From the Concept of Improvisation to the Practice of Free Improvisation

My endeavor in this paper is to show that the very concept of improvisation which emerges as composition's other in the beginning of the 19th century had a regulatory function in the constitution of the practice of free improvisation, sometimes defined by the musicians themselves as a form of pure improvisation. It is shown that the fact that the concept of improvisation relates both to manners of action and to an artistic practice contributes to shape an axiology which merge aesthetic and ethical values; this results in the permanent fluctuation between aesthetic characterization (of the improvised production) and ethical characterization (of the improviser's behavior) that underlies both the critical discourse on free improvisation and the musicians' improvisatory practices themselves.