Abstract
The recent re-introduction of improvisation as a professional practice within classical music, however cautious and still rare, allows direct and detailed contemporary comparison between improvised and “standard” approaches to performances of the same composition, comparisons which hitherto could only be inferred from impressionistic historical accounts. This study takes an interdisciplinary multi-method approach to discovering the contrasting nature and effects of prepared and improvised approaches during live chamber-music concert performances of a movement from Franz Schubert's “Shepherd on the Rock,” given by a professional trio consisting of voice, flute, and piano, in the presence of an invited audience of 22 adults with varying levels of musical experience and training. The improvised performances were found to differ systematically from prepared performances in their timing, dynamic, and timbral features as well as in the degree of risk-taking and “mind reading” between performers, which included moments of spontaneously exchanging extemporized notes. Post-performance critical reflection by the performers characterized distinct mental states underlying the two modes of performance. The amount of overall body movements was reduced in the improvised performances, which showed less unco-ordinated movements between performers when compared to the prepared performance. Audience members, who were told only that the two performances would be different, but not how, rated the improvised version as more emotionally compelling and musically convincing than the prepared version. The size of this effect was not affected by whether or not the audience could see the performers, or by levels of musical training. EEG measurements from 19 scalp locations showed higher levels of Lempel-Ziv complexity (associated with awareness and alertness) in the improvised version in both performers and audience. Results are discussed in terms of their potential support for an “improvisatory state of mind” which may have aspects of flow (as characterized by Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) and primary states (as characterized by the Entropic Brain Hypothesis of Carhart-Harris et al., 2014). In a group setting, such as a live concert, our evidence suggests that this state of mind is communicable between performers and audience thus contributing to a heightened quality of shared experience.
Highlights
Classical music performance is recognized as a creative practice, its parameters have been restricted by a longstanding ethos of “faithfulness to the composer’s score” which limit the bounds of acceptable deviation (Leech-Wilkinson, 2016)
These studies have analyzed improvisation using tools from neuroscience (Donnay et al, 2014; Pinho et al, 2014; Lopata et al, 2017), musicology (Norgaard, 2011, 2014) and psychology (Tervaniemi et al, 2016; Love, 2017) these research efforts are relevant to broaden our understanding of improvisation in music, it is not straightforward how to isolate the effect of improvisation as there is no natural baseline to compare with
Increased complexity in the improvised version Based on the properties of Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZ) outlined above, we investigated the complexity of the measured EEG signals of the three performers and four audience members in both conditions, under a working hypothesis that LZ is higher during the improvised than during the prepared condition
Summary
Motivation classical music performance is recognized as a creative practice, its parameters have been restricted by a longstanding ethos of “faithfulness to the composer’s score” which limit the bounds of acceptable deviation (Leech-Wilkinson, 2016). Historical research has revealed that Western art-music composers from Bach, through Mozart and Beethoven and onwards into the romantic era expected and encouraged performers to creatively depart from the score in a far more radical way than is common today, including the insertion of new notes (Eigeldinger, 1986; Hamilton, 2008). In these earlier times improvisation was encouraged, but it was believed by many to be an essential component of complete musicianship and mastery. This study did not gather any data from actual performances and sheds only indirect light on performance characteristics and audience response
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