Questions to The Frogman:
Discuss
Fantasy in Classical Music, as compared with, Improvisation in Jazz.
Cheers
Jazz for aficionados
Rok, in Classical music a “Fantasy” (usually seen as “Fantaisie” in French or ”Fantasie” in German) is a musical work written in the style of, or meant to convey the feeling of, an improvisation. One of the key ways that a composer tries to achieve this is by not adhering to traditional “forms”. The composition then doesn’t follow many of the traditional compositional “rules” and so it conveys a sense of freedom. However, there is no actual improvisation and it is entirely pre-composed. As with all Classical works there is still much room for personal interpretation and expression in the performance. In Jazz there is, as we all know, spontaneous improvisation (spontaneous composition). However, unless we are talking about “free jazz”, the improvisation follows the “rules” of the specific form and harmonic chord progression of the tune. One of the most important aspects of the concept of “evolution” in jazz has been that the more modern the jazz the more those rules were broken or certainly stretched; particularly in the realm of harmony or the way (note choices) that players improvise over each harmonic change (chord) of a tune. |
Gracias. I asked the question because I was listening to this today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXcqDqaZo1o I was wondering if this was a piece that someone else would play the same as she did? On closer reading of the notes I see the Carmen Fantasy was composed by Pablo De Sarasate, not Bizet. Just as you said, it's written down. Thanks for the usual comprehensive response. Cheers |