Impromptu (Improvisation), Op. 83

Instrumentation

Musical Terms (6)

• bebop English
  A jazz style that emerged in the 1940s characterised by fast tempi, virtuosic technique, complex chromatic chord progressions, and long improvisation-like melodic lines that weave through the harmony.
  Kapustin's fast passagework frequently mimics bebop improvisation lines. Play them with forward momentum and slight rhythmic flexibility, as a jazz soloist would phrase a run — propelling toward target notes rather than playing each note with equal weight.
• blue note English
  A note played at a slightly lowered pitch for expressive effect, typically a flattened third, fifth, or seventh degree of the scale, drawn from the African-American blues tradition and central to jazz harmony.
  In Kapustin's melody and inner voices, look for chromatic inflections that suggest blue notes — a lowered third or seventh against a major chord. Emphasise these for jazz colour rather than smoothing them into conventional classical intonation.
• boogie-woogie English
  A percussive piano style rooted in blues tradition featuring a driving repeated ostinato bass pattern in the left hand, typically built from a twelve-bar blues progression, while the right hand plays blues melodies or riffs above.
  In Kapustin's rolling left-hand figures, keep the bass pattern steady and grounded. Use the arm weight to sustain the rhythmic pulse; the right hand can phrase more freely above this foundation.
• stride bass English
  A jazz piano style where the left hand alternates between a low bass note on beats 1 and 3 and a mid-range chord on beats 2 and 4, producing a characteristic striding motion that was a foundation of early jazz piano.
  Maintain rhythmic evenness in the left hand; lightly accent the off-beat chords to create forward momentum. Keep the bass notes resonant without pedalling over the chord changes.
• swing English
  A rhythmic feel characteristic of jazz in which notated pairs of eighth notes are played unevenly — the first held longer and the second shortened — creating a lilting forward momentum rather than straight even time.
  Do not play Kapustin's eighth notes strictly as written; interpret them with a gentle swing feel unless the score or context indicates straight time. The degree of swing varies from subtle to pronounced depending on tempo.
• third stream English
  A compositional approach — coined by Gunther Schuller in 1957 — that fuses elements of Western art music (classical forms, counterpoint, notation) with jazz improvisation idioms, harmony, and rhythm, treating the two traditions as equals rather than decorating one with elements of the other.
  Understanding Kapustin's third stream aesthetic is essential for performance: the jazz feel and the classical structure are equally important. Neither the jazz rhythm nor the formal architecture should be sacrificed for the other.