The Improvising Mind: Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment

ISBN-13: 9780199590957 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 240 str.

Aaron Berkowitz

Opis

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.

Recenzje

This is a short book at under 200 substantive pages. But it's one well deserving of attention ... Although the primary readership for The Improvising mind: Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment is likely to be musicologists, psychologists, musicians and educators, anyone fascinated by the act, process, development, skills and even the miracle of creativity will find much in Aaron Berkowitz's book to intrigue, inform and stimulate them.

O autorze

Aaron Berkowitz received his Bachelor degrees in Music (B.A.) and Biology (B.S.) from George Washington University, his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and his Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University, where he received a Presidential Fellowship, a Mind/Brain/Behavior Research Award, and the Oscar S. Schafer Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research has been published in NeuroImage and Twentieth Century Music, he has been an invited speaker at several major US universities and conferences, and he has served as a guest professor in music and psychology at Tufts University. He has performed throughout Europe and the US as a pianist and fortepianist, and his compositions have been performed in Europe and the US, including at Carnegie Hall.