The Condition of the Improviser (Moments and Monuments: Mission Impossible).

While oral cultures invest considerable amounts of mental energy in remembering stories to be told, the culture of our time is primarily visual, and what is not written or printed is hardly understood. Music becomes 'sacred', progressively detached from its perceivable elements-sounds and rhythms-an...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Contemporary Music Review Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 379 - 387
Autor principal: Visconti-Prasca, Marco
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:While oral cultures invest considerable amounts of mental energy in remembering stories to be told, the culture of our time is primarily visual, and what is not written or printed is hardly understood. Music becomes 'sacred', progressively detached from its perceivable elements-sounds and rhythms-and its creators become hostages of market structures. George Lewis calls upon the 'improvisative approach' as the successful paradigm of a musical practice which converges toward the centre of a twofold intellectual/practical speculation. Meanwhile, the nature of contemporaneity is that of a detached observation of reality slightly out of phase with the unfolding of time; this is not unlike the detachment of score and musician. In this essay, the author aims to show that our (impossible) mission is to prevent that irrevocable dichotomy between music and musicians.