Occasional constraints

One of the most enjoyable things about improsivising with a group is the frisson which comes from knowing this is a ‘one off’ event, unprecedented and unrepeatable. And a large part of this comes from sensing the uniqueness of the circumstances of the occasion – the ‘occasional’ constraints. The improviser is generally much more alert to these than performers who are tied closely to notation and rehearsal. The poet Peter Riley calls improvisation ‘the exploration of occasion’. There is respect for the particularities of circumstance and an intimate engagement with them. Far from being a kind of cage which the musician at best tolerates and at worst ignores (or even contests), these constraints are normally invited into the improvisation: the occasion is brought to sound.