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. . . one often hears the
expression “twelve-tone jazz” bandied about.
It seems like such a nice, new, catchy word. I should
like to make it explicitly clear that the term “twelve-tone”
in connection
with jazz is only applicable to written or composed jazz. “Twelve-tone
improvisation”
does not and can not exist. The procedures of twelve-tone
or serial composition are of considerable complexity, and, if they were
applied to pure improvisation, the improviser would have to have a memory
and calculating ability greater than Univac’s. Even if it were possible,
I doubt if it were desirable. This is not to say that, since they cannot
be used for intuitive improvisation, methods of serial composition are
entirely mathematical or inhuman; it simply means that their use entails
more time than is available in extemporization.
Gunther Schuller
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