MUSGEN 3001 - Free Improvisation 3

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2016

The course information on this page is being finalised for 2016. Please check again before classes commence.

This course is a systematic study of and practical introduction to free improvisation as a mode of contemporary musical performance, education and research. The course will examine improvisatory practices from an historical point view within the Western musical tradition (Baroque and Classical performance practice), popular music (jazz, blues, rock), and non-Western music (classical Indian music, West African drumming.) The course will focus in particular on the emergence of free improvisation in Western music in the 1960s (free jazz, free improvisation groups such as The Scratch Orchestra, AMM, MEV) and the work of composers and musicians who have contributed to this development (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Cornelius Cardew, John Zorn, Derek Bailey). The underlying philosophies and methodologies of various approaches to free improvisation will be examined, as will the use of digital technology in improvisatory situations. Intensive practical tutorials will enable students to develop their own skills in free improvisation.

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