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58-465: The theme is La Folia , which was not in fact composed by Arcangelo Corelli , but was used by him in 1700 as the basis for 23 variations in his Sonata for violin and continuo ( violone and/or harpsichord ) in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12. La Folia was popular as a basis for variations in Baroque music . Franz Liszt used the same theme in his Rhapsodie espagnole S. 254 (1863). Rachmaninoff dedicated

116-585: A cantus firmus (a practice found both in church music and in popular dance music) constituted a part of every musician's education, and is regarded as the most important kind of unwritten music before the Baroque period. Following the invention of music printing at the beginning of the sixteenth century, there is more detailed documentation of improvisational practice, in the form of published instruction manuals, mainly in Italy. In addition to improvising counterpoint over

174-475: A cantus firmus, singers and instrumentalists improvised melodies over ostinato chord patterns, made elaborate embellishments of melodic lines, and invented music extemporaneously without any predetermined schemata. Keyboard players likewise performed extempore, freely formed pieces. The kinds of improvisation practised during the Renaissance—principally either the embellishing of an existing part or

232-519: A collection of direct transcriptions of Corelli's violin sonatas), George Frideric Handel in the Sarabande of his Keyboard Suite in D minor HWV 437 of 1727, and Johann Sebastian Bach in his Peasants' Cantata of 1742 are considered to highlight this "later" folia repeating theme in a brilliant way. C. P. E. Bach composed a set of 12 variations for keyboard on the tune (H.263). Antonio Salieri 's 26 Variations on La Folia, for orchestra, written towards

290-399: A harmonic sketch called the figured bass . The process of improvisation was called realization . According to Encyclopædia Britannica , the "monodic textures that originated about 1600 ... were ready-made, indeed in large measure intended, for improvisational enhancement, not only of the treble parts but also, almost by definition, of the bass, which was figured to suggest no more than

348-414: A minimal chordal outline." Improvised accompaniment over a figured bass was a common practice during the Baroque era, and to some extent the following periods. Improvisation remains a feature of organ playing in some church services and are regularly also performed at concerts. Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach were regarded in the Baroque period as highly skilled organ improvisers. During

406-570: A pedagogical approach. A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music . Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music has defined Raga as "tonal framework for composition and improvisation". Nazir Jairazbhoy , chairman of UCLA's department of ethnomusicology , characterized ragas as separated by scale, line of ascent and descent, transilience , emphasized notes and register, and intonation and ornaments. A raga uses

464-519: A progression of chords, which performers are to use as the basis for their improvisation. Handel and Bach frequently improvised on the harpsichord or pipe organ . In the Baroque era, performers improvised ornaments , and basso continuo keyboard players improvised chord voicings based on figured bass notation. However, in the 20th and early 21st century, as common practice Western art music performance became institutionalized in symphony orchestras, opera houses and ballets, improvisation has played

522-555: A raga as "a melodic framework for improvisation and composition". Although melodic improvisation was an important factor in European music from the earliest times, the first detailed information on improvisation technique appears in ninth-century treatises instructing singers on how to add another melody to a pre-existent liturgical chant, in a style called organum . Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, improvised counterpoint over

580-509: A raga can be written down in the form of a scale (in some cases differing in ascent and descent). By using only these notes, by emphasizing certain degrees of the scale, and by going from note to note in ways characteristic to the raga, the performer sets out to create a mood or atmosphere (rasa) that is unique to the raga in question. There are several hundred ragas in present use, and thousands are possible in theory." Alapa (Sanskrit: "conversation") are "improvised melody structures that reveal

638-403: A raga, also spelled rag (in northern India) or ragam (in southern India), (from Sanskrit, meaning "colour" or "passion"), in the classical music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, is "a melodic framework for improvisation and composition. A raga is based on a scale with a given set of notes, a typical order in which they appear in melodies, and characteristic musical motifs. The basic components of

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696-400: A section known as jor, which uses a rhythmic pulse though no tala (metric cycle). The performer of the alapa gradually introduces the essential notes and melodic turns of the raga to be performed. Only when the soloist is satisfied that he has set forth the full range of melodic possibilities of the raga and has established its unique mood and personality will he proceed, without interruption, to

754-602: A series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey are more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. Non-classical music such as popular Indian film songs and ghazals sometimes use rāgas in their compositions. According to Encyclopædia Britannica ,

812-447: A smaller role. At the same time, some contemporary composers from the 20th and 21st century have increasingly included improvisation in their creative work. In Indian classical music , improvisation is a core component and an essential criterion of performances. In Indian , Afghan , Pakistani , and Bangladeshi classical music, raga is the "tonal framework for composition and improvisation". The Encyclopædia Britannica defines

870-417: A standard or "stock" melody line , a slow sarabande in triple meter, as its initial theme. This theme generally appears at the start and end of a given "folia" composition, serving as "bookends" for a set of variations within which both the melodic line and even the meter may vary. In turn, written sets of variations on the "later Folia" may contain sections consisting of more freely structured music, even in

928-414: Is a "performance given extempore without planning or preparation". Another definition is to "play or sing (music) extemporaneously, by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies, rhythms and harmonies". Encyclopædia Britannica defines it as "the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by

986-571: Is built upon the later La Follia progression, and is specifically referenced in the fifth track from their 2014 work Josephine The Mouse Singer , titled "Arcangelo Corelli's La Folia." It is also used in the Taizé chant "Laudate Dominum." The main theme of Vangelis ' Conquest of Paradise resembles the rhythmic paradigm of la folia intentionally. The chord progression is also used in the Britney Spears song, " Oops!... I Did It Again ", 2000. The Folia

1044-423: Is followed by 20 variations, an Intermezzo between variations 13 and 14, and a Coda to finish. All variations are in D minor except where noted. This article about a classical composition is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Folia La Folía (Spanish), or Follies (English), also known as folies d'Espagne (French), La Follia (Italian), and Folia (Portuguese),

1102-559: Is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes , or primary material, generally melodic , of a composition , on record. The theme exists in two versions, referred to as early and late folias , the earlier being faster. Due to its musical form, style and etymology of the name, it has been suggested that the melody arose as a dance in the mid or late fifteenth century throughout the Iberian Peninsula , either in Portugal or in

1160-461: Is similar to the Folia structure. Old folk tunes (19th century or older) which do not have this structure often come from parts of Sweden with little influences from upper classes or other countries. " Sinclairvisan " is set to the tune, as is "Välment sorgesyn", no. 5b from Carl Michael Bellman 's Songs of Fredman . The final section of Force Majeure by the electronic music group Tangerine Dream

1218-632: Is used extensively in Max Richter 's 2017 album Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works . Improvisation (music) Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization ) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition , which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians . Sometimes musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical music and many other kinds of music. One definition

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1276-402: Is widely acknowledged. They offer a clear value as documentation of performances despite their perceived limitations. With these available, generations of jazz musicians are able to implicate styles and influences in their performed new improvisations. Many varied scales and their modes can be used in improvisation. They are often not written down in the process, but they help musicians practice

1334-625: The Cancionero de Palacio (1470-1500) in Spain, which includes numerous songs and themes from the time of the Catholic Monarchs . Jean-Baptiste Lully , along with Philidor l'aîné in 1672, Arcangelo Corelli in 1700, Marin Marais in 1701, Alessandro Scarlatti in 1710, Antonio Vivaldi in his Opus 1 No. 12 of 1705, Francesco Geminiani in his Concerto Grosso No. 12 (which was, in fact, part of

1392-517: The Musica enchiriadis (ninth century), indicate that added parts were improvised for centuries before the first notated examples. However, it was only in the fifteenth century that theorists began making a hard distinction between improvised and written music. Some classical music forms contained sections for improvisation, such as the cadenza in solo concertos , or the preludes to some keyboard suites by Bach and Handel, which consist of elaborations of

1450-1659: The Scratch Orchestra in England; Musica Elettronica Viva in Italy; Lukas Foss Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at the University of California, Los Angeles; Larry Austin 's New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis; the ONCE Group at Ann Arbor; the Sonic Arts Group; and Sonics , the latter three funding themselves through concerts, tours, and grants. Significant pieces include Foss Time Cycles (1960) and Echoi (1963). Other composers working with improvisation include Richard Barrett , Benjamin Boretz , Pierre Boulez , Joseph Brent , Sylvano Bussotti , Cornelius Cardew , Jani Christou , Douglas J. Cuomo , Alvin Curran , Stuart Dempster , Hugh Davies , Karlheinz Essl , Mohammed Fairouz , Rolf Gehlhaar , Vinko Globokar , Richard Grayson , Hans-Joachim Hespos , Barton McLean , Priscilla McLean , Stephen Nachmanovitch , Pauline Oliveros , Henri Pousseur , Todd Reynolds , Terry Riley , Frederic Rzewski , Saman Samadi , William O. Smith , Manfred Stahnke , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Tōru Takemitsu , Richard Teitelbaum , Vangelis , Michael Vetter , Christian Wolff , Iannis Xenakis , Yitzhak Yedid , La Monte Young , Frank Zappa , Hans Zender , and John Zorn . British and American psychedelic rock acts of

1508-547: The Western art music tradition, including the Medieval , Renaissance , Baroque , Classical , and Romantic periods, improvisation was a valued skill. J. S. Bach , Handel , Mozart , Beethoven , Chopin , Liszt , and many other famous composers and musicians were known especially for their improvisational skills. Improvisation might have played an important role in the monophonic period. The earliest treatises on polyphony , such as

1566-442: The " Cancionero Musical de Palacio " and, some years later, in the ensaladas repertoire). The framework of the "Later Folia", in the key of G minor , the key that is often used for the "later Folia"; one chord per bar except for the cadential penultimate bar. The basic 16-bar chord progression: Over the course of three centuries, more than 150 composers have used it in their works. The first publications of this theme date from

1624-401: The 1930s with Sergei Rachmaninov in his Variations on a theme by Corelli in 1931 and Manuel María Ponce and his Variations on "Spanish Folia" and Fugue for guitar . The Folia melody has also influenced Scandinavian folk music. It is said that around half of the old Swedish tunes are based on La Folia. It is possible to recognize a common structure in many Swedish folk tunes, and it

1682-483: The 1960s and 1970s used improvisations to express themselves in a musical language. The American Rock band Grateful Dead based their career around improvised live performances, meaning that no two shows ever sounded the same. Improvisation was a key part of Pink Floyd 's music from 1967 to 1972. Another progressive rock band that implemented improvisation was King Crimson , whose live performances consisted of many improvisational pieces. The improvisation died down in

1740-503: The 1980s, but saw a resurgence in the 1990s. In the realm of silent film -music performance, there were musicians ( theatre organ players and piano players) whose improvised performances accompanying these film has been recognized as exceptional by critics, scholars, and audiences alike. Neil Brand was a composer who also performed improvisationally. Brand, along with Guenter A. Buchwald, Philip Carli, Stephen Horne, Donald Sosin, John Sweeney , and Gabriel Thibaudeau, all performed at

1798-467: The 19th century, the Act I ballet of Les Abencérages (1813) by Luigi Cherubini is based on the Folia, Franz Liszt included a version of the Folia in his Rhapsodie Espagnole , and Ludwig van Beethoven quoted it briefly in the second movement of his Fifth Symphony . Alfredo Casella used the theme as the basis for his Variations sur une Chaconne . La Folia once again regained composers' interest during

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1856-837: The 20th century, some musicians known as great improvisers such as Marcel Dupré , Pierre Cochereau and Pierre Pincemaille continued this form of music, in the tradition of the French organ school . Maurice Duruflé , a great improviser himself, transcribed improvisations by Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire . Olivier Latry later wrote his improvisations as compositions, for example Salve Regina . Classical music departs from baroque style in that sometimes several voices may move together as chords involving both hands, to form brief phrases without any passing tones. Though such motifs were used sparingly by Mozart, they were taken up much more liberally by Beethoven and Schubert. Such chords also appeared to some extent in baroque keyboard music, such as

1914-674: The 3rd movement theme in Bach's Italian Concerto . But at that time such a chord often appeared only in one clef at a time, (or one hand on the keyboard) and did not form the independent phrases found more in later music. Adorno mentions this movement of the Italian Concerto as a more flexible, improvisatory form, in comparison to Mozart, suggesting the gradual diminishment of improvisation well before its decline became obvious. The introductory gesture of tonic, subdominant, dominant, tonic , however, much like its baroque form, continues to appear at

1972-552: The Make It Up Club (held every Tuesday evening at Bar Open on Brunswick Street, Melbourne ) has been presenting a weekly concert series dedicated to promoting avant-garde improvised music and sound performance of the highest conceptual and performative standards (regardless of idiom, genre, or instrumentation). The Make It Up Club has become an institution in Australian improvised music and consistently features artists from all over

2030-527: The annual conference on silent film in Pordenone , Italy , Le Giornate del Cinema Muto . In improvising for silent film, performers have to play music that matches the mood, style and pacing of the films they accompany. In some cases, musicians had to accompany films at first sight , without preparation. Improvisers needed to know a wide range of musical styles and have the stamina to play for sequences of films which occasionally ran over three hours. In addition to

2088-624: The area of the old Kingdom of León , or maybe in the Kingdom of Valencia . The epithet "Folia" has several meanings in music. Western classical music features both "early Folia", which can take different shapes, and the better-known "later Folia" (also known as "Follia" with double l in Italy , "Folies d'Espagne" in France , and " Faronel  [ fr ] 's Ground " in England ). Recent research suggests that

2146-523: The beginning of high-classical and romantic piano pieces (and much other music) as in Haydn's Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/52 and Beethoven's Sonata No. 24, Op. 78 . Beethoven and Mozart cultivated mood markings such as con amore , appassionato , cantabile , and expressivo . In fact, it is perhaps because improvisation is spontaneous that it is akin to the communication of love. Beethoven and Mozart left excellent examples of what their improvisations were like, in

2204-424: The chord progression eventually associated with the "later Folia" appeared in musical sources almost a century before the first documented use of the "Folia" name. The progression emerged between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century in vocal repertory found in both Italian ("Canzoniere di Montecassino", "Canzoniere di Perugia" and in the frottola repertoire) and Spanish sources (mainly in

2262-406: The chord progression exactly, he may "skim over" the progression and simply decorate with notes from the key of the piece (parent musical scale ), or he may fashion his own voice-leading , using his intuition and listening experience, which may clash at some points with the chords the rhythm section is playing. With the notable exception of liturgical improvisation on the organ, the first half of

2320-541: The coughing would increase, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in proper order. In one concert, I don't remember where - some small town - the coughing was so violent that I played only ten variations (out of 20). My best record was set in New York, where I played 18 variations. However, I hope that you will play all of them, and won't "cough". Rachmaninoff recorded many of his own works, but this piece wasn't one of them. The Theme

2378-483: The creation of an entirely new part or parts—continued into the early Baroque, though important modifications were introduced. Ornamentation began to be brought more under the control of composers, in some cases by writing out embellishments, and more broadly by introducing symbols or abbreviations for certain ornamental patterns. Two of the earliest important sources for vocal ornamentation of this sort are Giovanni Battista Bovicelli's Regole, passaggi di musica (1594), and

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2436-586: The end of his career, is one of his finest works. Henry Purcell , in: The Fairy-Queen , first played in 1692, included a tune with resemblances to the Francesco Geminiani/Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto Grosso n 12; the 12 Corelli concerts were published in 1714, although a 1681 reference exists from Georg Muffat about having heard the compositions of this "Italian Violin Orpheus" "with extreme pleasure and full of admiration." In

2494-499: The form of introductions to pieces, and links between pieces, continued to be a feature of keyboard concertising until the early 20th-century. Amongst those who practised such improvisation were Franz Liszt , Felix Mendelssohn , Anton Rubinstein , Paderewski , Percy Grainger and Pachmann . Improvisation in the area of art music seems to have declined with the growth of recording. After studying over 1,200 early Verdi recordings, Will Crutchfield concludes that "The solo cavatina

2552-432: The jazz idiom. A common view of what a jazz soloist does could be expressed thus: as the harmonies go by, he selects notes from each chord , out of which he fashions a melody . He is free to embellish by means of passing and neighbor tones, and he may add extensions to the chords, but at all times a good improviser must follow the changes . ... [However], a jazz musician really has several options: he may reflect

2610-425: The listener, and the physical space that the performance takes place in. Even if improvisation is also found outside of jazz, it may be that no other music relies so much on the art of "composing in the moment", demanding that every musician rise to a certain level of creativity that may put the performer in touch with his or her unconscious as well as conscious states. The educational use of improvised jazz recordings

2668-666: The metrically organized section of the piece. If a drummer is present, as is usual in formal concert, his first beats serve as a signal to the listener that the alapa is concluded." Machine improvisation uses computer algorithms to create improvisation on existing music materials. This is usually done by sophisticated recombination of musical phrases extracted from existing music, either live or pre-recorded. In order to achieve credible improvisation in particular style, machine improvisation uses machine learning and pattern matching algorithms to analyze existing musical examples. The resulting patterns are then used to create new variations "in

2726-491: The middle of the 16th century, but it is probably much older. Plays of the renaissance theatre in Portugal, including works by Gil Vicente , mention the folia as a dance performed by shepherds or peasants. The possible Portuguese origin was attributed by the 1577 treatise De musica libri septem by Francisco de Salinas ; however, one of the oldest folías is that of "Rodrigo Martínez", by an anonymous author, already registered in

2784-465: The musical characteristics of a raga". "Alapa ordinarily constitutes the first section of the performance of a raga. Vocal or instrumental, it is accompanied by a drone (sustained-tone) instrument and often also by a melodic instrument that repeats the soloist's phrases after a lag of a few seconds. The principal portion of alapa is not metric but rhythmically free; in Hindustani music it moves gradually to

2842-492: The origin of the folia framework lies in the application of a specific compositional and improvisational method to simple melodies in minor mode. Thus, the essence of the "early Folia" was not a specific theme or a fixed sequence of chords but rather a compositional-improvisational process which could generate these sequences of chords. The "later Folia" is a standard chord progression (i-V-i-VII / III-VII-[i or VI]-V / i-V-i-VII / III-VII-[i or VI7]-V[4-3sus]-i) and usually features

2900-508: The performances, some pianists also taught master classes for those who wanted to develop their skill in improvising for films. When talkies – motion pictures with sound–were introduced, these talented improvising musicians had to find other jobs. In the 2010s, there are a small number of film societies which present vintage silent films , using live improvising musicians to accompany the film. Worldwide there are many venues dedicated to supporting live improvisation. In Melbourne since 1998,

2958-408: The preface to Giulio Caccini 's collection, Le nuove musiche (1601/2) Eighteenth-century manuals make it clear that performers on the flute, oboe, violin, and other melodic instruments were expected not only to ornament previously composed pieces, but also spontaneously to improvise preludes. The basso continuo (accompaniment) was mainly improvised, the composer usually providing no more than

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3016-400: The prescriptive features of a specific musical text." Improvisation is often done within (or based on) a pre-existing harmonic framework or chord progression . Improvisation is a major part of some types of 20th-century music, such as blues , rock music , jazz , and jazz fusion , in which instrumental performers improvise solos, melody lines and accompaniment parts. Throughout the eras of

3074-434: The semblance of partial or pure improvisation (a practice which might be compared in structural concept, if very different in musical material, to the performance in twelve-bar blues and other standard chord progressions that became common in the twentieth century.) Several sources report that Jean-Baptiste Lully was the first composer to formalize the standard chord progression and melodic line. Other sources note that

3132-418: The sets of variations and the sonatas which they published, and in their written out cadenzas (which illustrate what their improvisations would have sounded like). As a keyboard player, Mozart competed at least once in improvisation, with Muzio Clementi . Beethoven won many tough improvisatory battles over such rivals as Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Daniel Steibelt , and Joseph Woelfl . Extemporization, both in

3190-438: The twentieth century is marked by an almost total absence of actual improvisation in contemporary classical music. Since the 1950s, some contemporary composers have placed fewer restrictions on the improvising performer, using techniques such as vague notation (for example, indicating only that a certain number of notes must sound within a defined period of time). New Music ensembles formed around improvisation were founded, such as

3248-474: The work to his friend the violinist Fritz Kreisler . He wrote to another friend, the composer Nikolai Medtner , on 21 December 1931: I've played the Variations about fifteen times, but of these fifteen performances only one was good. The others were sloppy. I can't play my own compositions! And it's so boring! Not once have I played these all in continuity. I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever

3306-501: The world. A number of approaches to teaching improvisation have emerged in jazz pedagogy, popular music pedagogy , the Dalcroze method , Orff-Schulwerk , and Satis Coleman's creative music. Current research in music education includes investigating how often improvisation is taught, how confident music majors and teachers are at teaching improvisation, neuroscience and psychological aspects of improvisation, and free-improvisation as

3364-409: Was the most obvious and enduring locus of soloistic discretion in nineteenth-century opera." He goes on to identify seven main types of vocal improvisation used by opera singers in this repertory: Improvisation is one of the basic elements that sets jazz apart from other types of music. The unifying moments in improvisation that take place in live performance are understood to encompass the performer,

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