Frontiers in Psychology<\/a>. <\/em>In essence, the results found that audience members are more engaged with musicians as they improvise \u2014 their neurological responses similar to those of the musicians as they played.<\/p>\nThe study used live performances of Schubert’s The Shepherd on the Rock<\/em>, D. 965, played by a professional trio of flute, voice, and piano. The audience of 22 had a range of musical experience and training. One performance was strictly by the book, while the other included improvised sections. The audience members were told that the two performances would be different \u2014 but not as to how.<\/p>\nResearchers measured the changes in brainwaves with an EEG (electroencephalogram). Specifically, the EEG, using 19 different scalp locations, measured an increase in the Lempel-Ziv complexity of brain signals, which is linked to attentiveness and awareness, during the improvisational performance, in both performers and audience members. They found more power in the lower frequencies during the by-the-score performance, contrasting with active high frequencies during the improvised concert.<\/p>\n
The post-concert survey results were as interesting as the EEGs. The musicians noted that there were \u201cdistinct mental states\u201d that differed between the two performances. Audience members thought that the improvisational performance was more emotionally and musically engaging. Those responses were consistent, regardless of how much musical training the individual had, or even whether they could see the performers or not.<\/p>\n
Professor Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen, Head of the Centre for Complexity Science at Imperial College, said in a media release, “This is a very clear result that improvised music simply leads to a higher level of awareness.”<\/p>\n
Improvisation has begun to creep back into the picture in classical music recent years at music teachers\u2019 conferences, in some music schools, and the tradition of French organists to improvise during the Catholic mass is longstanding. Under Artistic Director Robert Levin, the Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition encourages competitors to include \u201cextemporized repeats\u201d.\u00a0 But, the standard is still overwhelmingly to play the music as the composer intended \u2014 or strictly according to the score.<\/p>\n
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