Nina asked:

How improvised is improvised music?

For something to be improvised in a technical sense it should not be pre-planned. However, when
making improvised music, there is usually a lot of planning involved. How long? How loud? What
instrument? Where you perform? Where the audience stand? (Should you have an audience?) Yes,
this does not mean that the music is not improvised, but should it be the first time you have played an
instrument for it to be truly improvised? Are there rules for improvisation? If so is it improvisation? If
you plan what your next note will be that is planning therefore not improvisation. Is anything
improvised?

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My answer to Garry's question on the Fifth selection of questions and answers covers similar ground.
The problem that concerned Garry was how it is that, when improvising on the saxophone, he can
know and yet not know where he is going with an improvised piece, how the notes he plays can be
intended, rather than merely accidental.

One particular point that stands out about your question is the idea of something's being
'pre-planned'. It seems to me that some of your worries stem from understanding that term in two
quite different senses. Deciding on an instrument, a venue, and all the other features provide a
context for the performance, for the improvisation. They do not themselves have to be improvised in
order for the performance to be considered an improvisation. It is like a painter deciding what canvas
to use. In this sense, there is nothing wrong in allowing these details to be fully 'pre-planned'.

A piece of music that you are playing cannot be described as improvised if you have thought out in
advance exactly what notes you are going to play. However, it doesn't follow that you cannot use any
sequenceof notes that you have not used before. If one thinks of a piece of music as constructed out
of phrases, then it is perfectly possible to construct a piece of music using certain phrases that one
has used before, provided that you have not decided in advance which phrases to use, or in which
order they are to occur. Jazz musicians have particular sequences of notes which they like, which
become like a 'signature'. From just a few bars, you know that you are listening to Charlie Parker. It
doesn't follow that when Charlie Parker uses one of his favourite musical phrases he is not
improvising.

Geoffrey Klempner