Sync or Swarm: Group Dynamics in Musical Free Improvisation
Submitted to CIM04, 31 October 2003
David Borgo
University of California, San Diego
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/dept.music/musicdept_old/faculty/borgo.html
dborgo@ucsd.edu
Joseph Goguen
University of California, San Diego
http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/goguen/
goguen@cs.ucsd.ed
Desired Mode of Presentation
talk
Background in Music Improvisation
Improvisation has received some scholarly attention, although its emphasis on inperformance creativity and interaction often defies the standard musicological tools of the
trade and the accepted conservatory methods for evaluating competency and aesthetic
value (Nettl 1998). Traditional musicology and music theory excel at analyzing systems
at equilibrium (i.e. static representations of music) but have been less successful at
illuminating the dynamics of musical creativity and creation. Freer forms of group
improvisation that have developed since the 1960s drawing on avant-garde jazz, avantgarde classical, electronic, popular, and world music traditions further challenge our
approaches to musical analysis and discourse (Bailey 1991).
Background in Nonlinear Dynamical Systems
In any system that involves cooperation or competition and in which the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts the governing equations must be nonlinear. Several scientific
approaches have emerged since the middle of the 20th century attempting to model these
nonlinear problems of communication and control including cybernetics, catastrophe
theory, chaos and complexity studies, criticality, and most recently small-world and
network theory (Strogatz 2003, Watts 2003, Gladwell 2000, Barabási 2002). While the
full complexities of musical performance are still beyond the scope of these analytical
approaches and modeling techniques, even the idealized behavior that they present can
inform and surprise us.
Aims
By simplifying the dynamics of an ensemble involved in musical free improvisation, we
aim to model and discuss the ways in which coherence and incoherence, synchrony and
disruption emerge in performance in both intended and unintended ways to shape a
collective order.
Main Contribution
While modeling the content of musical improvisation can provide insight into the practice
– especially in idiomatic situations – in a freer improvised setting, the dynamics of
ensemble interaction often take precedence over the specific improvised content of
individuals. We aim to model the dynamics of a free improvising ensemble not in terms
of the specifics of any individual performance, but instead in terms of the group
dynamics as defined through three variables: the individual’s level of influence on and
sensitivity to the group evolving through time and as a function of that individual’s level
of experience with free improvisation. The influence function ranges from no influence
to a strong pull that attracts other players to imitate one’s ideas. The sensitivity function
ranges from complete insensitivity to one’s surroundings to an unquestioning compliance
to the influence of others. For simplicity, the experience level of the players in the
ensemble is distributed following a bell-shaped curve with most having average influence
and sensitivity functions, a few have exceptional experience to control and conform to the
group dynamic, and a few novice improvisers who struggle to exert influence or comply
with the ensemble approach. By exploring the phase space described by the temporal
trajectory of group interaction and the bifurcations that can occur, we hope to model
similar “relational functions” and “transition types” to those described by Nunn (1998)
and to those analyzed in seminal recordings.
Implications
Complex, nonlinear systems appear best able to function adaptively since their network
dynamics allow for both enduring patterns of organization and spontaneous responses to
unexpected occurrences. Musical free improvisation also involves a continual tension
between stabilization through communication and instability through fluctuations as the
unpredictable micro details of performance combine to create a robust collective
statement and a pronounced ensemble identity. We are only in the early stages of
applying nonlinear dynamics to complex systems involving social interaction and human
cognition and creativity. By necessity these models are extremely simplified and yet
their surprising and surprisingly familiar behavior can be unnerving. While the allure of
improvisation may continue to be its inherent unpredictability, a better understanding of
the dynamics of ensemble performance will only highlight the subtleties of its form.
References
Bailey, Derek. 1991. Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. London: The
British Library National Sound Archive.
Barabási, Albert-Laszló. 2002. Linked: The New Science of Networks. Cambridge, MA:
Perseus.
Gladwell, Malcolm. 2002. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference. Boston: Back Bay Books.
Nettl, Bruno, ed. 1998. In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical
Improvisation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nunn, Tom. 1998. Wisdom of the Impulse: On the Nature of Musical Free
Improvisation. Self Published. (tomnunn@sirius.com).
Strogats, Steven. 2003. Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York:
Hyperion.
Watts, Duncan. 2003. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. New York: Norton.
First Author
NAME: David Borgo,
CURRENT POSITION: Assistant Professor of Music, U.C.S.D.
MAIN RESEARCH DISCIPLINES:
 Ethnomusicology, Jazz and Popular Music Studies
MAIN RESEARCH AREAS:
 African American Music, Improvisation, Cultural Studies, Cognitive Science
RELEVANT QUALIFICATIONS:
 B.M. Jazz Studies and Saxophone, Indiana University

M.A. and Ph.D. Ethnomusicology,
University of California at Los Angeles
(U.C.L.A.)
PUBLICATIONS
 “Emergent Qualities of Collectively Improvised Performance: A Study of an
Egalitarian Intercultural Improvising Trio.” Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology
vol. 8 (1997).
 “Synergy and Surrealestate: The Orderly-Disorder of Free Improvisation.”
Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology vol. 10 (2002).
 “The Chaotic Self, or The Embodiment of Evan Parker.” In Playing Changes:
New Jazz Studies, edited by Robert Walser. Duke University Press (in press).
 "Negotiating Freedom: Values and Practices in Contemporary Improvised
Music." Black Music Research Journal 23/1 (Spring 2003).
 "The Play of Meaning and the Meaning of Play in Jazz." Journal of
Consciousness Studies (in press).
Second Author
NAME: Joseph Goguen
CURRENT POSITION: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, U.C.S.D.
MAIN RESEARCH DISCIPLINES:
 Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Music
MAIN RESEARCH AREAS:
 Software Engineering, User Interface Design, Social and Ethical Aspects of
Science and Technology
RELEVANT QUALIFICATIONS:
 Bachelors, Harvard; Ph.D. UC Berkeley
 Positions at Berkeley, Chicago, UCLA, Oxford
PUBLICATIONS:
 http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/goguen/pubs/