Instrumentation and Improvisation
Jerrold Levinson · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
The notions of instrumentation and of improvisation are at the heart of the phenomenon of music. Few have done more to illuminate those topics than Philip Alperson, whose theoretical reflections on music are informed by a lifetime of performing as a jazz musician. This chapter presents a critical appreciation of two of Alperson’s later papers, “The Instrumentality of Music” (2008) and “A Topography of Improvisation” (2010), drawing out and underlining some connections between them. Some concepts that come in for spotlighting in the discussion are those of musical practice, musical intelligence, performing spontaneity, and the historicity of musical instruments.