A Meditation on Robert Bly's "Form that is neither In Nor Out" While Thinking of Composing For Improvisors Part Three: Form

Robert Bly in 1975

Form is likely even more mysterious than meaning and content. The mind can visualize the 12 bars of a blues. How many bars for the I chord, how many bars for the IV chord, etc. - but this is not form. The number of bars in a particular blues is simply the fact that the forest is populated by a certain amount of trees; poplars, old oaks, clearings are mapped.


The overall shape of the forest is harder to see. Especially if you’re in it. Form not only includes the shape of the animal but the magnetic field around it, the aura. Some people claim to be able to see the aura, but that is rare and it doesn’t make things less mysterious.

So form includes shapes we can see and also what is invisible. And inaudible.

Next: Examples of composing for improvisers.                                   

Copyright 1995 - 2011 Jack DeSalvo