Twentieth Century Compositional Techniques Applied to Jazz: Pitch-Class Sets in Jazz Composition and Improvisation

Abstract

This paper presents a speculative method to coalesce traditional jazz improvisation with techniques and elements of post-tonal composition. Throughout the 20th century, erudite composers came up with several aesthetic and conceptual developments but jazz, until very recently, did not move in the same direction. To maintain a fruitful collaboration between composers and improvisers, if the pallet of compositional techniques available to the jazz composer expands, I would argue that a similar development must occur in the field of improvisation. For composers, this paper proposes creative processes supported by pitch-class set theory and, in the interest of coherence and unity with pre-composed material, it offers a complementary approach to soloists.