The Improvisation of Poetry, 1750 – 1850
A database of commentaries on improvisational performance
The article provides a brief history of the origins of improvisation and its rise to popularity in Italy, followed by a detailed account of a performance given by Sgricci in Rome. The author concludes that improvisation is an impressive art, even if it does not lend itself to serious poetic production.
A news article reports on O. L. B. Wolff’s improvisation in Leipzig, commenting on which elements of his performance were successful, and which less so. The author admires in particular Wolff’s ability to improvise sonnets at breakneck speed.
Kreuser surveys poetic improvisation throughout modern Europe, in Arabic cultures and in the ancient world, naming (in an endnote) several German improvisers who have been reviewed in recent periodicals. He considers improvised poetry and music a pleasant entertainment for the masses, a momentary pleasure that cannot measure up to Homer or to the productions of poets and orators when language and culture are in a more mature state.
In this autobiographical introduction, Wolff relates how he invented improvisation in German, undertaking a quest to obtain advice and evaluations of whether his talent is or is not genuine. Wolff doesn't trust the judgement of journalists and critics, which he believes derives from their jealousy of him. Instead, he will listen to the opinions of admiring audiences and true artists, above all Goethe. Goethe finally gives him the advice he was seeking — which also leads, however, to the end of Wolff's brief career as a touring improviser when Goethe critiques his improvisations as too sentimental and subjective.