Re: Musical verve and activity

Keith Sawyer (sawyer who-is-at cats.ucsc.edu)
Thu, 7 Mar 1996 09:45:02 -0800 (PST)

Yes, this has been one of my primary theoretical concerns, and is much of
the reason I have turned to musical improvisation as a metaphor for
informal interactions more generally, and as a good metaphor for my
research on children's play. If you have read my recent MCA article,
then a good companion piece which is more explicitly ethnomusicological
has just appeared in _Semiotica_, "The semiotics of improvisation." The
beginning of that article reviews the work of the past two decades or so
on musical improvisation, most of it in ethnomusicology.

Ingrid Monson has done a wonderful job with a close musicological
analysis of the same issues that Keil is concerned with, using the same
term, "Groove." I have her dissertation (from NYU) which is great, but
she has a book coming out with University of Chicago press. She also has
a recent article in _Critical Theory_ which you might like because it is
more connected to political/social practice.

Paul Berliner's new masterpiece, _Thinking in jazz: The infinite art of
improvisation_, is particularly good for understanding how young
musicians are socialized into a community of practicing musicians,
through apprenticeship, participation, and other mechanisms. Much of
their learning is through these processes rather than through
classroom-type education.

There is a Spring Institute at Northwestern's Program in African Studies,
which I am leaving next week to participate in. The theme is
"Improvisation and the practice of everyday life," and the resulting
edited collection should also be of interest. Let me know if you'd like
more info.

Keith Sawyer
Department of Psychology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064