The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

<strong>The</strong> Notion of so Called Gypsy music and the Tradition of Improvisation
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was demanded from any performer to be called professional (Gooley, 2006: 84). <strong>The</strong> stress laid on the musical
education often put virtuosos in a handicapped position, so did the alleged lack of proper learning commonly
attributed to the improvising Gypsy players.
Conservatory education appeared in the early 19 th century in Paris and Vienna, and caused the growth of
importance of notated music as a pedagogical tool. On one hand, more accessible printed editions created the
demand for the formal training, and on the other hand the process of education required printed materials in
the form of codified compositions rather than illusive improvisations. Needless to say “[...] improvisation ends
where notation begins” (Nettl, 1974: 4). Dilettante musicians associated with improvisatory practices were
gradually replaced by professionally trained musicians able to perform classical music of Western repertoire
considered in 19 th century as one of the symbols of refinement and prestige, and suggesting – as R. Moore
writes – the associations between conservatory musicians and high culture” (Moore, 1992: 74) as opposed
to primitive cultures (non-Western and encountered in Europe alike) linked with improvisation rather than
with notated composition.
It is a common concept in Western tradition that improvisation and composition are oppositions. Composition
is credited as calculated, sophisticated and artificial act whose effect is an artistic artefact, whereas improvisation is
characterized by a number of adjectives used also, not surprisingly, quite often in reference to so called less advanced
(e.g. non-Western, Gypsies, etc.) cultures: primitive, spontaneous, natural (Nettl, 1974: 4).
Certain compositional techniques and devices prevail in improvisation – including “repetition, simple
variation of short phrases, melodic sequence, the tendency to start two successive sections with the same
motive, the tendency to increase the length of sections as the performance progresses” (Nettl, 1974: 9). <strong>The</strong>y
are, however, not unique for basically improvisatory thinking but in fact are to be found also in notated
compositions. As Bruno Nettl suggests these two types of music making (e.g. improvising and composing
followed by notating) use “similar kinds of building blocks”, but in case of improvisation it happens in a
much less extensive way (Nettl, 1974: 14). Furthermore, Nettl argues that the same models are involved while
composing and improvising – “notes, cadential figures, section types identifies by length, melodic phrases, or
lines, rhythmic lines or formulas, entire tunes, chord sequences, and modal concepts to which are attached
a large group of traits-scales, motifs, and typical sequences of focal points in range and tonality, as well as
rhythmical tendencies” (Nettl, 1974: 15). <strong>The</strong> difference between improvisation and composition – in musical
terms – refers then not to the essence but to the degree these elements are exploited.
However, in 19 th century the new born discipline Musikwissenschaft favoured notated compositions as an
object of its investigation, preferring it over improvisation. Musikwissenschaft was closely connected with the
historical approach ignoring the social context of the performance in favour of focusing on researching written
sources, analyzing musical ‘texts’, and defining the hypothetical development of notated, not just performed
music, perceived through the prism of individual, autonomous works of art.
For virtuosi, the awareness of the author of the work was less important, the preference given to the
actual process of music making enclosed in the performance situation. Improvisation encompassed the whole
range of the repertoire that musicologists “don’t like on the page” because these pieces usually “they rely
in their effectiveness on the particular circumstances of place, audience and performance” (Randal, 1992:
16). Improvisation aimed at maintaining an illusion of realism of actual time experience. Virtuosity as a
mere skill helped to sustain the high level of emotions encompassed in the improvisatory performance. <strong>The</strong>
brilliance and energy of the improvisation illusionary transferred emotions of performers to the audience. <strong>The</strong>
musical narration cultivated during the improvisatory performance stimulated the wide range of emotions.