The performance of music without following a predetermined score; an important constituent of music for many centuries. In the Baroque period, a keyboard continuo player was expected to improvise an accompaniment from a figured base, while the reputations of singers and instrumentalists depended greatly on their ability to introduce suitable ornaments and embellishments, especially into slow pieces. In the classical concerto, the cadenza provided a major formal context for brilliant soloistic improvisation, but most of the major composers of the 18th19th-c, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt, were renowned for their abilities in improvising entire pieces. Since then the art of improvising on a given theme has survived mainly in organ lofts and in jazz, where both individual and ensemble improvisations have always played an important role.
Philosophically, improvisation often focuses on bringing one's personal awareness "into the moment," and on developing a profound understanding for the action one is doing.
Improvisation is the art of acting and reacting, in the moment, to your surroundings. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different abilities or forms of communication, for example, cooking, presenting a speech, sales, personal or romantic relationships, sports, flower arranging, martial arts, psychotherapy, the arts, and much more.
The mental and emotional states needed to practice the art of improv are very similar to the practice taught in the religious and philosophical art of Zen, and many of the same concepts are used in both practices.
Techniques of improvisation are widely trained in the entertainment arts, for example, music, theatre and dance.
Other Terms:
Improv is often used as the noun form of "improvisation." ("Improv" is not currently found in many dictionaries or spell checkers.)
"Extemporize," "to vamp, "ad lib" and "riff" all have basically the same meaning as improvisation. Colloquial terms such as "lets play it by ear," "take it as it comes," and "make it up as we go along" are all used to describe "improvisation."
Musical improvisation
Improvisation is an important aspect of Music in general.
Singing Improvisation
Singing Improv is an ancient art form. Singing Improvisation is a mixture of Musical improvisation and Improvisational theater. Additionally, aspects of Dance, Comedy and Showmanship are all part of the singing improvisers repertoire.
Theater
Improvisation is a common tool for many actors. According to the dominant acting theories of Konstantin Stanislavski, an actor improvising a scene must be trusting his own instincts.
Dance
Dance Improvisation as a Choreographic Tool: Improvisation is used as a choreographic tool in dance composition.
Contact Improvisation: a form developed 30 years ago that is now practiced around the world. Contact improvisation originated from the movement studies of Steve Paxton in the 1970s and developed through the continued exploration of the Judson Dance Theater.
Film
The director Mike Leigh uses lengthy improvisations developed over a period of weeks to build characters and storylines for his films. The final filming draws on dialogue and actions that have been recorded during the improvisation period.
Comedy
See main article - Improvisational comedy
Improvisational comedy is a common art performed throughout the world and throughout history.
Some of the more famous North American comic improv groups are the Upright Citizens Brigade - out of New York City, the Groundlings - out of Los Angles, The Second City - out of Chicago, and Theatresports - out of Calgary, Canada.
Poetry
Traditional epic poetry included improvisation moments where the reciter flattered the audience (specially the authorities) or to substitute a forgotten passage.
There are also societies that value improvised poetry as a genre, often as a debate or "poetic joust", where improvisators compete for public approval.
Some of those impromptu poems are later recorded in paper or transmitted orally
Some forms of improvised poetry:
Basque bertsos Cuban décimas The Dozens, ritual rhyming insults among African American ghetto youths Norse and Germanic flyting Provençal and Catalan Jocs Florals Arabic naqa'id Argentinian payadores The partimen and tenso of troubadours Lebanese zajal Portuguese cantigas ao desafio (sung)Usually wit is as valued as conformity to poetical form.
Television
In the 1990s, a TV show called Whose Line Is It Anyway? popularized shortform comedic improvisation. More recently, television shows such as HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David) and Bravo series Significant Others have used improvisation to create longer-form programs with more dramatic flavor. Another improvisation based show is i's "World Cup Comedy." In Canada, the Global Television soap opera Train 48, based on the Australian series Going Home, uses a form of structured improvisation, in which actors improvise dialog from written plot outlines.
Even more recently, Australia's Thank God You're Here is a gameshow where celebrities are put into scenes they know nothing about and have to improvise.
Role-playing games
Role-playing games often involve a casual form of improvisational acting; A player's character may be pre-defined, with game statistics and a history, but the character's response to game events and to other players is improvised.
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