¹ Busoni, F., Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, in Three Classics in the Aesthetic of Music (New York: Dover, 1962), 84.Google Scholar

² Quoted in Stuckenschmidt, H. H., Arnold Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work (London: John Calder, 1977), 226.Google Scholar

³ Ibid., 227.

⁴ More extreme proponents of improvisation would say there is only loss; see p. 9 below.

⁵ Interview in Wire, No. 1 (Summer 1982), 6–7.

⁶ Quoted in Bailey, D., Improvisation: its Nature and Practice in Music (Ashbourne, Derby: Moorland, 1980), 48.Google Scholar

⁷ E.g. Schopenhauer, A., The World as Will and Representation (New York: Dover, 1969), Vol. 2, 454Google Scholar; Hanslick, E., On the Musically Beautiful (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1986), 82Google Scholar; Goodman, N., Languages of Art (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976), 177–192Google Scholar; Sharpe, R. A., Contemporary Aesthetics (Brighton: Harvester, 1983), 12–26.Google ScholarAlperson's, P. article (‘On Musical Improvisation’, Journal of Aesthetics and An Criticism XLIII, No. 1 (Fall 1984)Google Scholar at least addresses the important issues. Stanley Cavell has an interesting discussion of improvisation in the context of modernism in music (‘Music Discomposed’ in his Must We Mean What We Say? (Cambridge University Press, 1976), 180–212.)Google Scholar

⁸ Op. cit. note 6, 29.

⁹ See Plantinga, L., Romantic Music (New York: Norton, 1984), 16–20.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Sadie, S. (ed.), New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980), Vol. 9, 48.Google Scholar

¹¹ Conversely, as Alfred Brendel notes, variation form suggests ‘something of the casualness and spontaneity of improvisation’. See Brendel, A., Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts (London: Robson, 1976), 17.Google Scholar

¹² Quoted in David, H. T., J. S. Bach's ‘Musical Offering’: History, Inter-pretation and Analysis (New York: Schirmer, 1945), 40–41.Google Scholar

¹³ See p. 337 below.

¹⁴ Quoted in op. cit. note 10, 42.

¹⁵ Op. cit. note 6, 42.

¹⁶ Smith, L., notes (8 pieces), source a new world music: creative music (USA: Leo Smith, 1973)Google Scholar, no page numbers; I have followed the writer in omitting all capital letters.

¹⁷ P. 330 above.

¹⁸ Quoted above, p. 1.

¹⁹ Op. cit. note 1, 85–86.

²⁰ Wittgenstein, L., Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958), para. 337.Google Scholar

²¹ It is hard to know what to make of Omette Coleman's claim ‘I don't know how it's going to sound before I play it [any more] than anyone else does’ (see Collier, J. L.The Making of Jazz (London: Granada, 1978), 463).Google Scholar But maybe he was just being evasive, or provocative. Coleman surely does not want to get away from what he truly ‘hears’, just to avoid the cliches; which explains his claim to be playing ‘without memory’.

²² Monterose, J. R., Straight Ahead (New York: Xanadu, 1975), sleevenote.Google Scholar

²³ Op. cit. note 6, 87.

²⁴ Ibid., 90.

²⁵ Ibid., 92.

²⁶ Rivers, S., Dimensions and Extensions (New York: Blue Note, 1986), sleevenote.Google Scholar

²⁷ See Rockwell, J., AU American Music (London: Kahn & Averill, 1983), 182 and 166.Google Scholar

²⁸ Boulez, P., Orientations (London: Faber, 1986), 461.Google Scholar

²⁹ Downbeat magazine, 18.5.78., quoted in Gioia, E.The Imperfect Art (Oxford University Press, 1988), 52–53.Google Scholar How did Hollenberg know the solos were note-for-note the same—he wasn't taping without the artist's permission by any chance? Even Dittersdorfs have performing rights.

³⁰ We know this from the evidence of ‘alternate takes’ of the same song. On improvisation, or the lack of it, in early jazz, see Schuller, G., The Swing Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 162n and 307n.Google Scholar

³¹ Quoted in op. cit. note 6, 48. One highly fruitful method of imparting ‘rough go-ahead energy’ is the device of the ‘swing eighth-note’ and its develop ments, which constitute the basis of jazz rhythm.

³² Cavell is therefore mistaken when he says that the standard concept of improvisation ‘seems merely to name events which one knows, as matters of historical fact… independent of anything a critic would have to discover by an analysis or interpretation… not to have been composed’ (op. cit. note 7, 200).

³³ Op. cit. note 29, 66. This was Charlie Parker's mood when he wrote for composition lessons to Edgard Varese, complaining ‘I only write in one voice. I want to have a structure’ (quoted in Harrison, M. and others, The New Grove: Gospel, Blues and Jazz (London: Macmillan, 1986), 323).Google Scholar

³⁴ Alperson takes a similar view. He writes: ‘the critic who dismisses musical improvisation as a pale imitation of conventional music-making is guilty of a kind of category mistake’ (op. cit. note 7, 24). However, as this quotation suggests, his account still takes a composer-performer divide as standard. For instance, he considers whether improvisation could have elements of inter pretation, when it is in fact interpretation that is a ‘relic’ of improvisation.

³⁵ Op. cit. note 16.

³⁶ The distinction between creative and non-creative use of such phrases is well-discussed by Porter, Lewis in his Lester Young (London: Macmillan, 1986).Google Scholar Cavell offers a related objection to the ‘dream of spontaneity’. He denies that it is improvisation which figures in Stockhausen's Klavierstuck XI since ‘improvisation implies shared conventions, [and you cannot] create a living community at a moment's notice’ (op. cit. note 7, 204).

³⁷ Op. cit. note 29, 60. The ‘retrospective’ approach may be what saxophonist Joe Henderson had in mind when he said that ‘how you begin a solo is the most interesting part’ (interview in Wire No. 48 (February 1988), 22).

³⁸ Parker, C., Charlie Parker on Dial, Volume 4 (New York: Dial, 1947)Google Scholar; Russell, G., Live in an American Time Spiral (Milan: Soul Note, 1982).Google Scholar

³⁹ Op. cit. note 29, 62.

⁴⁰ I owe this point to discussion with David Udolf, who intended it as a piece of practical advice.

⁴¹ Op. cit. note 7, 449.

⁴² Op. cit. note 6, 74.

⁴³ I am grateful to Peter Jones for suggesting I write the article, and to Max Harrison and John Skorupski for commenting on it.