RESEARCH AREAS
Improcomp.org is the digital platform, designed by the research group, which will also function as a research tool, a virtual place for research and a result of the research itself. This digital platform will host written and multimedia research contributions, online music education initiatives, and artistic performances.
IMPROVISATION AND COMPOSITION
This project takes on a historical perspective. The core issue is to examine whether improvisation is an alternative practice to composition (and plays a leading role in times and areas where the concept of a work of art is not widespread), or whether this practice is a constant of European culture that occurs in a different way each time, establishing relationships with written composition and the theory derived from it. In this section, the research group documents the understanding of musical improvisation in different periods from the early Seventeenth century to the present day.
THEORIES
OF IMPROVISATION
A significant interest in improvisation has emerged within the humanities in recent decades. Various factors have played a role in this changing landscape: the dissemination of notions gained from performance studies, comparative approaches to world cultures, the observation of the role of the body and emotions in cognitive processes, and the real-time models of interaction stimulated by new media. This section hosts materials and articles which consider improvisation in an interdisciplinary perspective. The essays draw on the current discussion and elaborate patterns for the understanding of different historical periods. A think tank is dedicated to the notions of subjectivity and interaction.
PERFORMANCE PRACTICES AND IMPROVISATION
Improvisation as a practice involving a special relationship of body and mind is closely linked to the wide field of performance. By all differentiations of materials and approaches, the performing arts (theatre, music, poetry, dance, cinema) share a common basis when opening the space to improvisation. This section of the website presents studies on the intersections between different fields of artistic creativity in real time.
TEACHING MUSICAL IMPROVISATION
The disappearance of improvisation from the academic curricula and concert practice, at the beginning of the 20th century, deprived musicians of the ability to express their musical ideas on their instruments or by singing in an extemporaneous and coherent way. The aim of this research area is the elaboration and experimentation of some guidelines for an education project which calls for the introduction of improvisation both as an essential part of an implementation approach to music theory, and as a fundamental element of the recovery of the dimension of global musicality for instrumentalists and singers.
ANALYSIS AND
TRANSCRIPTION
This section presents analytic approaches to improvisation both related to the current reactivation of this practice on repertoires of early centuries and conducted by audio and video sources of the 20oth and 21st centuries. Video transcriptions in scrolling view will be made available, particularly of improvisations of a-metric or free-rhythm pieces (both jazz and of contemporary music). This material will be compounded by running comments of improvisatory practices of tonal music.
RESEARCH
OUTPUTS
The research outputs of the Improcomp.org team will be published in this section. They will include papers, news, videos, documentaries and lectures on the topics described in the research lines.