Table Of ContentTHE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK
OF PHILOSOPHY AND
IMPROVISATION IN THE ARTS
Over the last few decades, the notion of improvisation has enriched and dynamized research on
traditional philosophies of music, theatre, dance, poetry, and even visual art. This Handbook offers
readers an authoritative collection of accessible articles on the philosophy of improvisation, syn-
thesizing and explaining various subjects and issues from the growing wave of journal articles and
monographs in the field. Its 48 chapters, written specifically for this volume by an international
team of scholars, are accessible for students and researchers alike.
The volume is organized into four main sections:
I Art and Improvisation: Theoretical Perspectives
II Art and Improvisation: Aesthetical, Ethical, and Political Perspectives
III Improvisation in Musical Practices
IV Improvisation in the Visual, Narrative, Dramatic, and Interactive Arts
Alessandro Bertinetto is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Turin in Italy and coordi-
nator of ART–Aesthetics Research Turin (Philosophical Seminar). He has been an Alexander von
Humboldt Fellow and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Aes-
thetics. His most recent books are Eseguire l’inatteso. Ontologia della musica e improvvisazione (2016)
and Estetica dell’improvvisazione (2021).
Marcello Ruta studied music (classical piano) in Milan and Trieste and obtained his PhD in
philosophy in 2010 at the University of Strasbourg and his Habilitation in 2017 at the University
of Bern. He is the author of Schopenhauer et Schelling, philosophes du temps et de l’éternité (2014) and
co-editor (with Alessandro Arbo) of Ontologie musicale: perspectives et débats (2014).
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Edited by Kurt Sylvan and Ruth Chang
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL EPISTEMOLOGY
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY AND IMPROVISATION
IN THE ARTS
Edited by Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Handbooks-in-Philosophy/book-series/RHP
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK
OF PHILOSOPHY AND
IMPROVISATION IN THE ARTS
Edited by
Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta
NEW YORK AND LONDON
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
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authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
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may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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They have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non
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to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-20364-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-01649-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17944-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003179443
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CONTENTS
Figures ix
Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta
PART I
Art and Improvisation: Theoretical Perspectives 19
1 Improvisation as Normative Practice 21
Georg W. Bertram
2 Improvisation as Resonance 33
Giovanni Matteucci
3 Improvisation as Creative Performance 47
Caterina Moruzzi
4 Material and Improvisation in the Formative Process 60
Robert T. Valgenti
5 Ontology of Improvisation and Jazz 73
Daniel Martin Feige
6 Improvisation and Orientation 85
Marcello Ruta
7 Improvisation and Action Theory 100
Claus Beisbart
v
Contents
8 Improvisation, Actions, and Processes 114
Pierre Saint-Germier and Clément Canonne
9 Rethinking Realtimeness in Improvisation 129
Sara Ramshaw
PART II
Art and Improvisation: Aesthetical, Ethical, and Political Perspectives 143
10 Appreciating Improvisations as Art 145
David Davies
11 Transformative Aesthetics: When the Unforeseen Emerges 159
Erika Fischer-Lichte
12 Improvisation as Spontaneous Creation versus “Making Do” 171
Andy Hamilton
13 Improvisation as Aesthetic Appearance 187
Christoph Haffter
14 The Expressivity of Musical Improvisation 201
Philip Alperson
15 Jazz Improvisation, Authenticity, and Self-Expression 214
Garry L. Hagberg
16 Manyness in Music Improvisation 228
Franziska Schroeder
17 Forms of Improvisation and Experimentalism 243
Daniele Goldoni
18 Improvisational Phronesis 259
Bruce Ellis Benson
19 Improvisation’s Ethical and Epistemological Challenge 271
Randy Fertel
20 Street Art and the Politics of Improvisation 285
Andrea Lorenzo Baldini
21 Improvisation and Political Emancipation 300
Matthieu Saladin
vi
Contents
PART III
Improvisation in Musical Practices 313
22 Competing Ontologies of Musical Improvisation: A Medieval Perspective 315
Uri Smilansky and Marc Lewon
23 Improvisation and Essential Ornamentation in Vocal Music (1600–1900) 328
Livio Marcaletti
24 Freedom and Form in Piano Improvisation in the Early 19th Century 343
Katrin Eggers and Michael Lehner
25 Improvisation and Authenticity in Early 20th Century Western Music 355
Andrew Wilson
26 Improvisation and Composition: A Schoenbergian View 374
Sabine Feisst
27 Repeatability versus Unrepeatability in Free Improvisation 392
Thomas Gartmann
28 The Risk of Improvised Music: An Ethnographic Approach 405
Tom Arthurs
29 Empathy in Improvisation 421
Deniz Peters
30 Improvisation in Pop-Rock Music 431
Stefano Marino
31 “Improvisation” in Play: A View Through South Indian Music Practices 446
Lara Pearson
32 Improvisation in Arab Musical Practices 462
A. J. Racy
PART IV
Improvisation in the Visual, Narrative, Dramatic, and Interactive Arts 473
33 Dance Improvisation as Experimental Inquiry 475
Eric Mullis
34 The Springs of Action in Butō Improvisation 488
Carla Bagnoli
vii
Contents
35 Stage Improvisation in the Commedia dell’Arte 502
Domenico Pietropaolo
36 Performance Art and Improvisation 515
Dieter Mersch
37 Improv, Stand-Up, and Comedy 530
Clément Canonne
38 Improvisation, Machines, Cinema 544
Gilles Mouëllic
39 Improvisation and Poetry 556
Rob Wallace
40 Improvisation in Painting 569
Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta
41 Improvisation in Sculpture 585
Alice Iacobone
42 Improvisation and Artistic Photography 600
Alessandro Bertinetto
43 Improvisation and Installation Art 617
Elisa Caldarola
44 Installed Improvisation: The Case of Erwin Redl 631
Edgar Landgraf
45 Improvisation in Design Processes 645
Annika Frye
46 Urban Improvisations 659
Paola Berenstein Jacques
47 Improvisation in Cooking and Tasting 671
Nicola Perullo
48 Creativity and Improvisation in Games 685
C. Thi Nguyen
Index 699
viii
FIGURES
12.1 Andy Hamilton’s Car 177
14.1 Excerpt from Phil Woods’s solo 202
14.2 Expected note from Phil Woods’ solo 202
14.3 “Fluffed” note from Phil Woods’s solo 202
20.1 A patch by Lady Muck left on an already yarn-bombed bike rack
by Carrie Reichardt. Photo by Carrie Reichardt 287
20.2 Fra32’s tags on a restaurant façade. Photo courtesy of the artist 288
2 0.3 Fra32, Heaven Spots in Beijing. Photo courtesy of the artist 291
20.4 Fra32, SAME. Photo courtesy of the artist 294
23.1 Musical examples from Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum III,
Wolfenbüttel: Holwein, 1619: 234 332
23.2 Musical examples from Christoph Bernhard, Von der Singekunst, ca. 1650, passim 333
23.3 Musical example from Wolfgang Mylius, Rudimenta Musices, Gotha: Brückner,
1685: 109 334
23.4 Musical examples from Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte
traversiere zu spielen, Berlin: Voß, 1752, passim 336
23.5 Musical example from Georg Joseph Vogler, Gründe der Kuhrpfälzische Tonschule
in Beispielen, Mannheim, 1778, Table XII 338
25.1 Erwin Schulhoff, Sami Dva, 1933. Overall structure - analyzed using notions
mentioned in Alfred Baresel’s Das neue Jazz Buch of 1929 362
25.2 Erwin Schulhoff, Sami Dva, Measures 1–8 (introduction + vamp), as transcribed
from the 1933 recording (transcription Andrew Wilson) 362
25.3 Erwin Schulhoff, Sami Dva, Measures 9–24 (transcr. Wilson) 363
25.4 Erwin Schulhoff, Sami Dva, Measures 89–95 (transcr. Wilson) 364
25.5 Erwin Schulhoff, Optimistische Komposition, 1936. Overall structure 365
25.6 Erwin Schulhoff, Optimistische Komposition, Theme 1, Measures 1–8 (transcr. Wilson) 365
25.7 Erwin Schulhoff, Optimistische Komposition, Theme 2, Measures 9–16 366
25.8 Erwin Schulhoff, Optimistische Komposition, Measures 17–20 (starting on m. 16) 366
25.9 Erwin Schulhoff, Optimistische Komposition, moving towards the climax,
Measures 37–42 367
25.10 Otto Luening, Trio for Flute, Violin, and Soprano (1923–24), Part IX, transcr. Wilson 368
25.11 Otto Luening. Trio for Flute, Violin, and Soprano (1923–24), Highgate Press, n.d.,
1960, p. 2 369
ix
