Essay tedium.......

[bexylu]

I am in the midst of writing an essay about thye extent to which musical composition occurs during performance. My main sources are Cream, Hendrix, ,and a bunch of old blues singers. Now none of this is my 'thing' although I am developing a worrying appreciation for Hendrix, but that should make objectivity a lot easier. If only I could get

Comments

[petew1959]

Now this really is my thing! Nothing worrying about appreciating Hendrix, one of the most inventive rock/blues guitarists that ever lived, and he influenced so many others (just wished he hadn't done that stupid thing of playing with his teeth!). I read an interview with Eric Clapton when he released his album "Me and Mr Johnson" an he said the hardest thing he found when recording the album was trying to find a definitive version of the songs he did, Robert Johnson hardly played a song the same way twice. The original delta blues came from improvisation, very little of of the music was written down. Most blues based guitarists invent as they perform, and you can listen to 2 gigs on consecutive nights and the solos will be different. In fact, I think that blues SHOULD be improvised, if it is clinical and precise it looses the raw edge that gives it soul. Thinking about it, perhaps that is true of all music, although I doubt if a conductor would be impressed if the flautists started an improvised solo in the middle of a major symphony!

[bexylu]

Lol -are you sure you are studying the right subject? That is the exact essence of the topic in hand, and later I will inevitably studying what makes 'art' music, and what makes 'popular' music. It is surprising though, how similar the loose framework that the blues cleaves to is when compared to 15th century european dance music, which would be largely improvised by court musicians.
The question is, though, is improvisation in itself a valid form of composition. What, indeed, defines composition at all?

[petew1959]

Well the dictionary definition of composition is "The combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole". There is nothing in the definition that says it has to be pre-meditated or written down. So from that, improvisation is valid composition.

[bexylu]

But you culd argue that through improvisation, a piece is clearly constantly evolving, and therefore never becomes the whole..... in which case the two become more distict from one another.

[bexylu]

I'll email you the essay when I have done it -see if you agree with my conclusions.

[petew1959]

That would be great, it'll give me something to do. Now I have finished uni for the summer I am so bored. I've even started re-arranging my CD collection!