Narrative fantasies and tone paintings. The improvisation concerts of Abbé Vogler

Contributors

Program

The art of (piano) improvisation is currently experiencing a far-reaching 'comeback': while it was taken for granted in the 18th and 19th centuries, it almost completely disappeared in the 20th century. Historical role models are decisive for its current 'renaissance'. One such example is Abbé Vogler (1749-1814), who was hardly noticed in the history of reception and yet was one of the most dazzling musical personalities of his time. He played extensive (improvisational) concerts in countless major European cities, which were by no means based solely on musical material such as given 'themes'. Rather, he often presented his audience with a passage from the Bible, secular narratives or paintings, which he then set to music, sometimes to epic proportions. However, he was also accused of being a "charlatan".

Prof. Daniel Freimuth is Professor of Music Theory at the Karlsruhe College of Music. As a trained pianist, he is particularly interested in historical-style improvisation as a link between music theory and artistic practice.

The lecture is part of the FZM lecture series "Improvising: Spontaneous Creativity in Art and Everyday Life".

In the summer semester 2026, the Freiburg Research and Teaching Center(FZM) is organizing a lecture series on the topic of improvisation from various specialist perspectives and facets. In addition to ten lectures by members of the FZM and guests, which will take place on Wednesdays in the lecture hall of the University's Musicology Department, events with improvisational-musical performances or cross-genre performances are planned on five Monday evenings at the College of Music, two of which are part of the FZM event series "musik + wissen".

Here you can find the short program (pdf) (this file is not barrier-free) with all individual dates of the public lecture series.

The Freiburg Research and Teaching Center (FZM) is a joint institution of the College of Music and the University campus Freiburg with the aim of mutual networking in music-related research and teaching.