Words without Discourse: Creative Strategies on Free Improvisation.
Manuel Falleiros
Introduction
In our work, we seek to analyze the word as a potentiating element in the creative process within the environment of Free Improvisation. Through the use of words, we found a way to contribute to the pertinent questions regarding Free Improvisation. To understand the role of the word in this process, we had to explore the functioning of creative action in Free Improvisation, the meaning of creativity in its context, establish a methodology of observation, and analyze our practical experiences in order to comprehend the creative potentialities of the word.
In our efforts to understand the creative process involved in Free Improvisation, we sought a methodology that could describe the performing arts in their ephemeral action content; thus, we established an approximation between the theories on the Creative Process and the Evidential Paradigm. The Creative Process brought us the idea of dealing with the artwork from its process and not merely analyzing it based on the final product, as if performing an “autopsy” of the artistic production. The Evidential Paradigm indicated a way to formulate hypotheses about a phenomenon based on facts extracted from the clues of the event, and not merely by comparing models to hypotheses. This point of view was important for understanding improvisation not from its product, but as a process, and thus being able to gather observation tools that would allow us to understand the phenomenon not solely from its final product, but also from the relationships between the elements we deem responsible for the production of a flow of musical sounds.
The methodology of this work is based on the observation and analysis of the creative process in the environment of Free Improvisation. For this purpose, a laboratory was created, in the format of an “atelier-rehearsal” (ateliê-ensaio), in which an environment could be developed to provide stimuli for artistic creation and the possibility of observing this process. For the functioning of this atelier, strategies were created to expand and potentiate the interaction between the musicians. Interaction, which is a fundamental element in musical creation in Free Improvisation, is potentiated by the implementation of specific types of guiding proposals. These will be studied in light of the analysis methodology developed particularly for this purpose, based on studies on Creative Processes and the Evidential Paradigm. From this, we intend to obtain results that clarify the role of these potentiating elements and provide a deepening of this creative practice based on the precepts of Free Improvisation. We intend to provide application opportunities for the field of musical education by presenting some possibilities of a practical experience of this work with people not involved with the concepts of Free Improvisation.
In Chapter 1 – Free Improvisation and Context, we point towards a presentation of Free Improvisation not only addressing a historical sense but also through the bias of performance. Thus, we seek to emphasize flow as a central aspect in the distinction of improvisation in relation to other creative forms in music. In this chapter, we exposed the concept of Free Improvisation based on authors such as Derek Bailey, contrasting his definitions, founded on the difference between idiomatic and free improvisation, with the context we found in our practical experiences. Based on the form of creative construction given in and by the collective, Free Improvisation approaches the idea of “conversation”; thus, we propose an approximation with speech based on the concepts of Roland Barthes. By establishing this relationship, we could think of ideal Free Improvisation in its creative potency as a speech free from the terrorist and Law discourses, according to Barthes’ concept.
The importance of being free from these discourses lies in the fact that speech (which is the solitary construction), as well as conversation (the collective construction), must always flow. The characteristic of the irreversibility of speech and conversation led us to another approximation with the concept of “flow” (fluência), as presented to us by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. For him, the concept of flow is related to an activity that we develop under specific conditions, in which our skills must be at their limit, so that the activity is challenging enough to hold our attention, without being impossible to perform. This game is dimensioned in the form of a delicate balance that constitutes flow for Csikszentmihalyi.
In this chapter, we also present how Free Improvisation has taken space in the contemporary music scenario and how it was possible to outline a trajectory of its development based on references in works and composers that influenced the practical experiences carried out for this work. To this end, we explain the importance, for the consolidation of Free Improvisation, of the works of composers and thinkers such as Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ornette Coleman, among others. Theoretical grounding is a relevant part of the creative process of an atelier, which in turn figures as the point of convergence of creative forces for the improviser.
As we can observe from the interviews conducted with the members of the groups that participated in the practical part of this research, the gathering of a specific conceptual body is, for Free Improvisation, a fundamental part of the creative process. As reported by one of the members of the improvisation groups, Moisés Pantolfi da Silva: “I believe it was fundamental that we read the texts that Prof. Rogério chose, as well as discussed them” (Silva, interview). Similarly, Miguel Diaz Antar reports: “I consider the coexistence of the whole group during this time and the theoretical discussions that took place throughout this formation process to be even more important” (Antar, interview).
In Chapter 2 – The Evidential Paradigm Applied to Analysis in Performing Arts, we sought the construction of an observation method that could better approximate the phenomenon of Free Improvisation as a creative process. We observed that authors such as Nettl and Russell (1998) describe the difficulties of conducting research in improvised music without relying on resources that are distant from the phenomenon of improvisation, such as recordings and transcriptions. The methodology of Genetic Criticism, a form of “archaeology” of texts, began to contribute to the formulation of a way to observe improvisation considering its specificities. In particular, the fact that the moment of creation in which the sound flow occurs is very significant for the creative process.
Based on the work of Cecília Almeida Salles, who, grounded in the methodology of Genetic Criticism, presents an alternative for research in the arts with her work on Creative Processes, we were able to trace an approximation with our object of study. We understand that creation in Free Improvisation relies on a procedure we call atelier, which bears a relation to the same concept in Creative Process studies. The atelier for the artist is the place where they can store everything they consider important for the realization of the work, and it is also the place where testing and the acquisition of new skills and modes of operation are carried out.
We dedicated the central chapter of our work, Chapter 3 – The Foundations of the Atelier: Experience Reports and Strategy Development, to the discussion on the creativity involved in the formation of our strategies. Seeking to identify the meaning of creativity for improvisation, we observed that this concept could be too restrictive to explain the creative process involved in Free Improvisation. Thus, we identified that the concepts of imagination, creativity, risk, and invention can become references that better represent the actions involved in a creative process in Free Improvisation. From the detailed analysis of these four elements involved in the creative process, we could understand how the word strategy could be fundamental as a “trigger” (estopim) of the creative flow.
The “trigger” as a fifth element of the creative process could be obtained through various strategies; however, we noted that there are differences between improvisation proposals. A compositional proposal may bring a form of suggestion in which creativity may not be realized through heuristic actions. This means that instead of an action based on the creative autonomy of the improviser themselves, the proposal may somehow direct or suggest choices in the musical realization. Through theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, we traced an idea of a directed or constituted biography, which is how we believe it happens in Free Improvisation. Thus, we reconstructed how the biographies of improvisers are so relative to the forms of musical action. We noted, from this fact, that Free Improvisation often lacks “triggers” that can leave room for musical actions to be more determined by the improvisers themselves and their biographies.
This impasse, which arose in the attempt to establish a balance between suggestion and freedom, or proposal versus biography, led us to research different proposals, exercises, and strategies, to finally obtain, through the use of words as a concept, a less intrusive way to put the component elements of the creative process into use. Thus, we observed how the word would require certain restrictions or adaptations to function as a “trigger” for the sound flow and its creative capacities and possibilities in comparison to other forms used in Free Improvisation.
The study of the word as an exponential strategy for creative actions took place through years of practical experimentation and the search for theoretical references.
In the conclusion chapter of our work, we present how the word, used as a concept, was experimented with in various forms of creative procedure in Free Improvisation. Through the formulation of our creative strategies, we could observe in our practical experiments that new forms of creative actions, interaction resources, and sound materials were employed, avoiding the stagnation of procedures.
In the Annexes, we will find a set of two interviews and an audio CD. The first interview was conducted with the members of the Orquestra Errante (O.E.). The O.E. is an open Free Improvisation group that does not have an exact number of participants and maintains regular weekly meetings, in which the group experiments with Free Improvisation proposals brought by the members themselves. It is formed by both external participants and students from various courses at the University of São Paulo (USP), with a predominance of students from the School of Communications and Arts (ECA). Despite not having a stable body, the group has been giving performances and making recordings.
The second interview was conducted with the São Paulo-based guitarist Michel Leme. Leme is an exponent in idiomatic improvisation, having performed with relevant musicians from the international jazz scene such as Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, and Gary Willis. In order to carry out a Free Improvisation experiment with an excellent idiomatic improviser, we extended an invitation to Leme, which resulted in a recording session held at the ECA on the afternoon of November 7, 2008, which is the subject of the interview conducted in April 2009.
The attached CD contains nine tracks with distinct recordings of Free Improvisations, always based on three words: Amálgama (Amalgam), Erosão (Erosion), and Disfunção (Dysfunction). The first six tracks were performed by the O.E., with the first three recorded in the LAMI studio at ECA-USP on November 19, 2009, and the following three recorded throughout the weekly meetings (“rehearsals”) of the O.E. in November 2009. The last three tracks were performed by students of the course “Topics in Improvisation I” taught by Professor Rogério Costa, in the second semester of 2009 in the undergraduate Music course at the ECA.
By presenting the stages of the formation of our atelier as well as the theoretical references dedicated to it, we believe that future researchers will find sufficient resources to reconstruct our experiences if they need further data. Thus, we hope to contribute to research related to this object of study.