PEL Presents PvI#112: Musical Zoom w/ Jerome Kurtenbach

What It Covers

Composer and musical director Jerome Kurtenbach joins Philosophy vs. Improv hosts Mark Linsenmayer and Mary Hynes to explore musical improvisation — how it functions as live storytelling, why Zoom technology breaks live musical sync, how childhood play builds compositional instinct, and how surrender and adaptability connect philosophical thinking to creative performance practice.

Key Questions Answered

• •Musical sync on Zoom: Live musical improv on Zoom fails because latency varies per user device, connection type, and platform — making real-time singing with accompaniment incoherent for audiences. Kurtenbach's workaround: have performers record individually to a pre-produced track, then edit footage into a music video format. This method, now a formal Second City class, preserves musical integrity without requiring simultaneous live performance.
• •MD decision framework: A musical director's core question before playing a single note is whether music is *necessary* at this moment, not what to play. Kurtenbach identifies three functions: calling audience attention to narrative beats, emotionally underlining what characters don't verbalize, and commenting on action — mirroring how film scores and opera use music to guide audience perception without pulling them out of the scene.
• •Creativity as synthesis, not originality: Drawing on Hegel's concept of the zeitgeist, Linsenmayer frames creative output as rapid synthesis of absorbed influences rather than pure invention. Kurtenbach extends this: Western music itself originated from mimicking natural sounds — birdsong, environmental rhythms — meaning all melody is foundationally derivative. The practical implication is that originality anxiety is counterproductive; style emerges from the specific combination of influences an individual has absorbed.
• •Composition without an instrument: Kurtenbach's mentor required him to hear an entire piece internally before writing a single note — no piano allowed during composition. This forced separation between hearing and transcription trains composers to write for instruments they don't play. The piano becomes a verification tool, not a generative one. Sketching dramatic arc on paper first — mapping emotional shape before notes — accelerates compositional clarity and reduces revision cycles.
• •Overcoming musical improv resistance: Kurtenbach's entry point for reluctant students: ask how many already sing in the car, shower, or while doing dishes. Most do. This reframes musical improv not as a performance skill but as a behavior already present in daily life. The practical exercise is to introduce sung communication into ordinary household interactions — asking family members mundane questions in melody — to build comfort with spontaneous vocal expression outside formal performance contexts.
• •Rules as creative constraints, not barriers: Kurtenbach reframes musical structure — verse, chorus, bridge, meter — as spatial constraints equivalent to the walls of a room. You don't vacuum the entire apartment building, only your own space. Knowing the boundaries of a form or instrument frees improvisation within it. Once dramatic arc choices are committed to, subsequent improvisation operates within a narrowed field, reducing paralysis and enabling more specific, responsive creative decisions.