New Graphic Representation for Old Musical Experience: Analyzing Improvised Music

Abstract

In the focus of this paper are some questions inherent to the use of various graphic analytical tools in order to approach the analysis of free improvisation. On the one hand, free improvisationhas the doubtful reputation of having no structure, presumably no theoretical background and therefore being not suitable to analysis. On the other hand, a concentrated listener perceivesconstructive strategies and formal processes, which can be described and qualified. Moreover, the publication of some improvisatory sessions on recorded media (for example by Gruppo diImprovvisazione Nuova Consonanza or New Phonic Art) induced in the audience the sense of a work character which was mostly non premeditated, but that would become an essential component in its subsequent reception, with consequences ranging from aesthetic evaluation to stylistic emulation. The research will focus on various graphic models for analysis of improvised music of the late Sixties in order to make the discourse about structure, time, gestures, sound, and performance possible.