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Improvisation was a basic skill practiced by every choirboy during the Renaissance. [...] Improvised polyphony was everywhere in the Renaissance. [...] Canguilhem (2011, 99) estimates that “the vast majority” of the polyphony heard in Philip II’s chapel in sixteenth-century Spain was improvised. In earlier centuries the amount might have been even higher. The composed polyphony that comes down to us was a small fraction of the musical landscape. This realization transforms our sense of the past.”

—Julie E. Cumming, Renaissance Improvisation and Musicology.

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My aim with this site is to further facilitate research on this topic by collecting here, for easy reference, any relevant information about historical improvisation: articles, theses, and media files. Please let me know if you’d like to collaborate.

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