Publication Date

Spring 2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Music and Dance

Advisor

Gordon Haramaki; Abi Ramirez Romero; Jonathan Dryden

Abstract

Improvisation has been a highly valued skill in all periods of Western keyboard music. Many composers were also famous as keyboard improvisers and demonstrate the importance of improvisation as a tradition in “classical” keyboard performance. Strangely, today’s pianists, who perform the canonical eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works of these composers, no longer practice or incorporate improvisation into performance and instead play “only from the score.” Improvisation has also disappeared from the modern education of “classical” piano performers. Since improvisation was central to the performance practice of past keyboard repertoire, why does modern piano education not teach improvisation as a standard part of their curriculums? This study identifies a series of “mythologies” surrounding “classical improvisation” that discourage contemporary keyboardists from integrating improvisation into classical keyboard studies. First, I examine contemporary misconceptions about improvisation as an “inherent talent.” Second, I historically trace and examine the importance of improvisation and improvisatory styles in canonical keyboard literature. Third, I evaluate a series of historical sources regarding classical keyboard improvisation and, in so doing, demonstrate that in the past improvisation was a skill that was systematically taught in ways that are readily comprehensible and accessible to modern piano teachers, students, and performers. Finally, I advocate for the reincorporation of improvisation into modern piano teaching methods and the performance of classical music.

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