Joris Roelofs - The Political Promise of Improvisation

Abstract
Karl Marx mockingly compared the Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth to the German poetry improviser Maximilian Langenschwarz: ‘We may think of Kossuth as a colossal Langenschwarz. He is essentially an improviser who is moulded by the impressions he receives from the audience facing him at a given moment, not an author who stamps his original ideas on the world.' (1) A few years earlier, Marx had derided Giuseppe Mazzini for a failed uprising: 'Has one ever heard of great improvisators [sic] being also great poets? . . . [t]hey are the same in politics as in poetry.’ (2)

Marx’s improvisation-bashing raises several questions: how does improvisation relate to politics? How does it relate to democracy? And how does it relate to Left politics? Are there not, contra Marx, good political reasons to mould your public address to the impressions you receive from the audience you are addressing?

My goal is to re-think improvisation as a political phenomenon. While improvisational practices such as jazz and theatre have been theorized as a model for democratic politics, these conceptions raise more questions than answers. Exactly how political practices can be modelled on performance practices often remains unclear. And when it comes to the political effectiveness of revolutionary music or theatre, one might argue against improvisation: notation-based modes have historically proved politically effective precisely because of their repeatability and capacity to mobilise the masses. Moreover, improvisation might be the right tool for anti-democrats: Donald Trump was notorious for going off-script and disregarding official policy – he even presented himself as a defender of improvisation by proposing a teleprompter ban. 

All these objections notwithstanding, I want to revisit the question: how does improvisation relate to democratic politics? But instead of looking to modern improvisational practices as a model for democratic politics, I take a historical approach and recover earlier conceptions of improvisation that have been lost over time, allowing for a more concrete connection to democratic politics. After establishing the historical background of the term ‘improvisation’ as a verbal performance mode, I consider a manifesto for improvisation in Athenian democracy written by Plato's contemporary Alcidamas. Alcidamas thought politicians should invent and deliver their speeches when facing their audience. Democracy, he thought, demands improvisational speech and is in tension with the delivery of written speeches; improvising speakers take the particularities of the audience into account and treat the audience as active citizens, while writing-based speakers treat them as passive listeners. After that, I point out that all the improvisational arts, then and now, lack a script, cannot be read before the performance and are therefore characterized by a certain uncontrollability that makes them potentially disruptive. To illustrate this disruptive dimension, I examine the opposition to improvisation by those in power, epitomised in the Viennese anti-improvisation law of 1770. This improvisation ban is at the root of the modern assumption that improvisation is related to rule transgression and political liberation – an assumption permeating much of the improvisation literature today. (3) Whether improvisational practices, such as jazz, theatre, or political oratory, still have that disruptive potential today and how they can manifest political-democratic values – remains to be seen.  

1. Karl Marx, Herr Vogt [1860], MECW 17, 224–225
2. Karl Marx, ME 17, 224–225.
3. See Roland Borgards, ‘Improvisation, Verbot, Genie’ (2009), esp. 267–268.

Joris Roelofs

Joris Roelofs (1984) is a bass clarinettist and composer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He began to study classical clarinet at the age of six, and he added the alto saxophone at age twelve. He played lead alto saxophone in the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (2003–2018), and for five years he was a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra. He has also performed with Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, Meg Stuart, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, among many others.

After completing his master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (2007), Joris moved to New York City. His debut album, Introducing Joris Roelofs (2008)features Ari Hoenig, Matt Penman, and Aaron Goldberg. Joris produced several albums ever since, both as a sideman and bandleader.

Rope Dance: Light-Footed Music for All and None is Joris’ latest release. The music is based on Nietzsche’s parable of the rope dancer in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and features Bram van Sambeek on bassoon; the album received five-star reviews in De VolkskrantBBC Music Magazine, and HRAudio.net.

Joris currently lives in Amsterdam and chairs the Clarinet Department (Jazz) at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He teaches a master’s course on music and philosophy, Freedom and Improvisation. Joris writes philosophical essays and articles, gives lecture performances and presentations on improvisation-related topics. His piece ‘To Lie Beyond Good and Evil: A Musical Question of Truth’, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Tijdschrift voor Filosofie. 

UvA Website : https://www.uva.nl/profiel/r/o/j.j.roelofs/j.j.roelofs.html
Homepage: https://www.jorisroelofs.com

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