An Alternate History of European Music:
Working notes on the translation of Ernst Ferand's Improvisation in Music
Photograph from the late 1920s (?) -
Ferand is on the far right
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The book
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Ferand at the piano (1939)
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In 1938, the scholar and music teacher Ernst Ferand (1887-1972) released a book written in German called simply Die Improvisation in der Musik (Improvisation in Music). The significance of this text rests primarily on its reputation as the first (and still today, the only) comprehensive historical study of improvisation in European music. But in this book, Ferand not only lays out a compelling alternate history of music rooted in improvisational forms, he also presents psychologically and anthropologically grounded arguments for the existence of a fundamental human "improvisation drive," and proposes new approaches to music education rooted in this insight. Nearly a hundred years after its appearance, his writings harbor radical implications for how we understand, teach, and make music.
I am engaged in a multi-year project of producing an English translation of this book, which will be published by Routledge as part of their series Classic European Studies in the Science of Music. On this page I will post updates, highlights, and research notes on this project as it unfolds.
A Little Bit about the Book (June 27, 2024)
What exactly is this book? I have described it as a "history of improvisation in European music," and that is indeed the easiest way to sum it up. But it's not quite right. This is not simply a historical survey. As suggested by the book's subtitle, "A Historical and Psychological Study," Ferand was very interested in music psychology, which was a major influence in the milieu in which he was working. But in this context, as I understand it, music psychology was less concerned with empirical studies and more with phenomenological approaches and speculation about musical universals. History and psychology are counterparts, in this sense, representing the particular and the general in a comprehensive understanding of music.
Another peculiarity is the fact that Ferand makes an effort to integrate the findings of comparative musicology into his study of improvisation. The second chapter of the book compares examples of improvisation in contexts outside of Western music, and Ferand is keen to draw cross-cultural connections between forms of improvisation in various world musical cultures, although the focus of the book remains on European music history.
Finally, there is the curious fact that the historical survey in Ferand's book ends quite abruptly around the year 1600-- that is, at the beginning of what music historians think of as the Baroque period. The reasons for this are complicated and at present not entirely clear to me, but I have discovered one interesting clue in Ferand's PhD dissertation, which formed the foundation for his book. The title page states "Part I: From the Beginnings until 1600." In other words, he intended to write a sequel that would have presumably covered the period from 1600 to the early twentieth century! Why this never happened is one of the fascinating subplots of this project.
What exactly is this book? I have described it as a "history of improvisation in European music," and that is indeed the easiest way to sum it up. But it's not quite right. This is not simply a historical survey. As suggested by the book's subtitle, "A Historical and Psychological Study," Ferand was very interested in music psychology, which was a major influence in the milieu in which he was working. But in this context, as I understand it, music psychology was less concerned with empirical studies and more with phenomenological approaches and speculation about musical universals. History and psychology are counterparts, in this sense, representing the particular and the general in a comprehensive understanding of music.
Another peculiarity is the fact that Ferand makes an effort to integrate the findings of comparative musicology into his study of improvisation. The second chapter of the book compares examples of improvisation in contexts outside of Western music, and Ferand is keen to draw cross-cultural connections between forms of improvisation in various world musical cultures, although the focus of the book remains on European music history.
Finally, there is the curious fact that the historical survey in Ferand's book ends quite abruptly around the year 1600-- that is, at the beginning of what music historians think of as the Baroque period. The reasons for this are complicated and at present not entirely clear to me, but I have discovered one interesting clue in Ferand's PhD dissertation, which formed the foundation for his book. The title page states "Part I: From the Beginnings until 1600." In other words, he intended to write a sequel that would have presumably covered the period from 1600 to the early twentieth century! Why this never happened is one of the fascinating subplots of this project.
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Improvised medieval counterpoint (October 11, 2024)
This remarkable image is reproduced from a 13th-century treatise by Elias Salomon, discussed at some length in Chapter 4 of Ferand's book. It is a schematic illustration of an improvised performance by four singers. The rules provided do not accord great freedom to the performers: the resulting texture closely resembles that of the early polyphonic genre of organum, in which the upper voices move in parallel fifths, octaves, and twelfths above the bass, which sings a plainchant cantus firmus. But the singers would have been expected to decorate their parts within this framework, as suggested by the author's warning against "ostentatious or vain ornamentation" (vanos punctos). That this was a challenging undertaking for the singers is indicated by the consoling advice: "When you experience trouble, you begin again as soon as you are able... Sometimes, out of necessity this must be done." |
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