Compendium for Improvization
a research and publication project of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
The idea behind the COMPENDIUM FOR IMPROVIZATION is to present a collection of worksheets, music-theoretical texts and analytic studies which are useful as a guide to improvization in the Baroque style on keyboard instruments. Through a description of a historic/methodic approach, important source texts on the subject of improvization from the 16th to the 18th century are made available for general use. The COMPENDIUM is, however, not intended to be a consistently structured improvization method, but rather a collection of materials, source texts and articles based on proven historical models.
The individual articles are written by the members of the FBI and then edited (for content as well as language) by Markus Schwenkreis. Then they are test-read by by the whole group. Suggestions for improvement and stimulation from the work with students should increase transparency in understanding the individual chapters, and should lead to a final version suitable for publication. A detailed bibliography will simplify the text and encourage the reader to pursue individual source studies.
...from the contents
Working on style-typical ‘formulas’ is one of the most important tasks, or challenges, of ‘practising’ improvization. Therefore, the COMPENDIUM includes a series of exercises of this type under the title ‘Declination’. This can be compared to the methods used in learning a language.
The procedural method can best be explained by taking the example of a free choral harmonization. The melody and a figured bass are given. The student tries out all imaginable constellations (positions, distribution of the voices, transposition) in order to discover a maximum of different possibilities of voice-leading. Once these manual sequences are internalized to the point of being almost automatic, they become retrievable, almost subconsciously, when improvizing.
The harmonic progressions described in the chapter ‘Figured bass models’ (for example, sequence of descending fifths, cadences, typical bass progressions) must also be worked through until the player can see them as self-evident basic structures. In individual cases they can be adjusted to a particular musical context by ornamenting with appropriate figures and motives taken from the field of improvization. To practise this procedure, the COMPENDIUM proposes improvizing over various ostinato- and partimento-basses, as described in Friedrich Erhardt Niedt’s ‘Musicalischer Handleitung’. In the second part of this treatise Niedt discusses the rearrangement of a simple figured bass in various dance settings. Consequentially, the preoccupation with Partimento playing leads to the improvization of binary forms and complete suites.
