What is Improvisation?
{{no sources|date=February 2016}} '''Improvisation''' is the art of performing without a [[Script (performing arts)|script]] or [[rehearsal]]. == Music == In [[music]], [[musical improvisation|improvisation]] is the art of playing an [[Musical instrument|instrument]] (or [[sing]]ing) in which the [[musician]] or musicians make up the music as they play. Improvising is [[invention|inventing]] at the same time as one does something. Some musicians only play music when they have written music in front of them, but it can be great fun to improvise music. It is a way of [[Composition (music)|composing]]. Improvisation is common during a [[jam session]]. In [[Baroque music|Baroque]] times, all musicians were taught to improvise because [[composer|composers]] often did not bother to write all the notes down. Musicians would have improvised lots of ornaments, and even whole sections. Many great composers such as [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] and [[Franz Liszt]] were famous for their [[Keyboard instrument|keyboard]] improvisations. [[Pipe organ|Organists]] are often expected to improvise during a service. In this way they can fill in gaps in the service when there would otherwise be silence, they can make a smooth link between one piece of music and the next, and they can create the right atmosphere. In Baroque times, in the Lutheran church, organists would improvise a [[chorale prelude]]. This was a piece of music which uses the melody of the [[chorale]] ([[hymn]]) that the congregation sang. Bach was one of many composers who wrote many of his chorale preludes down. In more recent times, some famous concert organists often finish an organ recital by playing an improvisation. This might be quite a long piece with several linked [[fantasia (music)|fantasia]] or [[movement]]s, finishing with a [[fugue]]. Somebody may give them the theme written on a piece of paper, so that it is quite unprepared. [[Charles Tournemire]], [[Marcel Dupré]], [[Pierre Cochereau]]