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Revision, Prevision, and the Aura of Improvisatory Art

Author(s): David SterrittSource: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 58, No. 2, Improvisation in theArts (Spring, 2000), pp. 163-172Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for AestheticsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/432095

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DAVID STERRITT

Revision, Prevision,and the Auraof ImprovisatoryArt

In a 1958essayaboutJackKerouac,whose novelOn the Road hadplayed a majorrole in puttingthe Beat Generationon the map of both main-streamand counterculturalAmericaa year ear-

lier, Beat fellow traveler John Clellon Holmes

imagined his friend working at his typewriter,staring nto the blankness of the space in front

of him, careful not to will anything,andsimplyrecordingthe 'movie' unreelingin his mind....Somehow anopencircuit of feelinghadbeen es-tablishedbetween his awarenessand tsobjectofthe moment, and the result was as startlingas

being trapped n anotherman'seyes. 'In descriptiveterms,Holmes appears o have

given anaccurateaccountof Kerouac'sworking

method.Convincedasearlyas 1948 that sponta-neouswriting was thekeyto honestandauthentic

literarycreation,Kerouacrefined this techniquein 1951 after istening othe fluid lyric-alto tyleof jazz saxophonistLee Konitz anddeciding towrite the way [Konitz]plays. 2 n 1959 he pub-lished one of severalmanifestos nwhich he elab-orated on the importanceof an improvisatorywritingmeant ocapture theunspeakable isionsof theindividual n unadulteratedorm;appear-ing in his fragmentaryist of thirty essentialsare suchphrasesas Writewhatyou wantbottom-

less frombottom of the mind and Composingwild,undisciplined,pure,comingin fromunder,crazierthebetter. 3

In philosophical terms, the view taken byHolmes and Kerouac of what the latter called

spontaneous bop prosody or spontaneoustrance composition is clearly rooted in a ro-manticist sensibility-or a Dionysian one, inFriedrichNietzsche'sterminology-with its em-

phasisonimmediacy,ndividuality, npredictabil-ity, and freedom from socioculturalnorms im-

posed by the presentor inherited romthe past.

This sensibilityhas been sharedby manyartistsand critics who promulgatenotionsof improvi-sationas an idealizedroute to the authenticex-

pressionof auniquesoul,spirit,or innerself.The

assumptionhat deals of spontaneity ndauthen-

ticity are achievablethrough mprovisationmaybe explicit,as when cornetistJimmyMcPartlandstated hathis apprenticeshipwith aChicago azzgroup trained him to play the way you feel,yourself, and when he recalls that legendarymusicianBixBeiderbecke ouldnotplaythesamechorusmorethanoncebecause, nBeiderbecke'swords, Idon'tfeel thesamewaytwice.... Idon'tknow what'sgoing to happennext. 4Orthe as-

sumptionmay be implicit, as when a reference

work onjazz statesthat mprovisedmusic givesthe player an opportunityfor self-expressionwhich is to a large degreeabsentwhenhe repro-ducescomposedorarrangedworks. 5 n its sup-positionthat self' expressionis facilitated ess

effectively by interpretation than by invention,and that the latter is singularlylinked to suchpropertiesas spontaneity, urprise,experiment,and discovery, 6 his assertiontacitly endorsestheconceptof improvisations aprivilegedmeansof access to immediate lash material romthemind, n thewords of Beatpoet AlienGinsberg,

who sharedKerouac's nterests n this area.7Alongside the idea that improvisingtaps di-

rectly ntothemindas onecontinuous, ividflowof sense-data,associations,memoriesand medi-tations, 8 owever, s aqualifiedview of thepro-cess that recognizes its connection with plan-ning,deliberation,reconceptualization,ndothermentalactivitiesthat areneitherwholly sponta-neous, individualistic,nor autotelic in the wayssuggestedby idealizeddiscoursesof extempora-neous invention. In defining improvisation, or

example,thejazz referenceworkcited above ac-

The Journalof Aesthetics andArtCriticism58:2 Spring2000

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TheJournalof Aesthetics andArtCriticism

knowledges that in addition to the immediate

compositionof an entireworkby itsperformers,thepracticemay alternativelynvolve the elab-oration or othervariationof an existing frame-

work, ormayfollowa course inbetween hesepossibilities.9Semantically, he affirmation hat

improvisatorywork can operateon each of theselevels (i.e., immediatecompositionand rework-

ingof anexistingframework) implyfollows the

dictionarydefinitionof improvise s meaningboth to nvent,compose,or recitewithoutprepa-ration and to make or providefrom available

materials. 10't is notable,however, that artistsand criticsveryoftenplacetheiremphasison theterm's first meaningrather han its second. In-

deed,the second is oftenpresentedas if it was an

occasionallyrelevantmodificationof thefirst,ortreated as a mere afterthought r addendum,or

altogether gnored.The effect of this discursivemaneuver s to ratify the link between improvi-sation, ndividuality,and authenticity hat s heldforthby manyBeat writers,bebopmusicians,and

like-mindedartists.Yeta lookat the actualmeth-odologies of some paradigmatic ractitionersnthese fields suggests that spur-of-the-moment

creationmay not be nearlyas divorced rompre-conceived ideas, prerehearsed echniques, andprearranged ffects as its advocates frequentlyappear obelieve.This raises mportant uestionsrelated to the ontological natureas well as theday-to-daypracticeof improvisatory rt.

Whyhaveartists ndcriticsallowed-or caused-such a mystique to grow around spur-of-the-moment creativityas a pathwayto aestheticand

psychologicalauthenticity?Whileimprovisation

has played a significant role in artisticcreation

for centuries-it was a favorite practiceduringthe classicalperiodof Europeanmusic,to citeone

of manypossible examples-an importanteasonfor its high reputation n the modernisteramaybe twentieth-century ncertainties egarding he

authenticity f artisticworksand practices hem-

selves. WalterBenjamincasts light on this pos-sibility when he introduces the term aura oidentify certain qualities of the traditionalartwork: its position within an established ineage,its situatedness n a particularimeandplace, andthe unique phenomenonof a distance that it

presentsto the beholder no matterhow close it

maybe in termsof physical proximity.Whiletheauraticeffect has a long and imposing history,Benjaminarguesthatcontemporarymass audi-ences have desiresconducive o different esults-

the wishtobring hings closer ot ust spatiallybut also humanly, nd the wish to overcome

theuniquenessof every reality by accordingweightandsignificance oreproductionshatdis-

placetheoriginals rom whichtheyaremade.Byfacilitatingthe decay of art's auraticquality,such desiresrevealaregrettable opularbelief inthe universal quality of perceptible hings.In

contrast,heauraticworkremains essentially is-tant and unapproachable n its uniqueexis-

tence, even if there is a degree of closenesswhich one may gainfromits subjectmatter. 1'

To focus once againonjazz, it is interesting oobservehow closely its earlydays happen o co-incide with the birth of the recordingindustry,clearlya majorevent (alongwith theemergenceof cinema) in the developmentof the age of me-chanical reproduction.'2For the first time, re-cordingtechnologybrought azz andother ormsof music-not in amateurvarietiesbut in presti-gious, professionallyhonedpresentations-intohomes, workplaces, and commercialestablish-ments,thus taking he music physicallycloser toits consumerswhile contradictingts uniqueness

via the ready availabilityof copies thatare (ac-tually) identicalto one anotherand(putatively)indistinguishablerom the originalperformancesthat they reproduce.Embracedwith alacritybylarge segments of the expanding turn-of-the-centurymarket or consumergoods, this devel-opment hardly encouraged ongoing respectforsuch auratic qualities as unapproachabilityortime-and-place pecificity.Some observers, ven-tually including FrankfurtSchool philosopherslike Benjamin,responded o the reproducibility

trendwith growinguneasiness about the coursethat it wouldtake in the hands of thecapitalisticpower brokerswho controlled t. But thepopularimagination,won overbytheunprecedentedleni-tude of readily available culturalproducts,re-mained argely untroubledby suchthoughts.

It is likely thatthe growthof mechanicallyre-producedperformancesplayed a role in the ten-dency of pre-WorldWar II jazz musicians tostray from the improvisatory ootsof theirart-exemplified by the polyphonicNew OrleansorDixieland style-and steer jazz toward Euro-

peanized models that undergirded notherhuge

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Sterritt Revision, Prevision, and the Aura of Improvisatory Art

sector ( serious or concert music) of the re-

cording ndustry. n the 1920s,tobe sure,record-

ings facilitatedtherising popularityof solo jazzimprovisationby allowingone-time-only flights

of invention to be readilyandinexpensivelyre-visitedby listeners. But in the 1930s and 1940s,recordingsmay have paradoxically ostered thecritical and commercialdominance of swingor big band styles that relied on large-scaleinstrumentation(which proved no more un-

wieldy in recordingstudios than in the upscale,predominantlywhitenightclubs hatwere boost-

ing the economics of jazz) and used through-composed arrangements hat downplayedim-

provisationbut enabledcommercial ntereststo

exploit popular numbers with newfound effi-

ciency.While big-bandarrangements lmost al-waysleft roomforimprovised olos and breaks

by individualperformers,these were subordi-nated to the prearrangednumber as a whole,carefully charted nd rehearsed n advance.13The prestigeof improvisationdid not regainitsearly grounduntil the years immediatelyafterWorldWarII, when the innovativebop schoolreassertedextemporaneousplayingas an essen-tial jazz ingredient. Phonographrecords thenrose inimportance nceagain,giventherenewedinterest in

preserving unrepeatablesolos-not

only in terms of pitch, rhythm,and tempo, butalso of such notation-resistant ualitiesas tone,dynamics,and mood.

The question that now arises is why such a

highly improvisatory tyle as bebopshould suc-

cessfully emergeat the time when it did. Histo-rianshave suggestedmanyvalidanswersto this,fromthe arrival f apostwar fresh tart mental-

ity tochanges nmusiceducation mongbothplay-ers and isteners.But one underrecognizedactor

maybe anagginguneasinessovermusic'sloss of

auratic ignityduringhalf acenturyof mechanicalreproduction.Contrahemarksof auraticauthen-

ticity noted in Benjamin'saccount specificity,uniqueness,unapproachability-recording ech-

nology offers (a) the abilityto hear a recorded

piece withno regardfor the time or place of its

originalperformance,b)theproliferationf end-less copies easily obtained,and(c) a senseof notonly physical proximityto the work( abreath-

taking performance n your own home )but ofaesthetic intimacy ( the most subtle nuances )and even a sortof artisticcommunion youhear

the full intentionsof thecomposer )withits cre-

ator.14mprovisation ffers a field on whichsuch

displacementsof auraticqualitiesmight be re-

coupedin at least threeways:

i. Elementsof singularityand specialness maybe lost in reproduction,but maintain theirvia-

bility in live performances f improvisedmusic,whichprovidea spur-of-the-momentnownessthatrecordingsmust lack by definition.Only afraction of such performancescan ever be re-corded, moreover,whichgives even theirmass-marketedreproductionsa certain second-handcachet.

ii. Liveperformancesf through-composed usicoffer more singularityand nowness than re-

cordingsof suchmusicdo,buttheysufferalong-side live performancesof improvisedmusic inthisrespect,since unlike mprovisationsheycanbe repeatedas often as desiredin substantiallythe same form.Mostlistenersknowthis,andtheyalso know thatrecorded mprovisations etainagreaterdegree of specificitythanrecordingsof

through-composed ieces do, since the improvi-sation was capturedduring its sole momentofexistence. Even record-listenersuninterestednthe original time-and-placeparticularities f an

improvisationmay value the fact that it was asingularoccurrencerather han a representativerun-through f apreciselynotatedpiece thatcanbe played manytimes with little variation.

iii. The ability to craft, manipulate,and im-prove a performance via recording-studiotechnology putsapremiumon off-the-cuffspon-taneity,whichmaybe regardedas a markof in-tellectualalertnessandemotional cool as wellas creativeabilityandmusical skill. (The playerwho improvisesbefore a live audienceor insists

on direct,unmodifiedrecordingof a one-time-only performancemay thereforebe seen as thediametricaloppositeof such a musicianas clas-sical pianist Glenn Gould, who took a radicalstance for cut-and-splicestudio recording andagainst all forms of live performance.)

These threepoints illustratethe value of im-provisationas a tool forrestoring ojazz auraticqualities that are threatenedby the prevalenceof phonographic eproduction.Hence, they sug-gest a significantreason why many musicians

and listenersfelt a need to reinvest improvised

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music with a prestigethat had dwindledduringthebig-bandera; hisin turn uggests whyclaimsfor allegedly inherent traits of improvisation-authenticity, pontaneity,ndividuality-are often

exaggerated rmisrepresented y its advocates.

II

To make the latterassertion s not to denyin anywaythat mprovisations a longstanding ndpro-ductive orm of creativitynjazz.It is onlyto notehow apprehensionsverauthenticity,pontaneity,and ndividualityn musichaveencouragedhedis-cursivemaneuver f emphasizingertain dealizedvirtues of improvisationeven as improvisatorypracticedraws on techniquesof preparationnd

preconceptualizationhatwere developedbeforesuchapprehensionsver had reason o takeroot.

Bebop is among the most fertile breedinggroundsof improvisation,as commentaryby in-sidersandoutsiders likehasconsistentlytressed.Yet it is equallyclear thatbebop partakesof the

secondarydefinition( elaboration r other vari-ation of an existing framework )as well as theprimary efinition immediate ompositionof anentire work by its performers ) ited above. Atissue here is the nearly ubiquitousbebop tech-nique of using a familiarharmonic ramework-often borrowed from a frequently performed

standard r a currenthit song-as a framingororientingdevice for unfamiliarmelodicandrhyth-mic inventions that are overlaid upon it.l5 The

prominenceof this method in bebop stems fromthe need for anorganizingprinciple hat (a) pro-vides the musicianswith a frameof reference hatallows their mprovisations o remain ollectivelyas well as individually coherentno matterhowadventurous r far-reaching hey might become,

and (b) anchors the listeners in intelligible aes-

theticterritory hathelps them maintain heirmu-sical bearings and gives them the pleasure of aknown commodityeven if the improvisatory x-plorationshead in difficult or bewilderingdirec-tions.These needs explain he preference f manybop players for preselected chord progressionsthat are not just readily comprehensiblebut inmanycases instantly ecognizableo all nvolved.16

In addition to these harmonic considerations,well-known melodies also contributeto bebopperformances-played more or less straight-forwardly during the first (thematic statement)

and last (recapitulation) egmentsof a piece, and

quoted(oftenhumorouslyorsardonically)n thecourseof otherwisewide-rangingmprovisations.

The expropriationof preexisting pop-cultureelements is not bebop improvisation'sonly in-

volvementwiththe elaboration f availablemate-rials asopposed opurelyextemporaneousnven-tion.Notingthat heproliferationf freewheeling

jamsessions allowed bop players a forum nwhich to practice mprovisation, ulturalhisto-rian Daniel Belgrad points out that practicingand improvising need not be contradictorytermssince the latter doesnot consistmainlyin

inventing new licks, but in stringingtogetherlearned licks and referencesin new and appro-priatecombinations. 17

Jazz historiansprovidemanyconfirmations f

the idea thatpreviouslylearnedmaterialplays acentralrole in improvisation.When he observesthat improvisersmust develop greatfamiliaritywith the(roughly)dozen chordtypes thatmostjazz improvising is based on, James LincolnCollier ndicates hatmostjazz is rooted nabasic

vocabulary atherhanan anything oes bound-lessness. He also describes the typical impro-viser's mind as being stuffedwith a congeriesof motifs, instrumental ounds, inyfigures, argestructures, cales, chords,modes,andtherestofit, from which the player works hroughasso-ciation. '8Morespecifically, homasOwensstatesthat alto saxophonist Charlie Parkerresembled

all mportant mprovisers when he developeda personalrepertoryof melodicformulas hatheused in the course of improvising, eadingtotheconclusion that his 'spontaneous'performanceswere actually precomposed n part.This prepa-ration was absolutely necessary,for no one cancreate luent,coherentmelodies nrealtimewith-out having a well-rehearsed ag of melodictricksready. '9Owens addsthatParker'sormulasmay

be placed into severalcategories:Occuringmostfrequentlyare figures only a few notes long andthose with a variety of pitches, while the com-plete phraseswithwell-definedharmonic mpli-cations are encounteredess often.Thefactthatthe formulations f such aprodigious mprovisercan be so categorizedprovidesfurtherevidencethat preparationand precompositionare main-stays of improvisatory azz.

Asserting that Parkerwas undoubtedly hegreatest ormulaic improviser n jazz history,

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz notes, moreover,

that formulaic mprovisationtself is notlimited

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Sterritt Revision,Prevision,and the Auraof Improvisatory rt

to bebop but is the most commonkind of im-

provisation n jazz, spanningall styles. 20Addsuch othervarieties asparaphrasemprovisation,motivic mprovisation,ndmodal mprovisation-

whose verynamespointto typesof raw materialuponwhichvariation, evelopment, ndconstruc-tion may occur-and it becomes clear thatjazzimprovisationngeneral s firmly mbricatedwith

practicesbased less on rigorously spontaneousinventionthanon theinspiredelaborationof pre-existingmusicmaterial,notwithstandinghefre-

quencywith which a rhetoricof extemporaneouspurityhas been appliedto it.

III

Returningto improvisatoryiterature,we havenotedhowstronglyKerouac'sdealof spontaneouscompositionwas influencedby his perceptionof

bop music,which he viewed in termssimilartothose embracedby drummerMax Roach, wholinked azz innovationwithmodernityby saying,

Wekeptreadingaboutrocketsand ets andradar,andyou can'tplay4/4 music in timeslikethat. 21Kerouac decided that conventionalprose wasequallyincongruousn suchtimes,and turned o

writing excitedly, wiftly,withwriting-or-typing-cramps, in accordance ... with laws of orgasm. 22

As with the reascendancyof jazz improvisa-tion in theyearsafter WorldWarII, we may seeKerouac's hange o anewwritingstyle-carriedoutduring hesamepostwarperiod-as aneffortto restoreanauraticqualitythat,he felt,had beendiminishedorevenlostintheliteraturef theday.Tracing numerous factors that contributed toKerouac'sconcept of spontaneity, iterarycriticJames T.Jones finds that his method imitatedor

parodied theculture in which it developed nthat its torrent of words ... effectively mimics

1950soverproduction. 23fwe connectKerouac'sparody of overproductionwith anotherfactorproposed by Jones as a motivation for sponta-neous prose, reactionagainst the rigid socialmores of the developing suburban ulture, wemay discoverthat Kerouac s not so much mim-icking capitalist methods as subverting them,usinganimportant esultof freneticwriting-itsforeclosure of the time necessary to engage inself-censorship, evasiveness, or pomposity-toachieve levels of 100 percentpersonalhonestybothpsychicand social etc. 24 hatconstitutehis

equivalentof the Benjaminianaura.

Again as in the case of postwar jazz, albeitwith a somewhatdifferentset of motivatingand

modifying ircumstances,heimpulse o usespon-taneityas a route orenewedauraticqualitiesmay

have led Kerouacand other Beat writersto findin improvisationmore values of originalityand

individualityhan heirpractices ctually ntailed.We are familiarwith the Beat notion thatvariousforms of spontaneouscompositioncan producewhatWilliamS. Burroughs alled a newdimen-sion [in] writing 25and what Ginsbergcalled

wild phrasing ... abstract poetry of mind ... long

saxophone-like chorus lines ... really a new po-

etry. 26till,examinationof methodologiesusedin Beatwriting ndicates hat ts compositionwasnot always as extemporaneousas it appeared.

Burroughsaffirmed hat the bestwritingseemsto be done almostby accident, butimmediatelyadded hatone cannotwill spontaneity ndthatuntil he helped introduce he cut-upandfold-in

procedures,based on scrambling prose physi-cally in order to disruptconventionalmeaning,

writers ... had no way to produce the accident of

spontaneity. 27his implies that in Burroughs'sview thebop compositionsof KerouacandGins-bergare nottruly spontaneous ince theirflow isto some extent willed nto existence.Burroughsalso

emphasizedhat

his own cut-up spontaneitywas not based on randomorhaphazarduxtapo-sition,sinceaftercuttingorfoldinga text(orcom-bining texts using these techniques) he wouldrewritethe result until it carriedsome degree ofidentifiablesense. One ries not toimpose storyplot or continuityartificiallybutyou do have tocomposethematerials, he observed, you can'tjust dumpdown ajumbleof notes andthoughtsandconsiderationsandexpect peopleto read t.Andagain, I've donewritingthatI thoughtwasinteresting,experimentally,butsimply not read-

able. 28He thereforesubjectedhis jumbles fdissected prose to rearrangement nd revisionbeforeexpectingreaders o grapplewiththem. Itis also worthnoting hatwhilethe textsBurroughsused for cuttingandfolding werefrequentlyhisown, some werepreexistingmaterialsappropri-atedfromtheworldof popularorliterary ulture.This fact addsBurroughs o the list of improvis-erspracticing laboration swell as theinventionidealizedby romanticizeddiscourse.

One might expect Kerouac, he most enthusi-asticproponentof thatdiscourse,to be the Beat

writer most immune to such impurities. How

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The Journalof Aesthetics and ArtCriticism

could theycreepinto the work of an authorwhoonce criticizedGinsbergfor correctingeven the

typographical rrors n a manuscript, allingthisa formof revision andthereforea violationof the

first houghtbestthought ule?Kerouac tandsaccountableon this score in at least threeways,however.

i. His stream-of-consciousnessrosewasinspiredby what novelist Henry Miller called the id-iomatic ingoof his time. Millerwrites, He 'in-vented it,' people will say.... What they should sayis: 'He got it.' He got it, he dug it, he put itdown. 29This descriptionmakes Kerouacsoundalmost ike ajournalist ranthropologist,otorig-inatingbut ratherchronicling he sociolinguistic

tenorof the scenein which he livedandtraveled.

ii. In additiono hisboplike tream-of-consciousness

method, Kerouacwas stronglycommitted to amethod hathecalled sketching, hichwasalsomeant to be spontaneousbut entailedthe differ-ent techniqueof viewing or imagininga subjectand then sketching t with wordsjust as a visualartist would sketch it with lines. This device isprobably he motivation or such phrases n Be-lief &TechniquenModemProse as In rancedfixation dreamingupon object before you and

Dont think of words when you stop but to seepicturebetter. 30hetwo methodsof sketchingand blowing arenot entirelydistinct romeachother, and at times their rhetoric overlaps, aswhen Kerouacwrites that sketching anguage sundisturbed low from the mindof personalse-cret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician)on subject of image. 31But the dynamicof ver-bal sketching s by Kerouac'sown definition essspontaneous han that of thebop-inspired tech-nique, since it involves holding an image in con-

sciousness whether r not t is also before heeye)for as long as the writer needs to capture it inwords. This is clearfrom Essentialsof Sponta-neous Prose, which begins, The object is setbefore the mind, either in reality,as in sketching(before a landscape or teacup or old face) or isset in the memorywherein t becomes thesketch-ing from memory of a definite image-object. 32Howeverrapidandfluid the writingprocessmaybe, it does not seem wholly extemporaneousf itis linked to a sustainedmentalimage thatinflu-ences its content, ts direction,and ts finalform.

iii. Memory played an overarchingrole in Ker-ouac's methodology by providingsource mate-rial thathe returned o againandagain. Despitehis insistence that revision is antithetical o im-

mediacy,his habit of revisitingcertainpersonal-ities, events, ideas,and attitudes hatpreoccupiedhimthroughouthis careermayitself constituteasort of revision, described by literature critic

ReginaWeinreichas quite iterallya repetitionof seeing (as the writer's maginationandmem-

ory go back over the pastto redefine t). Wein-reich observesthat,as Kerouacwrote, theele-ments of past experiencewere revisedin the actof beingrecorded. articular ersionsof thepastwere also revised in lateraccounts,moreover,aswhen he conceived the novel VisionsofCody as

a corrective o inaccurate mpressionsconveyedby On the Road because of changes demanded

by thepublisher;his desire to convey his percep-tionsas accuratelyaspossible forced his]mindover the materialagain and forces the reader orecognize that by such repetitiona stageof revi-sion is alreadybuilt into the supposedly sponta-neous' prose. 33 ones calls on Neal Cassady'sidea of prevision when he speculates hatKer-ouac may have revisedin his head before hewrote, citing biographerGeraldNicosia's sug-gestion that Kerouac would often participateeagerly in life activities while at the sametime

virtually writing ... in his head, so that the ac-

tual process of puttingwordson paperwas butamechanical xtensionof the process. 34 hereareinstances when Kerouacuses virtually he samephrases n differentworks to evoke material hataffectedhim deeply. His highlyromanticizedde-scription f anAfricanAmericanneighborhoodna ournalentry orAugust 1949, forexample,con-tainsmany passages thatarevirtually dentical oa sectionof Onthe Road,which was largelycom-

posed duringhisfamous ypingmarathonnApril1951, almosta yearanda half later.35hisstronglysuggests thatKerouac utkeyexperienceshroughobsessive prerehearsals hat must indeed haveturnedhis writing sessions into mereextensionsof an ongoing mental process on at least someimportant ccasions.

These points ndicate hatwhile Kerouac'sm-provisationalwritingcertainlyreflectsa senseofimmediacy that may be comparedwiththatof asuccessfulbebop performance, iscursiveclaims

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Sterritt Revision, Prevision, and the Aura of Improvisatory Art

of a radical spontaneityand nowness do not

comport with the practices he employed in

achievinghis effects.

IV

Improvisationaces unusuallyhighbarriersn thefield of motion pictures, since cinema's costlynatureencourages planningandpreparation e-foreexpensivefilm is exposedby trained echni-cians using valuableequipment.This does notmeanthatimprovisations unknown n cinema,however. Some mainstreamdirectors,such asRobertAltmanand Mike Leigh, use improvisa-tion as a tool for developingcharactersandper-formancesbefore the camerasroll. Some avant-

gardedirectors,such as Andy Warholand JackSmith,have used low-budgettechniquesto pro-ducenonnarrativeilms thatallowforwhollyex-

temporaneousactingand camerawork. At other

points alongthespectrum, ohnCassavetesmadehis 1959 productionShadows with entirelyim-

provisedperformances,henreshotmost of it witha scriptdeveloped rom thatmaterial; ndFrancisFordCoppolahas expressedinterest in filmingKerouac'snovel On theRoad with inexpensive16mmtechnology that would allow for impro-

visatorymethods.36Members f France'snnovativeNouvelleVaguegroup have also drawn upon improvisationinsome of theirproductions.Jacques Rivette hasused thepractice xtensively n suchworksasOutOne: Spectre and Celine et Julie vont en bateau,

forexample,calling uponhis performers orpri-marycontributions inventingnarrativeevents,characterraits,anddialogue) as well as the sec-ondarycontributions interpretinga previouslywrittenscreenplay) that would normally be ex-

pectedof them.

Jean-LucGodard, eltbymanycriticstobe themost influentialmemberof the Nouvelle Vague,is probably he best known European ilmmakerto have maintaineda complex relationshipwithimprovisationthroughouthis career.This rela-tionshipbeganin 1959 when he directedAboutde souffle,his firstfeature ilm. Ihad written hefirst scene ... and for the rest I had a pile of notes

for each scene, he statedin a 1962 descriptionof theproductionprocess.Initiallyanxiousaboutthissituation, e subsequently ecided, Instead fplanningahead,I shall invent at the last minute,

a procedure hathe labeled last-minute ocus-

ing. 37Much of the dialogue was written the

evening before a given scene was shot, and themovie was photographedwithoutsound so that

Godardcould call to the performerswith thewords he wantedthem to say, in a sort of direc-torial ventriloquism;their actual voices weredubbed n later.

Extendingthe practiceof last-minute focus-

ing, scenes for his 1960film LePetit soldatwereoften written during the same day when theywere to be filmed, and an importantnterview-

style episode was completely improvisedby ac-tressAnna Karina n a filmingsessionguided byGodard's ongtimeadmirationor JeanRouch,aFrenchethnographicilmmakerwho hasdirected

both documentaryand narrative works usingwholly improvisationalmethods.Godard's hird

feature, Une Femme est unefemme (1961), dif-

fered from its predecessorsin that it adhered

closely to a prepared cenarioand was filmed ina studiorather han n reallocations;yet much ofits dialoguewas writtenas theperformers ppliedtheirmakeup mmediately efore ilmingbegan.38

These works set the pattern or whatbecameGodard's teadyhabit of allowing improvisatoryelementsto play a strongrole in his productions

through ast-minutecreenwriting,xtemporane-

ous performances,ntuitivemanipulation f filmfootage during the editing process, and variouscombinations of these practices. Like the BeatGenerationwriters,he has appealed o values ofauthenticity and uniqueness in justifying hismethods. Ididn'tknow exactlywhatI was goingto do, he said of his 1962 drama Vivresa vie,soundingverymuch ike a spontaneousbop nov-elist. I prefer to look for something I don'tknow.... In fact I made the film right off the bat,

as if carriedalong, like an article writtenat one

go.... I was so sincerein my desire to make thefilm that between us [Godard and Karina]we

brought t off. And again, Onefeels that f oneis sincereandhonest andone is driven nto acor-ner over doing something, the result will neces-sarilybe sincere andhonest. 39

Likethe musiciansandwritersdiscussedabove,

Godardhas been motivatedn his search or alter-nativepracticesby the wish to restorean auraticqualityto the artformwith which he is engaged.Althoughhe accepts hemechanical eproducibil-ity of motionpicturesas a given, recognizing his

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as adefiningcharacteristicf themedium,hefeelsmoderncinemahas been overwhelmedby com-mercializationand commodificationthatderivefromthe film industry's nsistence on mass dis-

tribution nd ndiscriminatemarketing f itsprod-ucts. The rouble n the West s thatwe areover-fed aesthetically.... We consume things that are

unnecessaryartistically, e has said.40His cul-tivation of an improvisatoryaesthetic has beenmotivated in part by his desire to evade film-industrialnorms,and herebyoreinvigoratewhathe perceivesas the artisticandexpressivepossi-bilities of cinema.His rhetoric, ike that of otherartists cited earlier,often places a romanticized

emphasison notions of spontaneity, uthenticity,and individualityas idealized passageways to

aestheticoriginalityanduniqueness.In his 1967film La Chinoise,ouplutotai la chinoise,forex-ample,his intention was torediscoverthe cin-ema, to begin again. 41

Significantly,he last-mentionedilm waspro-duced at the beginning of a periodin Godard'scareerwhenhe attemptedo bypass the normsofmainstream ilm altogether, trippingawaycon-ventionalelementsof narrative ndperformanceand rejectingconventionalnetworksof distribu-tion and exhibition. I thinkthe movie is not athing whichis takenby the camera, he saidwithregardto La Chinoise, explaining that instead

the movie is the reality of the movie movingfrom realityto the camera.It's betweenthem. 42This insertion of a dynamic (and ungraspable)gap betweenthe film and ts meansof realizationpoints to Godard'sdesire for a discourseof au-ratic cinema. The samewish motivatesacharac-teristic statementon the topic of cinematicorig-inality,such as, I wantto be able to see whatisnot seen; I don't want to show again whatI'vealreadyseen, which is what most movies do. 43

At his most radical, Godardattempts o divorcewhat he sees as the purity of cinema from thecontamination f everyday anguage. Todaywelive in an epoch of totalpower being given to allformsof rhetoric, timeof terrorism f language,he said in 1983, adding thathe wishes tospeakof things before wordsand names take over andto deal with hingsthatmaysoon no longerexistor ... with things which do not exist yet. 44

One means of accomplishing hese goals is tofilm improvisationalperformances,which existonly on the spur of the ephemeralmoment.An-

otheris to extend the idea of improvisation nto

all phases of cinematicproduction,as indicated

by Godard'scontention hatextemporaneousn-vention takes place in front of the movieola

[editingmachine] ust as much as it does on the

set. 45Another s to resist thegenerallyhelddis-tinction between fiction (narrative)and nonfic-tion (documentary) inema,holdinginsteadthatall cinema s ultimatelynonfictionsince(a) pho-tographyalways has an indexical relationshipwithreality46nd(b)moving-imagephotographycapturesthe mutabilityof reality in ways thatevenfictional rameworksannotobscure r trans-form.Still another s to replacethe idea of pic-ture, representedby a fixed (objective)photo-graph,withthatof image, pontaneouslyreatedin themindof the(subjective) bserver.Onestate-

ment of this principleoccurs in Godard's1994film JLG/JLG-December Self-Portrait: Animage is the creationof the mindby drawing o-gether wo different ealities; hefurther part herealities,the stronger he image.

Yet while the evolution of such notionsmaybe traced hroughGodard's ntireoeuvre,hehasalso recognized he limitations f spontaneity ndimprovisationn artisticwork. As early as 1962he contrastedhis practiceof last-minuteocus-ing with the idea of improvisationper se, con-tending that youcan modify up to a point,butwhen shootingbegins it shouldchange as littleas possible, otherwise it's catastrophic. 47ari-ous otherstatementshave revealedhow substan-tiallyhis discursiveembraceof contingencyhasbeen balancedby a pragmaticacknowledgmentof the problemsposed by cinematicimprovisa-tion. Answeringa questionerwho inquiredabouthis techniques f improvisation, e responded,

I make movies as thoughI'm living a day of mylife. No one improvises heir ife-at least,Ineverhave. When anotherquestioner aisedtheissue

of improvisation,he again rejected that term,subsequently inking t with chance ndstatingthat when one employs chancethe resultsmightbe good once and bad a hundred times. ... I'd

like to work both by chanceand by control. 48Godard'sexplanationsof his improvisatory

practices often recall Kerouac'smethodologies.Kerouac'shabitualuse of a narrativerameworkto shape and contain extemporaneousnventionprefiguresGodard'sremark, It'sonly becauseIhave a narrativeine in mind thatI'm ableto im-proviseand to go on shooting every day. Ker-

ouac'speriodic eturno particulardeas, nterests,

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Sterritt Revision,Prevision,and the Auraof Improvisatory rt

and characters s echoedby Godard'sadmissionthat quiteoftenwhen I make movies I discoverthat I'm makingagain, in a very differentway,somethingI've done already. 49 erouac'shabit

of mentallyprerehearsingmaterial hathe wouldlatercommit to paperfinds a reflection in Go-dard'scomment hathe makes mprovisatory se

only of materialwhich goes a long way back.Over the years you accumulate hings and then

suddenly you use themin whatyou're doing. 50Eachsimilarityof approachbetween GodardandKerouac underscoresthe manner in which theideal of extemporaneous reation s tempered n

practiceby realitiesof repetition,preconceptual-ization,andcontrol,all of which arealso foundinjazz improvisationas well.

v

Kerouacaddressesa rootissue of improvisatoryprose in his novel Desolation Angels, initiallycompletedin 1956 andpublished n 1965, whenhe depictsa conversationbetweenJackDuluoz,thecharacter tanding n forhimself,and anotherman representing poet Randall Jarrell,whomKerouacadmired.51

How canyou get anyrefinedor well gestated

thoughts nto a spontaneous low as you call it?It can all end up gibberish, says theJarrell ig-ure, leadingthe Kerouacfigureto reply, If it'sgibberish, t'sgibberish.There'sa certainamountof controlgoing on like a mantelling a storyina bar withoutinterruptions r even one pause.This responseindicatesKerouac's clear aware-ness of the spontaneous riteras a deliberativeartistwhose speedandfluencymust not be mis-taken forheedlessness, carelessness,or a lack ofcoherentgoals and efficacious techniques.Like

improvisersin the neighboringfields of music

andcinema,he balancesan idealizedrhetoricofauraticauthenticityandindividualitywith a ju-dicious use of preexistingaestheticframeworksand previsioned rtisticmaterials.Whilehis em-ploymentof suchframeworksandmaterialsmayamount o ademystificationf improvisatory pu-rity, he freshness of his results andthe energyof his proceduresreconfirm he ideal of extem-poraneouscreation as a firmly grounded nstru-mentality orspecific typesof artisticproduction.

DAVID STERRITT

Department of Theater, Film, and Dance

C.W. Post Campus

Long IslandUniversity

Brookville, NY 11548

INTERNET: [email protected]

1. John Clellon Holmes, The Great Rememberer, n

Nothing More to Declare (1958); quoted in Jack Kerouac:Onthe Road-Text and Criticism, d. ScottDonaldson(Har-mondsworth:PenguinBooks, 1979), p. 590.

2. JackKerouac, The LastWord, Escapade(December1960): 104;quotedbyTomClarke nJack Kerouac:ABiog-raphy(New York:ParagonHouse, 1990), p. 102.

3. JackKerouac, Belief&Technique orModernProse,EvergreenReview2 8 (1959): 57.

4. NatShapiro ndNatHentoff,HearMe Talkin o Ya NewYork:Dover, 1966), p. 147, pp. 157-158; quotedby JamesLincolnCollier n Jazz:TheAmericanThemeSong(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress, 1993), p. 49, p. 43. The quotationsfromjazz musicians thatI cite in this essay, extracted rom

readilyavailablebooks on the subject,are meant to be rep-resentativeandillustrativerather hanparticularly rticulateor insightful.

5. Barry Kernfeld, Improvisation, n The New GroveDictionaryof Jazz,ed. BarryKernfeld New York:St. Mar-tin's Press, 1994), p. 561.

6. Ibid.,p. 554.7. Allen Ginsberg, AConversation, n Composedon the

Tongue:LiteraryConversations,1967-1977 (SanFrancisco:

GreyFox Press, 1980), p. 94.

8. Holmes, GreatRememberer, . 589.9. Kernfeld, Improvisation, . 554.10. AmericanHeritageDictionary,standard dition.11.WalterBenjamin, TheWorkof Art in the Age of Me-

chanicalReproduction, lluminations,rans.HarryZohn NewYork:Schocken Books, 1985), p. 221, p. 223, p. 243 n. 5.

12. Although recordingson wax cylinderswereproducedas early as 1877, critic Morley Jones notes that recordedmusic did not become widely available until heemergenceof Victor andColumbiaas majorrecord abels in 1902, thevery same year in which pianist Jelly Roll Morton later

claimed (dubiously but colorfully) to have invented azz.See Alan Rich, ed., Jazz (New York: Simon and Schuster,1980), pp. 2-3.

13. As always in discussion of artistic practice, generali-ties and labels should not be taken too literally.While big-band azz and bebop differed n importantways, therewas infact a speciesof big-bandbebop,exemplifiedby 1940sbandsof Dizzy Gillespie andWoody Herman,among others. SeeThomasOwens,Bebop:TheMusicand Its Players New York:

OxfordUniversity Press, 1994), pp. 20-21.14. Quotationsfrom ColumbiaDisc Digest (July 1948),

p. 3, p. 5. Reprinted n Celebratinghe FiftiethAnniversaryof theLP, albumbooklet,Sony Classical/Masterworks er-itage CD (MHK 63327), p. 29, p. 32. Note that the long-playingrecord was born during he same postwaryears thatwitnessed the rise of bebop.

15. This method is related to other musical combinationsof theprecomposedandtheextemporaneous e.g., the key-

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board continuo f the baroqueperiod-that can be traced

backto muchearliertimes.16.As abonus, heradical eworking f commonplacehow-

business materialallowed AfricanAmericanbop players-of whom therewere many,even thoughthe style's audience

was largely white-to carnivalize, ironize, and personalizeproductsof mainstreamculture, a particularpleasure after

theiryears of oscillating between assimilationismand mar-

ginalizationduring hebig-bandera.

17. Daniel Belgrad,TheCultureof Spontaneity: mprovi-sation and theArts in PostwarAmerica (The Universityof

ChicagoPress, 1998), p. 180.

18. JamesLincolnCollier,Jazz, p. 51, pp. 54-55. An ex-

ceptionto theprincipleof a basicjazz vocabulary s found

in free or outside azz, whichextends melodies outside

even the implied pitches of the harmonicseries, or ignorestheconceptof chordprogressionsaltogether.

19. Owens, Bebop, p. 30.

20. Kernfeld, Improvisation, . 558; see pp.555-561 for

varioustypesof improvisatory echniqueandprocedure.21. Quotedby DennisMcNally in DesolationAngel:Jack

Kerouac,TheBeatGeneration, ndAmerica NewYork:Delta,

1990), p. 82.22. JackKerouac, Essentials f Spontaneous rose 1953).

Reprinted n The Portable Beat Reader, ed. Ann Charters

(New York:Viking, 1992), p. 58.

23. James T. Jones, A Map of Mexico City Blues: Jack

Kerouac as Poet (Southern llinois UniversityPress, 1992),

pp. 146-147.24. Quoted n TheBeatJourney:Volume , The Unspeak-

able Visions of the Individual, ed. Arthur Knight and Kit

Knight (1978); cited by Clark,JackKerouac:A Biography,

p. 102.25. William Burroughs, The Cut-Up Method of Brion

Gysin, Re/Search4/5 (1982): 36.26. Quotedby BarryMiles in Ginsberg:A Biography New

York:Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 188.

27. WilliamS. Burroughs, Cut-UpMethod fBrionGysin,

p. 35.28. WilliamS. Burroughs, Journey hrough ime-space,

The Job: InterviewsWithWilliamS. Burroughs,ed. Daniel

Odier(New York:Penguin Books, 1989), p. 48, p. 56.

29. Henry Miller, preface to Jack Kerouac, The Subter-

raneans; quotedby John Tytell in NakedAngels: TheLives

&Literaturef theBeat GenerationNewYork:McGraw-Hill,

1976), p. 200.

30. Kerouac, Belief& Technique orModernProse, p.57.

31. Kerouac, Essentialsof SpontaneousProse, p. 57

(emphasis n original).32. Ibid.33. Regina Weinreich,The SpontaneousPoetics of Jack

Kerouac:A Studyof the Fiction (New York:ParagonHouse,

1990), p. 120, p. 125.

34. JamesT.Jones, Map of MexicoCity Blues, p. 151. See

also GeraldNicosia,MemoryBabe: A CriticalBiographyof

Jack Kerouac(New York:Penguin, 1983), p. 521 (emphasisin original).Nicosia's title,referring o Kerouac'schildhood

nickname, is revealing in this context. He also notes (and

Jones also cites) the fact that Kerouac's memorizationof

extensivepassages romplays byWilliamShakespeare ad

been allowed to filter nto his spontaneousprose, suggest-ing thatKerouac's iterarymemorieswere another mportedelementin his allegedly individualisticprose (p. 500).

35. JackKerouac, Onthe RoadAgain, TheNew Yorker

(June22 & 29, 1998):56; JackKerouac,On the Road(NewYork:PenguinBooks, 1991), pp. 180-181.

36. Some avant-garde ilmmakershave brought mprovi-sation into the area of exhibition as well as production.An

example s KenJacobs,who specifiesthatanAM radio tunedto speechrather hanmusic) be playedduringevery screen-

ingof his 1959-1963 filmBlondeCobra.Whilehegives very

specific instructionsabout when (and how loud) the radio

should be played,he obviously has no controlover what au-

diences will hearon anygiven occasion.

37. Interviewwith Jean-LucGodard,Cahiersdu Cinema138 (December1962). Reprinted n Godardon Godard,ed.

JeanNarboni and Tom Milne (New York: Da Capo Press,1986), pp. 172-173.

38. Ibid., p. 180, p. 186.39. Ibid., p. 86, p. 174.

40. Quotedby Penelope Gilliatt n TheUrgentWhisper,

The New Yorker 5 (October1976). Reprinted n Jean-Luc

Godard:Interviews,ed. David Sterritt UniversityPressof

Mississippi, 1998),pp. 78-79.

41. Quoted by Gene Youngblood n Jean-LucGodard:

No Differencebetween Life andCinema, Los AngelesFree

Press (March 15, 1968). Reprintedn Jean-Luc Godard,ed.

David Sterritt,p. 24.

42. Ibid., p. 29.

43. Quoted by JonathanCott in Godard:Born-Again

Filmmaker, RollingStone 27 (November 1980). Reprinted

in Jean-LucGodard:Interviews,ed. Sterritt,p. 92.

44. Quoted by Gideon Bachmannin The CarrotsAre

Cooked:A Conversationwith Jean-LucGodard, ilmQuar-

terly27:3 (1984). Reprintedn Jean-LucGodard: nterviews,

ed. Sterritt,pp. 129-130.

45. Jean-LucGodard, Montagemy Fine Care, Cahiers

du Cine'ma 5 (Dec. 1956). Reprintedn Godardon Godard,

ed JeanNarboniand Tom Milne,p. 40.

46. This ideais stronglyassociatedwithcriticAndreBazin,

one of Godard'searlymentors.

47. Interviewwith Godard,CahiersduCinema.Reprinted

in Godardon Godard,ed. NarboniandMilne,, p. 173.

48. Quoted by Youngbloodin Jean-LucGodard. Re-printed n Jean-LucGodard,ed. Sterritt,p. 13, p. 33.

49. Ibid., p. 40, p. 43.

50. Interviewwith Godard,CahiersduCinema.Reprinted

in Godardon Godard,ed. NarboniandMilne, p. 172.

51. Jack Kerouac,DesolationAngels (New York:Perigee

Books, 1980), p. 280.

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