Musical Improvisation

Art, Education, and Society

Author: Edited by Gabriel Solis and Bruno Nettl

Diverse perspectives and alternate takes on musical improvisation

Cloth – $125

978-0-252-03462-6

Paper – $37

978-0-252-07654-1

Publication Date

Paperback: 07/24/2009

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About the Book

A musical practice used for centuries the world over, improvisation too often has been dismissed as either technically undissectible or inexplicably mysterious. Approaching musical improvisation from the fields of ethnomusicology, education, performance, historical musicology, and music theory, the contributors to this volume delve into diverse topics such as the creative minds of Mozart and Beethoven, the place of improvised musics in Western and non-Western societies, and the development of jazz as a musical and cultural phenomenon.

Contributors are Stephen Blum, Patricia Shehan Campbell, Sabine M. Feisst, Lawrence Gushee, Robert S. Hatten, William Kinderman, Natalie Kononenko, Robert Levin, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Ingrid Monson, John P. Murphy, Bruno Nettl, A. Jihad Racy, Anne K. Rasmussen, Stephen Slawek, Gabriel Solis, Nicholas Temperley, John Toenjes, and Thomas Turino.

About the Author

Gabriel Solis is an associate professor of music and African American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making. Bruno Nettl is a professor emeritus of music and anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-one Issues and Concepts and other works.

Reviews

"Valuable not only to researchers but also to performers, who will find their minds opened to how music different from their own can help them improvise better in their chosen genre. . . . Recommended."--Choice

"A goldmine of information. . . . that is relevant to the amateur and scholar alike."--Ethnomusicology

"An impressive and often sophisticated collection of essays. . . . it certainly constitutes a welcome addition to the field."--The World of Music

Blurbs

"Cutting across traditional subject boundaries in music and cultural studies, this admirably comprehensive work adopts a welcome interdisciplinary ideal and makes a truly significant contribution to our knowledge of musical improvisation."--Robert Witmer, professor emeritus of music, York University