Editing Free improvisation (section)

== Characteristics ==
In the context of [[music theory]], free improvisation denotes the shift from a focus on [[harmony]] and structure to other dimensions of music, such as [[timbre]], [[Texture (music)|texture]], melodic intervals, [[rhythm]] and spontaneous musical interactions between performers. This can give free improvised music abstract and nondescript qualities.<ref>{{cite book|title=Jazz|year=2009|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc|author=Scott DeVeaux and Gary Giddins|edition=first}}</ref> Although individual performers may choose to play in a certain style or [[Key signature|key]], or at certain [[tempo]]s, conventions such as song structures are highly uncommon; more emphasis is generally placed on the [[Mood (psychology)|mood]] of the music, or on performative gestures, than on preset forms of [[melody]], harmony or [[rhythm]]. These elements are improvised at will as the music progresses, and performers will often intuitively react to each other based on the elements of their performance.

English guitarist [[Derek Bailey (guitarist)|Derek Bailey]] described free improvisation as "playing without memory".<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18638 | title=Free Improvisation | last=Eyles | first=John | date=10 August 2005 | magazine=All About Jazz | access-date=2008-04-04}}</ref> In his book ''Improvisation'', Bailey wrote that free improvisation "has no stylistic or idiomatic commitment. It has no prescribed idiomatic sound. The characteristics of freely improvised music are established only by the sonic musical identity of the person or persons playing it."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cortical.org/dbfree.html|title=Free Improvisation|last=Bailey|first=Derek|author-link=Derek Bailey (guitarist)|publisher=Cortical Foundation|access-date=2008-04-04|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605044808/http://www.cortical.org/dbfree.html|archive-date=5 June 2008}}</ref>

Free music performers from disparate backgrounds often engage musically with other [[List of genres of music|genre]]s. For example, Italian composer [[Ennio Morricone]] was a member of the free improvisation group Nuova Consonanza. [[Anthony Braxton]] has written [[opera]], and [[John Zorn]] has written acclaimed orchestral pieces.