Verso una tassonomia dei processi performativi dell’improvvisazione storica

Il caso dei partimenti

Abstract

This article proposes a taxonomic framework for the performative processes of historical improvisation, focusing on the paradigmatic case of partimenti. Its aim is to develop a conceptual tool capable of relating performers within the Western written tradition to musical practices that involve different degrees of real-time creation in performance. From this perspective, historical improvisation is understood as a crossroads between writing and orality, between codified tradition and performative flexibility, and as an opportunity to critically interrogate the categories that govern the musical act. Building on the distinction between interpretation, extemporisation, and improvisation, drawn from the Theory of Audiotactile Music, the study outlines a taxonomy designed to highlight the medial and cognitive qualities of different performative models. Partimenti, as long-standing pedagogical devices, embody a form of situated musical knowledge grounded in practices of memory, internalisation of models, and extemporaneous reactivity. They provide a privileged field for observing the interaction between written codes, stylistic norms, and creative freedom, showing how improvisational dynamics can be understood as processes that are as formative as they are expressive. Through engagement with transdisciplinary perspectives, the article also seeks to broaden musicological reflection on improvisation, moving beyond the residual or ancillary status often assigned to these practices in historical-analytical discourse. The taxonomic proposal advanced here thus aims to offer a tool not only for the theoretical understanding of historical improvisation, but also for its pedagogical transmission and its reactivation within contemporary performance practice.

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