Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life

Contingent Encounters explores the relationship between improvisation and everyday life, challenging traditional assumptions about its aesthetic and political implications by comparing it across domains.

Format: Hardback
Length: 260 pages
Publication date: 31 August 2022
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Contingent Encounters provides a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of improvisation as it manifests across various domains, including music and everyday life. Drawing upon a diverse range of scholarly disciplines, including musicology, cultural studies, and critical improvisation studies, Dan DiPiero compellingly argues that comparing improvisation across these domains challenges the conventional understanding of improvisation. Through a comparative analysis of the music of iconic figures such as Eric Dolphy, Norwegian free improvisers, Mr. K, and the Ingrid Laubrock/Kris Davis duo, alongside improvised activities in everyday life such as walking, baking, working, and listening, DiPiero demonstrates that improvisation emerges as a fundamental aspect of any encounter between subjects, objects, and environments. By engaging with the concept of contingency, he explores how specific social investments contribute to the association of improvisation with relative freedom, risk-taking, and unpredictability in both scholarly discourse and public perception. By challenging long-standing assumptions about the aesthetic and political implications of improvisation, Contingent Encounters offers a fresh perspective on this notoriously elusive and complex term. This book ultimately sheds light on the profound ways in which improvisation shapes our experiences, relationships, and understanding of the world around us.

Weight: 596g
Dimension: 157 x 236 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472133154