в Metro 3


Peter Ototsky, Ilya Giverts, Dmitry Kuzovlev, Konstantin Sukhan

The musician comes onstage without any conception about the final result of the performance. He doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen. His playing is not related to the notes written by the composer. Limitations and logic of composition exist for sure but only on the meta-level.

The musician may focus his attention on anything he likes: sense or structure of composition, instruments, external objects, sound, emotional state and so forth. Perhaps he should capture all the sides of his performance simultaneously. At this moment he is not relying only on his consciousness and reason. Sub consciousness, musical experience, school’s culture of thinking and innate talents plays a great role. It exceeds everything man can realize and express verbally. Music as a piece of art appears in the heads of the musician and listeners. The sound is not the end in itself. It’s a continues the instrument and serves as a media for communication between people.

People mostly improvise in a group of others. Then music becomes their common language. This non-verbal and non-semantic communication has something in common with exchange glances, tactile contact and sex. It connects people much more close than ordinary conversation. Improvisers «dance» in the music they create. In that sense music reproduce itself via musicians. Collective improvisation is like a fire burn or chain reaction. It is a living organism. It develops like a tree, not like a building. Buildings are constructed strictly according to the project designed by the architect. The tree does not have a project but the rules of grow. It’s never going to be finished and grows from the moment of initiation till death.

Today free improvisation is the most ancient and the most modern style of music. Despite the fact that it is sounds crude for most people and non-commercial, it is very popular nowadays. It spread from academic circles to big world of amateur music. What makes its popular? It seems like this activity is a self-organizing public movement. Free improvisation is our modern urban folk and sacred music.