160 performance as art
conventions are in place, then the improviser does not herself have to per-
form a distinct act of composition. Rather, in virtue of the conventions, her
doing one thing – carrying out a given improvisation – counts as her doing
something else – composing a particular performable work. Improvisational
composition is possible, then, if (1) there is in place a set of conventions that
determine what the performable work is , given the performance, and (2) the
performer(s) draw(s) on these conventions in intending the performance to
be an act of composition. It is highly questionable whether these two condi-
tions are met in jazz improvisations. Indeed, Stephen Davies maintains that
this would go against “the ethos of music like jazz” (2001, 14). But improvi-
sational composition remains as a theoretical possibility here and in the other
performing arts.
Pure improvisation
We have considered thus far the possibility of improvisations that issue from,
and improvisations that issue in, performable works. The remaining possibil-
ity is of improvisations that stand in neither of these relationships to such
works. We explored this possibility in the previous chapter, taking Jarrett’s
Köln Concert as our example. The performance itself is the artistic vehicle
through which appreciable qualities are articulated. A similar analysis might
apply to the kind of “free jazz” associated with Chicago ensembles in the
1960s and with European jazz in the following decade.^7 As in the case of
Jarrett, the free jazz musicians often drew on various musical traditions as
ingredients in their improvisations. But it seems implausible to think of their
performances either as of pre-existing performable works or as generating
such works.
4 Improvisation and Recording
If we accept Kivy’s version of the story, Bach’s feat illustrates how an improv-
isation-event that occurs at a particular place and time can be properly appre-
ciated by those who were not present at that event. If the improvisation can
be captured in a notation in a way that permits others to perform what was
improvised, then, it might be thought, we are as well placed as Frederick
the Great to appreciate the improvisational performance that we know as
The Musical Offering , given a suitably gifted performer. But to draw this con-
clusion is to forget one of the points that Alperson and others have stressed
about the appreciation of an improvisation. What we value in an improvised
performance is not only, and perhaps not even primarily, the musical con-
struction generated by the performer. It is also the improvisational action