What do you think?
Rate this book
The improvising mind: Cognition and creativity in the musical moment
The ability to improvise represents one of the highest levels of musical achievement. An improviser must master a musical language to such a degree as to be able to spontaneously invent stylistically idiomatic compositions on the spot. This feat is one of the pinnacles of human creativity, and yet its cognitive basis is poorly understood. What musical knowledge is required for improvisation? How does a musician learn to improvise? What are the neural correlates of improvised performance?
In The Improvising Mind, these questions are explored through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on cognitive neuroscience, study of historical pedagogical treatises on improvisation, interviews with improvisers, and musical analysis of improvised performances. Findings from these treatises and interviews are discussed from the perspective of cognitive psychological theories of learning, memory, and expertise. Musical improvisation has often been compared to 'speaking a musical language.' While past research has focussed on comparisons of music and language perception, few have dealt with this comparison in the performance domain. In this book, learning to improvise is compared with language acquisition, and improvised performance is compared with spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives.
Tackling a topic that has hitherto received little attention, The Improvising Mind will be a valuable addition to the literature in music cognition. This is a book that will make fascinating reading for musicologists, music theorists, cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists, musicians, music educators, and anyone with an interest in creativity.
In The Improvising Mind, these questions are explored through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on cognitive neuroscience, study of historical pedagogical treatises on improvisation, interviews with improvisers, and musical analysis of improvised performances. Findings from these treatises and interviews are discussed from the perspective of cognitive psychological theories of learning, memory, and expertise. Musical improvisation has often been compared to 'speaking a musical language.' While past research has focussed on comparisons of music and language perception, few have dealt with this comparison in the performance domain. In this book, learning to improvise is compared with language acquisition, and improvised performance is compared with spontaneous speech from both theoretical and neurobiological perspectives.
Tackling a topic that has hitherto received little attention, The Improvising Mind will be a valuable addition to the literature in music cognition. This is a book that will make fascinating reading for musicologists, music theorists, cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists, musicians, music educators, and anyone with an interest in creativity.
- GenresMusic
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 3, 2010
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 24, 2016
Keeping true to the spirit of improvisation, this review is unscripted. I don't know what my next sentence will say. I won't let myself go back and edit, because time's arrow seems to push us unflinchingly in one direction. I cannot backtrack, nor will I hesitate: when performing there's no room to breathe. Just create.
Yet how are we able to generate new ideas on-the-fly? What cognitive resources must be available, and from what knowledge base do we draw from in order to produce in the heat of the moment? Berkowitz provides an excellent treatise of musical improvisation, draws heavy parallels between linguistic production and musical production, and hints at a philosophy of improvisation.
Berkowitz attempts to demystify creative real-time production by pointing out that if you follow some general "flexible" rules, anyone can train themselves to be spontaneously creative in the moment. Improvising musicians follow a certain rubric to learn how to be spontaneous, and this training the main idea is that we work over hours and hours to stockpile a repertoire of material which, in the fluid moment, we pull up and apply to the current situation. Improvisation is thus a re-structuring, re-ordering, and re-interpretation of fundamental building blocks. Sometimes these responses are reflexive and expected. Other times, they are surprising and seem to yield genuine novelty.
The book is very eloquently written and filled with enough meaty content to please the scientific minds amongst us. It reads a bit academic, so be prepared to digest slowly. I was personally less interested in his case examples and specifics about Mozart's cadenzas, but I suppose if you are a musical theorist, a burgeoning improvisationalist, or a classically trained musician, these chapters would be of interest.
A must-read for anyone interested in improvisation.
Yet how are we able to generate new ideas on-the-fly? What cognitive resources must be available, and from what knowledge base do we draw from in order to produce in the heat of the moment? Berkowitz provides an excellent treatise of musical improvisation, draws heavy parallels between linguistic production and musical production, and hints at a philosophy of improvisation.
Berkowitz attempts to demystify creative real-time production by pointing out that if you follow some general "flexible" rules, anyone can train themselves to be spontaneously creative in the moment. Improvising musicians follow a certain rubric to learn how to be spontaneous, and this training the main idea is that we work over hours and hours to stockpile a repertoire of material which, in the fluid moment, we pull up and apply to the current situation. Improvisation is thus a re-structuring, re-ordering, and re-interpretation of fundamental building blocks. Sometimes these responses are reflexive and expected. Other times, they are surprising and seem to yield genuine novelty.
The book is very eloquently written and filled with enough meaty content to please the scientific minds amongst us. It reads a bit academic, so be prepared to digest slowly. I was personally less interested in his case examples and specifics about Mozart's cadenzas, but I suppose if you are a musical theorist, a burgeoning improvisationalist, or a classically trained musician, these chapters would be of interest.
A must-read for anyone interested in improvisation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review