Robert Levin: Improvising Mozart
Why Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange recommends it
Music Stack Exchange answerers point people to it when asked how classical-era musicians improvised, added ornaments, or how classical improvisation differs from jazz.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2014 to 2023.
What it is
A 2012 lecture by pianist and musicologist Robert Levin, delivered at Cambridge as Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chamber Music, on how Mozart's music was meant to be improvised. It runs about 72 minutes and is hosted by CRASSH Cambridge.
Cited in 1 Wikipedia article, including Ornament (music).
What people said
Recommends Michael Curtis · 2017-05 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “How did classical composers learn piano improvisation?”
If you do some digging, you will find a lot of material on this topic. Try these for starters: Callahan, Techniques of keyboard improvisation in the German Baroque and their implications for today's pedagogy. [LINK] Sanguinetti , The Art of Partimento: History, Theory, and Practice. [LINK] Gjerdingen, Monuments of Partimenti. [LINK] When you hear stories about composers who could improvise fugues, they are talking about partimenti fugue. Also, check out these videos: Robert Levin: Improvising Mozart. Improvising Mozart with Robert Levin.
Recommends AlexJ · 2023-09 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Ornaments in baroque music: should be avoided in some cases?”
Ornamentation such as you describe was undoubtedly common practice during the baroque period and even later (Robert Levin's lectures on Mozart and improvisation, available on Youtube, are highly enlightening, see here [this video] ). The degree to which one adds non-written ornaments (either on repeats or at other places in the piece where they might be needed) depends on various factors. Some pieces, for example, already have highly ornamented musical lines and adding more would be simply too much. One criticism levelled at Bach (examples abound, both in vocal - for ex. the duets in BWV 140 [LINK] ; notice both the highly ornamented violin line and the notated vocal ornaments - and instrumental
Cites anon · 2014-08 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Does improvisation in the classical idiom differ significantly from jazz and folk improvisation?”
"Fundamental differences" is something that is open to interpretation. Jazz, a great-great-great-great step-grandchild of classical music certainly shares some of the rich musical heritage of European and African traditions which gives it "hybrid vigor." Nevertheless, classical music improvisation delves into many areas that jazz only hints at. Here's Robert Levin lecturing on "Improvising Mozart" My answer here is a very rough summary of the book "Improvising" by Gerre Hancock which was strongly recommended to me by church organists and ballet school pianists back in the 90s when I first started investigating melody-based improvisation. Sorry jazzheads, traditional jazz is mostly based on i