Challenging wisdom

Received: 10 October 2005 Revised: 11 October 2005 Accepted: 11 October 2005 ‘After all, an improviser must anticipate before playing, and composing is a slowed-down improvisation; often, one cannot write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas.’ The central part of this sentence from ‘Brahms the Progressive,’ one of Arnold Schoenberg’s most renowned and influential writings (in Style and Idea (New York, 1950), 98) is set as an exergo in Claudio’s paper on ‘improvisation and time,’ published in 1999. This quote does not appear there only as an embellishment, but it bears witness to his love for music, both art and popular music. As a musicologist specializing in the Second Viennese School, I must add the comment that Schoenberg was the only composer who practised bricolage to such an extent that a whole conference could be devoted to this topic in his life and work 2 years ago in Vienna. Claudio’s writings on improvisation bear only marginal remarks on music, but he was eager to deepen his understanding of this topic, and he had planned a new paper. The tentative title he wrote to me in October of last year is