The Library of Congress > Linked Data Service > LC Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT)

Improvisations (Music)


  • Musical performances or transcriptions of musical performances that consist wholly or primarily of improvised musical content.
  • URI(s)

  • Form

    • Improvisations (Music)
  • Variants

    • Extemporizations (Music)
  • Broader Terms

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  • Closely Matching Concepts from Other Schemes

  • Sources

    • found: Ex Mus Ensemble. Album no. 1, 2017:container ("This album is a set of structured improvisations ... Our goal was to explore the sonic possibilities of bassoon, guitar, and percussion as a trio")
    • found: Aṣīl Ensemble. Aṣīl, 2010(recorded performances include completely improvised sequences (taqāsīm) which conform to traditions of improvisation in Arabic music)
    • found: Daniel Roth plays the Cavaillé-Coll at Saint-Ouen in Rouen, France, 2007(disc includes narrated tour of the stops of the organ along with improvisations demonstrating each stop)
    • found: Johnson, J.J. Solos, 2000(score contains transcriptions of improvised solos from J.J. Johnson's recordings)
    • found: New Grove dictionary of jazz, 2002:Jarrett, Keith ("In 1972 Jarrett began performing solo concerts which consisted simply of two extended improvisations, each usually 30 to 45 minutes in length. The music spanned a rich variety of traditions ... illuminating Jarrett's reference to his work as universal folk music")
    • found: Grove music online, August 24, 2018:improvisation ("The creation of a musical work, or the final form of a musical work, as it is being performed. It may involve the work's immediate composition by its performers, or the elaboration or adjustment of an existing framework, or anything in between. To some extent every performance involves elements of improvisation, although its degree varies according to period and place, and to some extent every improvisation rests on a series of conventions or implicit rules. The term 'extemporization' is used more or less interchangeably with 'improvisation'")
  • General Notes

    • Musical performances or transcriptions of musical performances that consist wholly or primarily of improvised musical content.
  • Instance Of

  • Scheme Membership(s)

  • Collection Membership(s)

  • Change Notes

    • 2018-10-02: new
    • 2018-12-11: revised
  • Alternate Formats