The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts

Introduction
Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta

Part I: Art and Improvisation: Theoretical Perspectives

1. Improvisation as Normative Practice
Georg W. Bertram

2. Improvisation as Resonance
Giovanni Matteucci

3. Improvisation as Creative Performance
Caterina Moruzzi

4. Material and Improvisation in the Formative Process
Robert T. Valgenti

5. Ontology of Improvisation and Jazz
Daniel Martin Feige

6. Improvisation and Orientation
Marcello Ruta

7. Improvisation and Action Theory
Claus Beisbart

8. Improvisation, Actions, and Processes
Pierre Saint-Germier and Clément Canonne

9. Rethinking the Realtimeness in Improvisation
Sara Ramshaw

Part II: Art and Improvisation: Aesthetical, Ethical, and Political Perspectives

10. Appreciating Improvisations as Art
David Davies

11. Transformative Aesthetics: When the Unforeseen Emerges
Erika Fischer-Lichte

12. Improvisation as Spontaneous Creation versus "Making Do"
Andy Hamilton

13. Improvisation as Aesthetic Appearance
Christoph Haffter

14. The Expressivity of Musical Improvisation
Philip Alperson

15. Jazz Improvisation, Authenticity, and Self-Expression
Garry L. Hagberg

16. Manyness in Music Improvisation
Franziska Schroeder

17. Forms of Improvisation and Experimentalism
Daniele Goldoni

18. Improvisational Phronesis
Bruce Ellis Benson

19. Improvisation’s Ethical and Epistemological Challenge
Randy Fertel

20. Street Art and the Politics of Improvisation
Andrea Lorenzo Baldini

21. Improvisation and Political Emancipation
Matthieu Saladin

Part III: Improvisation in Musical Practices

22. Competing Ontologies of Musical Improvisation: A Medieval Perspective
Uri Smilansky and Marc Lewon

23. Improvisation and Essential Ornamentation in Vocal Music (1600–1900)
Livio Marcaletti

24. Freedom and Form in Piano Improvisation in the Early 19^th Century
Katrin Eggers and Michael Lehner

25. Improvisation and Authenticity in Early 20^th Century Western Music
Andrew Wilson

26. Improvisation and Composition: A Schoenbergian View
Sabine Feisst

27. Repeatability versus Unrepeatability in Free Improvisation
Thomas Gartmann

28. The Risk of Improvised Music: An Ethnographic Approach
Tom Arthurs

29. Empathy in Improvisation
Deniz Peters

30. Improvisation in Pop-Rock Music
Stefano Marino

31. "Improvisation" in Play: A View Through South Indian Music Practices
Lara Pearson

32. Improvisation in Arab Musical Practices
Ali Jihad Racy

Part IV: Improvisation in the Visual, Narrative, Dramatic, and Interactive Arts

33. Dance Improvisation as Experimental Inquiry
Eric C. Mullis

34. The Springs of Action in Butō Improvisation
Carla Bagnoli

35. Stage Improvisation in the Commedia dell’Arte
Domenico Pietropaolo

36. Performance Art and Improvisation
Dieter Mersch

37. Improvisation, Stand-up, and Comedy
Clément Canonne

38. Improvisation, Machines, Cinema
Gilles Mouëllic

39. Improvisation and Poetry
Rob Wallace

40. Improvisation in Painting
Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta

41. Improvisation in Sculpture
Alice Iacobone

42. Improvisation and Artistic Photography
Alessandro Bertinetto

43. Improvisation and Installation Art
Elisa Caldarola

44. Installed Improvisation: The Case of Erwin Redl
Edgar Landgraf

45. Improvisation in Design Processes
Annika Frye

46. Urban Improvisations
Paola Berenstein Jacques

47. Improvisation in Cooking and Tasting
Nicola Perullo

48.Creativity and Improvisation in Games
C. Thi Nguyen

Biography

Alessandro Bertinetto is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Turin in Italy and coordinator of ART–Aesthetics Research Turin (Philosophical Seminar). He has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Aesthetics. His most recent books are Eseguire l’inatteso. Ontologia della musica e improvvisazione (2016) and Estetica dell’improvvisazione (2021).

Marcello Ruta studied music (classical piano) in Milan and Trieste and obtained his PhD in philosophy in 2010 at the University of Strasbourg and his Habilitation in 2017 at the University of Bern. He is the author of Schopenhauer et Schelling, philosophes du temps et de l’éternité (2014) and co-editor (with Alessandro Arbo) of Ontologie musicale: perspectives et débats (2014).

"Practically everyone who has lately thought theoretically about improvisation has contributed to this volume, and just about everything one ever wanted to know about improvisation but dared not hope to see answered is here addressed. Suffice it to say that the editors have here done an incalculable service to this burgeoning field of research."
Jerrold Levinson, University of Maryland