Gary Peters: The Philosophy of Improvisation (2009)

1 November 2012, dusan

Improvisation is usually either lionized as an ecstatic experience of being in the moment or disparaged as the thoughtless recycling of clichés. Eschewing both of these orthodoxies, The Philosophy of Improvisation ranges across the arts—from music to theater, dance to comedy—and considers the improvised dimension of philosophy itself in order to elaborate an innovative concept of improvisation.

Gary Peters turns to many of the major thinkers within continental philosophy—including Heidegger, Nietzsche, Adorno, Kant, Benjamin, and Deleuze—offering readings of their reflections on improvisation and exploring improvisational elements within their thinking. Peters’s wry, humorous style offers an antidote to the frequently overheated celebration of freedom and community that characterizes most writing on the subject. Expanding the field of what counts as improvisation, The Philosophy of Improvisation will be welcomed by anyone striving to comprehend the creative process.

Publisher University of Chicago Press, 2009
ISBN 0226662780, 9780226662787
198 pages

review (Andy Hamilton, The Wire)
review (Martin Lussier, Critical Studies in Improvisation)

publisher
google books

PDF

Jozef Cseres: Hudobné simulakrá (2001) [Slovak]

27 October 2012, dusan

“Známy estetik sa vo svojej knihe zaoberá vplyvnými svetovými umelcami, pre ktorých technológie nie sú nástrojom, zjednodušujúcim prácu, ale predovšetkým tvorivou výzvou.”

“We may not be aware of the fact that much of today’s music is created with the help of electronics. In his book, Cseres focuses on influential artists who do not use technology to facilitate their task, they rather consider it a creative challenge. With philosophical insight he pinpoints the relation between today’s music and intermedia and science, between the possibilities and constraints of technology, and most of all between human imagination and creativity in the post-modern era.”

Publisher Hudobné centrum, Bratislava, 2001
ISBN 8088884306, 9788088884309
192 pages

Reviews: Július Fujak (aluze.cz, 2002), Michal Rataj (Hudební věda, 2005).

Publisher

PDF (no OCR)

Larry Austin, Douglas Kahn (eds.): Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973 (2011)

11 October 2012, dusan

“The journal Source: Music of the Avant-garde was and remains a seminal source for materials on the heyday of experimental music and arts. Conceived in 1966 and published to 1973, it included some of the most important composers and artists of the time: John Cage, Harry Partch, David Tudor, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, Steve Reich, and many others. A pathbreaking publication, Source documented crucial changes in performance practice and live electronics, computer music, notation and event scores, theater and installations, intermedia and technology, politics and the social roles of composers and performers, and innovations in the sound of music.”

Publisher University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2011
Roth Family Foundation Music in America Books series
ISBN 0520267451, 9780520267459
382 pages

Reviews: Continuo (2011), Michael Boyd (Computer Music Journal, 2013).

Wikipedia (about the journal)
Publisher

PDF (removed on 2013-7-18 upon request of the publisher)