pedagogue 4 Thus, in addition to the codification

2

3

4

Benjamin Brinner, Knowing Music, Making Music (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995 ), 45. For discussion of this issue with regard to composition pedagogy in this period, see Robert Gjerdingen, Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 426. For discussion of this issue with regard to composition pedagogy in this period, see Gjerdingen 2007, 426.

18

I THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I of simple formulas (the "chords, short melodies, passages, scales, [and] arpeggioed chords" mentioned by Czerny), these treatises often present model improvisations. Through models, implicit and inarticulable aspects of style can be demonstrated rather than explained, allowing for internalization of these underlying features. Furthermore, the recommended modes of rehearsal espoused by the treatises' authors embrace pedagogical strategies that empower the learner with both a knowledge base and the ability to navigate it in real time. An improviser, like the learner of a language, must acquire not only vocabulary and grammatical rules, but also fluency in their spontaneous use. The goal of this chapter is to explore what the authors of these treatises put forth as core elements of the knowledge base in this style. I begin with a presentation of the treatises selected for the present study and relevant background information. This is followed by a discussion of the prerequisites necessary for learning to improvise as presented by the authors of the treatises. Following this explication of background competence, I will describe formulas, the primary means through which the elements of the knowledge base are transmitted. In the next chapter, the pedagogical strategies of the treatises will be discussed, drawing cross-cultural comparisons with improvisation pedagogy in other traditions, and speculating as to the cognitive processes underlying the acquisition of knowledge through these teaching techniques. While the present chapter focuses on the fundamentals of what needs to be learned in order to improvise in this style, the following chapter focuses on how this material is taught and learned.

The treatises of the present study Western classical music has a rich history of documenting its own development through theoretical and practical treatises. The pedagogy of improvisation is no exception. As early as the ninth century, treatises such as the Musica enchiriadis discussed improvised vocal polyphony, and the practice of writing pedagogical works on improvisation has continued to the present day with modern manuals for church organists, for example. 5 The period from the mid-eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century witnessed a particular proliferation of pedagogical treatises, as the rise of the middle class produced a growing cohort of amateur music makers. 6 Prevalent among such

5

6

For comprehensive discussion of the history of improvisation in Western music, see Ernst Ferand, Die Improvisation in der Musik (Zurich: Rhein· Verlag, 1938) and Improvisation in Nine Centuries of Western Music: An Anthology (KOln: Arno Yolk Verlag, 1961). For discussion of a similar pressure of a need for "knowledge for all" driving a distillation of musical practice into practical music theory in Javanese music, see Marc Perlman,

THE TREATISES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

amateur musicians were keyboard players, leading to a seemingly disproportionate number of such treatises for keyboard, although )ohann )oachim Quantz's 1752 Versuch einer Anweisung die Fiote traversiere zu spielen and Leopold Mozart's 1756 Versuch einer grundlichen Violinschule are notable exceptions. These treatises were probably intended to be studied with the help of a teacher, as some treatises explicitly reference what role the teacher can play in the use of the treatise. 7 I have chosen to focus here on keyboard treatises for clavichord, harpsichord, and pianoforte from this period, as opposed to those for organ, for several reasons. Treatises for organ would have been written predominantly for professional organists. Though there were undoubtedly amateur organists, it was highly unlikely that amateurs would have owned their own organs, while many households would have possessed keyboard instruments of other sorts. Additionally, organ music in this period was almost entirely sacred, while other keyboard music was largely secular. These factors contributed to a greater demand for amateur treatises for non-organ keyboard instruments. Authors of instructional manuals for organ could ostensibly rely on the fact that their readers were professionals, and thus would likely already have a certain degree of musical knowledge. Keyboard treatises for amateurs, on the other hand, would have to serve an audience with a wider range of musical abilities. These manuals thus required the presentation of basic fundamentals of the musical language, as well as pedagogical strategies that catered to the uninitiated. These features make them ideal for a study of the essentials of musical knowledge and its transmission in this period. Two caveats about treatises written for amateurs have been raised in other studies of improvisation. First, as musicologist Valerie Goertzen writes, such treatises may not "take into account the range of possibilities open to accomplished artists ... [and] it is often not possible to know to what extent an author sought to reflect prevailing custom, to correct what he perceived as abuses, or to promote what he considered to be good habits in the student." 8 Second, as Robert Levin describes, "of the authors whose treatises contain detailed descriptions of the use and methods of improvisation, C.P.E Bach is

7

8

Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music T!Jeory (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004), 117-126. See, for example, Daniel Gottlob TUrk, School of Clavier Playi11g, or, Instructions in Playing tl1e Clavier for Teachers and Students, Leipzig and Halle, 1789, trans. Raymond H. Haggh (Lincoln, IN: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 17-18. Valerie Goertzen, "By \V ay of Introduction: Preluding by 18th- and Early 19th-Century Pianists," The ]oumal of Musicology 14 ( 1996): 306.

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THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I

the only one whose music elicits the same respect as his writings ... "9 In spite of the potentially limited scope of some of these manuals and the relative lack of fame of some of their authors, these treatises for amateurs offer valuable insights. Not only do they depict contemporaneous conceptions of the elements of the musical language, but they also allow for the study of the pedagogical strategies used to enable students to internalize these elements in such a way as to make them available for spontaneous musical creation. The nine treatises selected for study here span the period from C.P.E. Bach (a transitional figure between the Baroque and Classical periods) to Car! Czerny (a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic periods), and include authors from Austria, England, France, Germany, and Italy. I have selected treatises devoted solely to improvisation, with the exception of two: C.P.E. Bach's and Daniel Gottlob TUrk's treatises contain entire sections on improvisation, but also cover other material. This distinction is important because treatises aimed at amateurs or students that deal exclusively with improvisation must either provide instruction in the prerequisite knowledge and skills necessary for improvisation, or at least state what these prerequisites should be. With the exception of Bach's and Vierling's treatises (and perhaps also Czerny's), these manuals are clearly geared toward novice amateurs; Bach's is considered to be a more advanced course in keyboard playing.10 Despite these differences, in this chapter and the one that follows, I describe the common elements of these treatises in their codification of musical knowledge for transmission and in the pedagogical strategies that they employ. Below, I list the treatises examined in chronological order, with brief background on the authors, and, for more well-studied treatises, brief background on the treatises themselves. Bach, C.P.E., Versuch Uber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen [Essay on the True Manner of Playing Keyboard Instruments]. Berlin, 1753 (Part One) and 1762 (Part Two), translated and edited by William ). Mitchell. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1949).

9

10

Bruno Nettl et al., "Improvisation," In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music On line, http:// ww>v .oxfordmusiconline.com/ subscriber/ article/grove/music/ 13 738 ( accessed April 4, 2008). (This quotation is from Robert Levin's section on "Instrumental Music" in the "The Classical Period" section of the "Western Art Music" section of this Grove Music entry.) Thomas Christensen, "C.P.E. Bach's Versuch and its Context in Eighteenth-Century Thorough-Bass Pedagogy," in C.P.E. Bacl!, Musik fiir Europa, ed. Hans Giinter Ottenberg (Frankfurt: Die Konzerthalle, 1998), 369-370; Ralph Kirkpatrick, "C.P.E. Bach's 'Versuch' Reconsidered," Early Music4 (1976): 388.

THE TREATISES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

Car! Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), the second son of).S. Bach, was one of the most important composers of the second half of the eighteenth century, and served as a court musician to Frederick the Great. The Versuch has been called "the most important lSth_century German-language treatise on the subject [of keyboard playing]." 1 1 Published in two independent parts, the first part ( 1753) covers fingering, execution of ornaments, and performance, and the second ( 1762) discusses thorough-bass, accompaniment, and improvisation. Kollmann, August Friedrich Christopher, An Introduction to the Art of Preluding and Extemporizing in Six Lessons for the Harpsichord or Harp, Opus 3 (London: R. Wornum, 1792). August Friedrich Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) was a German music theorist who also served as an organist in Germany and, from 1782, in Londonl2 Vierling, Johann Gottfried, Versuch einer Anleitung zum Priiludieren fUr UngeUbtere m it Beyspielen [Essay on an Introduction to Preluding for the Untrained with Examples] (Leipzig: Breitkopfund Hiirtel, 1794). )ohann Gottfried Vierling (1750-1813) was a German church composer and organist who studied with the renowned eighteenth-century theorist ).P. Kirnberger.U Ttirk, Daniel Gottlob, Klaviersclwle, oder Anweisung zum Klavierspielen fUr Lehrer und Lernende [School of Clavier Playing, or, Instructions in Playing the Clavier for Teachers and Students] (Leipzig and Halle, 1789). Translation, introduction and notes by Raymond H. Haggh (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982). Daniel Gottlob Turk (1750-1813) was a German theorist and composer whose Klavierschule has been referred to as "the last textbook of that first

11

12

13

Christoph Wolff et al., "Bach," in Grove Music On line. Oxford Music Online, http://www. oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40023pgl2 (accessed August 12, 2008). Erwin R. Jacobi, "Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann als Theoretiker," Arcltiv fiir Musikwissenscltaft 13 (1956): 263~70; see also Michael Kassler, "Kollmann," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://W'.vw.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/ article/grove/musicll5291pgl (accessed August 12, 2008). Karl Paulke, "Johann Gottfried Vierling, 1750~ 1813," Archiv fiir Musikwissenschaft 4 (1922): 439-455. See also Ronald Diirre, "Vierling, Johann Gottfried," in Grove Music O~tline. Oxford Music Online, http:l/w\vw.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/ grove/music/29334 (accessed August 12, 2008).

I 21

22

I THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I generation [i.e., the generation of C.P.E. Bach] of teaching manuals of keyboard instruments ... " 14 It is a manual for clavichord covering basic musical skills (e.g., how to read music), fingering, execution of ornaments, improvised ornamentation, and execution. The chapter on execution is considered an important source for eighteenth-century performance practice. 15 Gretry, Andre Ernest Modeste, Methode Simple pour Apprendre aPreluder [Simple Method for Learning to Prelude] (Paris 1801). Andre Ernes! Modeste Gretry (1741-1813) was born in Belgium and later lived in France, where he was a noted composer of opera

comique. 16 Hewitt, James, Il Introductione di Preludio, being an easy method to acquire

the art ofplaying extempore upon the piano-forte, interspersed with a variety of examples, showing how to modulate from one key to another, and from which a knowledge of the science of music may be acquired (New York: ). Hewitt's Musical Repository [1810?]). )ames Hewitt (1770-1827) was born in England and moved to America in the early 1800s, where he taught, conducted, composed, and published music in Boston and New York.l' Through succeeding generations, his family was an important one in American music. 18 On page 2 of his treatise, Hewitt states:

14

Erwin R. Jacobi, "Tiirk, Daniel Gottlob," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http:/ I www. o xfo rdm u si co nl in e. co m! subscriberI article/ grove/ music/ 28 60 7 (ac cessed August 12, 2008). 15 The sections of TUrk's treatise dealing with improvisation will not be discussed in this chapter, since his approach differs substantially from that of the other treatises. It is concerned only with embellishment, variation, and cadenzas, and teaches these through models and discussion of aesthetics, without recourse to explicitly spelled-out harmonic progressions as in the other treatises. TUrk's models and aesthetic criteria for cadenzas will be explored in detail in Chapter 9. 16 David Charlton and M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet, "Gn~try, Andre-Ernest-Modeste," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http:/{W\'1\v.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/ article/grove/music/43361 (accessed August 12, 2008). 17 John W. Wagner, "Hewitt, James," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http:// W\VW.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/12961 (accessed August 12, 2008). 18

John Tasker Howard, "The Hewitt Family in American Music,'' The Musical Quarterly 17 (1931), 25-39.

THE TREATISES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

In Justice to Mr. Gretry, I confess to have avail'd myself of the assistance of a work of his, from which I have taken some of the examples that compose the following Treatise; the liberal part of the Profession, I hope will not censure me, for selecting from the works of a great master.

In fact, his treatise is essentially a verbatim translation of Gretry's

Methode Simple Pour Apprendre il Preluder, supplemented by additional musical examples, four sample preludes, and a section on the "capricio" [sic]. Corri, Philip Antony, Original System of Preluding. Comprehending instructions on that branch of piano forte playing with upwards of two hundred progressive preludes in every key and mode, and in different styles, so calculated that variety may be formed at pleasure (London: Chappell, 1810). Philip Antony Corri (c. 1784-1832) was the son ofDomenico Corri, an Italian composer and teacher who had moved to England in 1771. P.A. Corri began his career as a composer and teacher in England, where he was one of the founders of the London Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music. From 1817 to the end of his life, he taught, performed, and composed in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was known as Arthur Clifton.' 9 The Original System of Preluding is the fourth part of Corri's L'anima di musica, a keyboard treatise, in which, as described on the title page "the first part treats the rudiments of music and theory of music in general, the second part of practice and fingering with tvventyseven exercises, twenty easy progressive lessons, the third part of musical expression and style (which are reduced to System) with suitable examples." L'anima di musica has been called "the most extensive and thorough pianoforte tutor of its time. "20 Czerny, Carl, Systematische Anleitung zum Fantasieren auf dem Pianoforte, Opus 200 [A Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte] (Vienna 1836). Translated and edited by Alice L. Mitchell, (New York: Longman, 1983).

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Peter Ward Jones et al., "Corri," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music On line, http://www. oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/ article/grove/music/0656Spg4 ( accessed August 12, 2008). ]. Bunker Clark, "The Piano Works of P. Antony Corri and Arthur Clifton, BritishAmerican Composer," in Vistas of American Music: Essays and Compositions in Honor of William K. Keams, ed. Susan L. Porter and John Graziano (Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1999), 157.

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THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I

Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was an Austrian composer, pianist, and pedagogue who, as mentioned previously, studied with Ludwig van Beethoven and taught Franz Liszt. Though his legacy is largely due to his pedagogical works, 21 he was also a prolific composer. 22 The Systematische Anleitung zum Fantasieren, Czerny's first pedagogical work, was published in 1836, though it was likely written seven or eight years earlier. 23 In this work, "Czerny covers the entire musical and circumstantial gamut of improvisation as it was known in his day ... no facet of the subject that can conceivably be taught is left untouched." 24 Czerny, Car!, The Art of Preluding, as Applied to the Piano Forte, Consisting

of 120 Examples of Modulations, Cadences, and Fantasies in Every Style, Opus 300, edited by John Bishop (London: R. Cocks, ea. 1848). Op. 300 is a collection of121 Preludes preceded by a page ofV-1 cadences in all keys and five short progressions in C major and c minor "which may be transposed into all the other keys." Czerny writes on the cover "NB This Work forms the znd Part of the Art of Improvisation by the same Author." Aside from mentioning that the introductory progressions may be played in all keys, this volume contains only music (i.e., model preludes) and no text.

Prerequisites for learning to improvise Several treatises explicitly state the prerequisite competencies necessary before approaching the study of improvisation. For example, C.P.E. Bach introduces his chapter on improvisation by stating that improvising a fantasia requires" . . . a thorough understanding of harmony and acquaintance with a few rules of construction ... [and] natural talent ... "25 Vierling states:

21

In addition to Op. 200 and Op. 300, discussed here, these pedagogical works include:

School of Velocity, Op. 299; School of Fugue Playing, Op. 400; Complete Theoretical and Practical Pianoforte School, Op. 500; School of Practical Composition, Op. 600; School of Dexterity and Various Collections of Etudes, Op. 740. For discussion, see Alice Levine Mitchell, "A Systematic Introduction to the Pedagogy ofCarl Czerny," in Music and Civilization: Essays in Honor of Paul Henry Lang, ed. Edmond Strain champs and Maria 22

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Rika Maniates (New York: Norton and Co., 1984), 262-269. Stephan D. Lindeman and George Barth, "Czerny, Car!," in Grove Music On line. Oxford Mu sic 0 nline, http:// v.n,vw.oxfordmusi coniine. com/subscriber/art id e/grove/ m usic/070 30 (accessed August 12, 2008). Alice Mitchell, "Translator's Foreword," in A Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte (New York: Longman, 1983), xii. Alice Levine Mitchell1984, 268-269. C.P.E. Bach ( 1753/1762), Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard InstrwnetJts, trans. and ed. \Villiam ]. Mitchell (New York: W.W. Norton, 1949), 430.

PREREQUISITES FOR LEARNING TO IMPROVISE

To devise a prelude itself, the following four areas of study are essential: I. Some knowledge of thorough-bass 2. Typical modulation from one key to another key 3. One must know the setting of each chord 4. One must understand [how to make] longer notes into shorter ones I anticipate that some who want to use this text with benefit must at least understand as much figured bass as the triad and the seventh chord with their inversions and know how to handle them together with ninth and 5-4 chord. I will skip this study here, as there is no lack of good pedagogical books on figured bass. 26

Czerny describes the following prerequisites: First, nattlral aptitude ... [which] consists of inventive power, lively imagination, ample musical memory, quick flow of thoughts, well formed fingers, etc. Second, thorough training in all brancl1es of harmony, so that the adroitness for proper modulating would have already become second nature for the performer.

Third, finally, a completely pe1jected technique of playing (virlflosity), thus the highest degree of dexterity of the fingers in all difficulties, in all keys, as well as in evetything that pertains to the beautiful, pleasing and graceful performance.27

In addition to stressing the importance of adequate talent and technique for learning to improvise, these three treatises also demand a prerequisite knowledge of harmony and/or thorough-bass. Indeed, the concepts of harmony and thorough-bass were nearly inseparable at that time, as "the term [thoroughbass] came to stand for the science of harmony in general." 28 Thorough-bass refers to a system of musical shorthand in which a bass line is presented with numerical symbols (in most cases) indicating the appropriate harmony to be played. There was no shortage of manuals on the art of accompaniment from 26

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Original German reads: Urn ein Vorspiel selbst zu erfinden, sind folgende vier EtUde erforderlich: (1): Einige Kentnisse vom Generalbass; (2) Regelmiissige Ausweichungen van einem Ton in andere TOne; (3) Muss man der Sitz jedes Accordes wissen und; ( 4) liingere Noten in kiirzere zu veriinderen verstehen. Ich sehe zum Voraus, class derjenige, welcher sich dieses Versuchs mit Nutzen bedienen will, wenigstens soviel vom Generalbass verstehe class er den Dreiklang und den Septimen-Accord mit ihren Verwechslungen, nebst den Nonen und Quartquinten-Accord zu behandeln wisse. Ich i.ibergehe dieses Eti.id hier, weil es an guten Lehrbuchern, die vom Generalbass handeln, nicht mangelt. Vierling, 3 (English translation mine). Carl Czerny, A Systematic Introduction to Improvisntion 011 the Pialloforte, Opus 200, Vienna, 1836, trans. and ed. Alice L. Mitchell (New York: Longman, 1983 ), 2 (emphasis in original). Peter Williams and David Ledbetter, "Thoroughbass," in Grove Music Onli1Je. Oxford Music 0 nli ne, http:/ IW\V\V. oxfo rdm usiconline .cam/subscriber Iart ide/ grove Im usicl2 78 96 (accessed August 12, 2008).

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I THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION I a thorough-bass, as Vierling notes. The aim of such texts was to teach the basic principles of chord structure (the notes comprising a given chord), voicing (the distribution of the individual voices of the chord), voice leading (the proper linking of each chordal voice from chord to chord), idiomatic solutions for common as well as exceptional harmonic progressions, treatment of dissonances, and the numerical symbols used in the figured bass system. 29 In contrast to the required prerequisite harmonic fluency put forth by Bach, Vier ling, and Czerny, Corri states, "It is not my intention to touch on the subject of thoro Bass, I shall not confuse the Pupil with its laws of avoiding octaves, fifths &c. but only give Examples for the Ear to catch, which will be soon habituated." 30 Thus, Corri seeks to allow even the most novice amateur immediate access to an education in improvisation. Similarly, Kollmann, Gn~try, and Hewitt begin without any mention of prerequisites, and start from essentially the same point as Corri, introducing scales, chords, and simple harmonic progressions. Though the treatises by these authors do not require their readers to have gained previous fluency in thorough-bass, in their introductory lessons on chords, they present some of the harmonic material that is considered prerequisite by C.P.E. Bach, Vierling, and Czerny. While they do not state prerequisites explicitly, the treatises of Corri, Kollmann, Gretry, and Hewitt thus demonstrate the minimum background necessary for the inexperienced neophyte seeking initial improvisational instruction. Additionally, to use Corri's words, they craft their exercises so that the ear can "catch" the basic principles of tonal harmony and voice leading, and "habituate" them. That is, their materials are designed for implicit learning, as will be explored further in Chapter 3. Proficiency in harmony is a necessary prerequisite in improvisation training in this style due to the fundamental role that harmony plays in tonal music. Additionally, however, there is a more practical reason for which one needs proficiency in harmony and thorough-bass in order to progress to the study of improvisation: these improvisation treatises teach predominantly through the presentation of a series of bass lines and their associated harmonic progressions in order to provide the novice improviser with a stock of formulas. Whether geared toward the complete beginner or the more advanced student, harmony and harmonic progressions were thus seen as both a fundamental prerequisite framework and the currency by which the raw materials of

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For comprehensive discussion, see F.T. Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-Bass as Practiced in the XVIIth and XVIIItl1 Centuries (London: Oxford University Press, 1931). Corri, 83.

FORMULAS IN THE PEDAGOGY OF IMPROVISATION

improvisation could be transmitted. 31 These harmonic formulas, discussed in the remainder of this chapter, form the core repertory for improvisation at the most basic level of musical structure.

Formulas in the pedagogy of improvisation In their landmark study on the oral tradition of South Slavic epic singing, Milman Parry and Albert Lord developed the concept of the formula: "A group of words which is regularly employed under the same metrical conditions to express a given essential idea." 32 Parry and Lord described that in this tradition, in essence, it is a repertoire of such formulas that is transmitted in the learning process and subsequently used in improvised performance. They suggested that it is through the use of these formulas and their organization into themes that singers could craft tales of great length spontaneously. Such lengthy and yet relatively consistent tales (from singer to singer and over the course of one singer's career) were found not to result from verbatim memorization. Rather, singers were discovered to be drawing on a knowledge base of formulas and a system for their variation within the constraints of the tradition. This oral-formulaic theory has also been applied to the study of Gregorian chant33 31

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In Thomas Christensen's 1998 article on C.P.E. Bach's Versuch (see footnote 10 ofthis chapter), he draws a distinction between thorough-bass treatises that drew on Rameau's inversional theory and those, like C.P.E. Bach's that did not. In the treatises examined here, aside from Bach's, only Vierling's appears not to adopt inversional theory explicitly, presenting a sort of advanced thorough-bass course as it relates to improvisation, as does Bach (Christensen 1998, 369; Kirkpatrick, 388). Corri simply presents the common and and Hewitt make their debt to Rameau even seventh chords and their inversions. Gn~try more explicit by actually writing out the fundamental bass on a separate staff (and even recommending that it be sung with the exercises). No figured bass symbols are found in the treatises of Gretry and Hewitt. Kollmann presents the common chord and its inversions but figures the bass in the cadential and other patterns he presents. Though he does not specifically mention a necessary prerequisite knowledge of thorough-bass to use his treatise, he does not explain the figures, thus implying that it would have been expected that his readers would have been familiar with them. That said, the first presentation of each bass pattern is realized in the right hand, perhaps allowing those with no previous training in thorough-bass to ignore the figures if they did not understand them. Vierling follows completely in the tradition of C.P.E. Bach, presenting the greatest number and variety of bass formulas with figures. Like C.P.E. Bach's treatise then, Vierling's may be seen as a more advanced course in improvisation than Corri's or Kollmann's. For discussion, see Christensen 1998. Milman Parry, quoted in Albert B. Lord, T7Je Singer ofTales, 2nd edn., ed. Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 4. Leo Treitler, "Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainchant," The Musical Quarterly 60 (1974): 333-372.

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and jazz improvisation. 34 While these studies of jazz improvisation have sought to identify and categorize formulas from improvised performances, the treatises under examination in the present study afford the opportunity to examine which formulas were deliberately selected by pedagogues for transmission of this particular tradition. For the purposes of this study, I define musical formulas as musical materials equally useful for possible insertion into an improvisation and for transmission of fundamental aspects of the musical language in a distilled or simplified fashion. 35 In the latter function, these formulas can be considered "memes ... units of learned cultural transmission ... passed down orally via formal and informal meetings between younger and older musicians." 36 The structural patterns that underlie these formulas are examples of what music theorist Robert Gjerdingen has called musical schemata, the archetypal patterns that define a musical style. 37 lndeed, Gjerdingen remarks that "a hallmark of the galant style was a particular repertory of stock musical phrases employed

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Gregory Eugene Smith, "Homer, Gregory, and Bill Evans? The Theory of Formulaic Composition in the Context ofJazz Piano Improvisation" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1983); Luke 0. Gillespie, "Literacy, Orality, and the Parry-Lord 'Formula:' Improvisation and the Afro-American Jazz Tradition," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 22 (1991): 147-164; Thomas Owens, "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation" (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1974). 35 As Peter Jeffery notes, the "translation" of Parry's definition of formula in o~al epic poetry to formula in music is not without its difficulties, since, "melodies do not include groups of words, they do not necessarily operate within metrical conditions, and they rarely express ideas of the sort that words do" (Peter Jeffery, Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Etlmomusicology in the Study ofGregorian Chant (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 90). Additionally, Jeffery suggests that what could be defined as a formula (i.e. for him, something that repeats with a certain range of variability, perhaps with a syntactical function if setting text, and operating within the context of complete melodies), would vary widely from culture to culture (Jeffery, 87-98). While Jeffery is concerned with difficulties in finding a definition of formula adequate to describe what occurs in Gregorian chant, the definition provided above describes the more general phenomenon of a formula in a musical context. 36 i\1ih