The Improvising Mind: Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment - Hardcover

Berkowitz, Aaron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199590958 ISBN 13: 9780199590957

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2010

Synopsis

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 not completely understood. What musical knowledge is required for improvisation? How does a musician learn to improvise? How is this knowledge used in performance? 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, the 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 focused on comparisons of music and language perception, few have dealt with the music - language 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 is a valuable addition to the literature in music cognition. This book will be of interest to musicologists, music theorists, cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists, musicians, music educators, and anyone with an interest in creativity.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199590958
• ISBN 13: 9780199590957
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240