The Lived Experience of Improvisation
In Music, Learning and Life
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Intellect
Published:15th Feb '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Improvisation plays a vital role in various artistic fields, yet it is often overlooked in education. The book presents insights from notable improvisers and advocates for its centrality in teaching and understanding creativity.
The Lived Experience of Improvisation explores the vital role of improvisation across various artistic disciplines, particularly in music, while also touching on its significance in literature and education. The author, Simon Rose, highlights the common oversight of improvisation in both the appreciation and analysis of art within educational contexts. This neglect stems largely from our inclination to categorize and structure our understanding of the world, which can inhibit our ability to respond creatively and innovatively.
Drawing from interviews with esteemed improvisers such as Roscoe Mitchell, Pauline Oliveros, and George Lewis, Rose provides rich insights into the improvisational process. He combines these perspectives with his own experiences as a musician and educator, presenting a compelling argument for the reintegration of improvisation into the core of artistic practice and teaching. By doing so, he seeks to challenge the conventional views that often marginalize this essential aspect of creativity.
Rose posits that improvisation is not merely a technique but a fundamental part of the human experience. He advocates for its inclusion in educational settings, suggesting that embracing improvisation can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Ultimately, The Lived Experience of Improvisation serves as a call to recognize and celebrate the improvisational spirit that exists within all of us, urging educators and artists alike to prioritize this dynamic form of expression.
‘The Lived Experience of Improvisation: in music, learning and life’, makes an important contribution to this growing field of study.'
-- Nick Sorensen, Bath Spa University'[Rose's] book has some of the flavour of the Phd it was based on, but provides a valuable source for thinking about improvisation in all aspects... This is a rich and rewarding book. '
-- Andy Hamilton, The Wire'The Lived Experience of Improvisation is a tremendous resource that should be included in every institutional music course syllabus, especially at the post-secondary level. Rose’s ethnomusicological themes craftily frame improvisation as a metaphor for sociopolitical and sociocultural involvement and successfully guide the reader to consider improvisation a phenomenon across broader experience. Accordingly, Rose has managed to expand upon archaic literature on the topic of improvisation—offering a fresh perspective that will be of use to both nonacademic and academic readers. Throughout the book, Rose and his panel of contributors offer the reader their wealth of experience and diverse perspectives on the topic of free improvisation and manage to integrate a method of inquiry into free improvisation that draws from a lens of phenomenology (focusing upon and interpreting participants’ experiences [idiographic] rather than seeking an aggregate of opinion across a larger sample). Within the various chapters, Rose has also managed to embrace improvisation’s unique relationship with learning and how, at the same time, constructs within education can be resistant to the modes of creative, collaborative, and embodied learning that improvisation presents. The way in which the concept of improvisation becomes constructed is centrally important as Rose has defined its role in practice, in education, and elsewhere, whilst also elucidated the potential of improvisation to remain the primary focus throughout the writing.'
-- Brian Jude De Lima, Journal of Radio & Audio MediaISBN: 9781783206735
Dimensions: 229mm x 178mm x 14mm
Weight: 431g
261 pages