Improvising with Walter Fähndrich
In a slim booklet, the former lecturer in chamber music improvisation lays a music theory foundation for his specialty.
I met Walter Fähndrich quite by chance in the summer of 1984 at what was then the Quellenhof student hotel in Schuls. Even back then - before I even knew he was a musician - I was struck by his uncompromising attitude and ambition. It was only later that I became aware of his publications on the subject of Music and spaces and I heard about his incredible electro-acoustic sound installation at Lago del Sambuco in the upper Maggia Valley.
Fähndrich, born in Zug in 1944, is a trained violist, composer, theory teacher and improviser. For 25 years he was a lecturer in improvisation/life composition in Basel and set up a master's course in improvised chamber music. His eight compositions for solo viola were written up to 2002 Viola I to Viola VIII.
In the booklet Why do we improvise? Fähndrich presents a music-theoretical foundation for his specialty, chamber music improvisation. In this respect, the slogans on the blurb are provocative: "Total freedom - everything is possible and right!!!", "You can play whatever you want!!!" and "You can't make mistakes!!!". The opposite is true: if you follow Fähndrich's reasoning, you are indeed limited.
His reflections begin with "Ten aspects of improvisation". These range from "communication", "willingness to take risks" and "energy management" to "product, purpose". Fähndrich understands improvisation as "A player with equal rights and full responsibility in the compositional process, at the heart of which is a result that is realized with great playfulness, unpredictable and yet as convincing as possible". He also makes a strict distinction between the positive Acting outwhich he has shifted from the negatively connoted Letting go stands out.
Naturally, much of the volume remains very verbose and theoretical. There are no notated examples, because the improvised music is precisely not written down. Fähndrich's book is a must-read for anyone who takes a serious and reflective approach to improvisation.
Walter Fähndrich: Why do we improvise?, 80 p., € 18.00, Wolke-Verlag, Hofheim 2024, ISBN 978-3-95593-270-1
