[Smt-talk] Pieces with improvisatory openings

[Dan Zimmerman]

Recitative is usually meant to represent conversation or thought, and aren't these essentially spur-of-the-moment, improvisatory activities?

Dan Zimmerman
U. of Maryland, College Park


On Oct 23, 2011, at 7:19 PM, Charles J. Smith wrote:

> 
> And, though recitatives are certainly rhythmically complex, with speech rhythms overriding more typically musical patterns, they're not really improvisatory, either, yes? Anything but, in fact.
> 
> A better source for such improvisatory openings might turn out to be the improvised modulatory connectives that a keyboardist might play between pieces in different keys. (A tradition that I believe Dinu Lipati continued to the end of his career as a pianist?) I don't remember the position occupied by the Choral Fantasy on its premiere concert; would it have been following a C minor piece, perhaps? (Probably too much to hope for...)
> 
> BTW another written out improvisatory opening, even better than the G minor Ballade, is found in Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie in Ab (Op. 61)...
> 
> Charles
> 
> 
> Charles J. Smith
> Slee Chair of Music Theory & Chair of the Department
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