ABSTRACT
During the 1960s, several groups of composers, performers and artists gathered to protest against the established socio-political structures with a new non-idiomatic concept of music. The chapter outlines the state of the art of the analytical research on improvised music. It proposes to use the concept of noise as a constructive aesthetic phenomenon to gain a new perspective, and perhaps better understanding, of improvisations such as the ones by Chris Corsano. The chapter deals with a listening-informed analysis to examine the vertical density of sounds in the improvisation and identify the horizontal densities and rhythmic contours, in particular, the ways in which Corsano subverts the listener’s perception of rhythm over the course of the improvisation. Derek Bailey’s comment on the un-analysability of free improvisation is a testimony to the close relationship between noise music and free improvisation.
