(Very) Free Improvisation (please see text) with Giordano

This is an audio recording with Manlio Giordano, the Swedish-Italian concert pianist.

The present audio recording was made in August 1999, in Malmö, Sweden, immediately after an 8-month complete sabbatical from music on Mr Giordano's part, during which he focused on scientific and other studies in the isolation of the Arctic wilderness of Kiruna, Sweden. He had played on the instrument for 15 minutes the day before the recording was made, when he returned from the wilderness, and then only a few minutes before the recording session commenced. What came out constitutes one of the improvisation sessions that Mr Giordano has been most pleased with. This performance perhaps represents the ultimate degree of spontaneity - no previous practice for a very long period of time and no planned theme to improvise on. Can improvisation get more "improvised" than this?

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Other recordings with Giordano have been uploaded as well on this YouTube account, including video selections from a DVD featuring a live concerto performance. The full DVD (4 GB, 62 minutes, copyright-free) can be downloaded at

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3732289

A compressed (AVI) version that will fit on a CD can be downloaded at:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3744202/

A "BitTorrent Client" program is required for the download. Several such programs are available on the Internet free of cost.

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Please see Manlio Giordano's main YouTube page or MySpace page for biographic information etc.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Piano
• free
• improvisation
• Manlio
• Giordano
• classical
• music
• modern
• live
• concert
• performance
• Swedish
• Italian
• musician
• art

[Roswellsounds]

Excellent, Mr. Giordano!

But I must remark that this is not a "free improv".

You are playing an style that you`ve learned in the conservatory and in your personal studies. A mix of classical & romantic music.

A Free Improvisation must leave behind those common grounds & sounds. You should try this again with that concept in mind. Try to play something that you don`t know, something that you`ve never played before.

Automatism? Maybe! First the mind, then the fingers! =D

[ManlioGiordano]

Thank you for your comment. However, I belive that few improvisations that constitute a serious artistic effort would qualify as such, with your set of definitions. I would be grateful if you provided some examples (preferably YouTube links) of what you consider to be true improvisations, i.e. that do not draw on any previous conceptions of any kind; I assume that this would involve using a piano without strings and hammers, since they, too, are part of the common grounds that you wish to avoid.

[yoshimipirate]

I agree that the piece had a classical - romantic "vibe" to it. I do think it was free in the scope of classical vibes. Abandoning convention altogether is reserved for free *jazz* improvisation, where artists like Coltrane and Cline seem to abandon everything they know about music altogether - the conditioned finger patterns, rhythms, etc. - totally disregarded, forgotten. Total freedom. Anyway, I thought this was pleasant. Not free enough though, is my final opinion.

[ManlioGiordano]

"yoshimipirate" - thank you for your comments. I believe that what "freedom" means has different answers for everyone. For me, anyway, "freedom" in itself is not a very interesting goal for a musical performance. In particular, to sit down and have a well-balanced, beautiful piece suddenly appear, out of the blue - as in the present case - feels far more attractive than trying to produce (quite consciously) some kind of "acoustic evidence of not thinking", or avoiding familiar-sounding patterns.

[ManlioGiordano]

P.S. A simple way to realize that "musical freedom" is a rather complex creature to dissect, is to think about the (disastrous) consequences of replacing the playing of Mr Coltrane, that you mention, with random noise, during a "free" jazz ensemble performance. It would not work because a great many rules are heeded, continuoulsy, during such performances. Certainly, more rules are observed by such skilled improvisers than by an amateur or "lesser professional" performing Mozart from a score.

[cindikleincuomo]

Beautiful Manlio~ you have talent beyond compare, my friend!

[libertatus]

Inspiring! An impressive display of skill and liberation.

[xxslzz]

Like a fantastic walk in the woods! Nature unbound!