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Retroaktion und Intensität. Zur Zeitlichkeit der Jazzimprovisation

  • Daniel Martin Feige
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Taktungen und Rhythmen
This chapter is in the book Taktungen und Rhythmen

Abstract

Retroactivity and Intensity. On the Temporality of Jazz Improvisation. The paper aims at a reconstruction of the temporality of jazz improvisation, understood as making explicit a central dimension of what it means for something to be successful artistic articulation in a temporal sense: negotiating the elements of the work in and through the process of establishing them while at the same time negotiating the criteria for their evaluation. The first part of the paper discusses the systematic background of this idea: A critique of essentialist distinctions between the arts as proposed by Lessing. The second part develops the basic idea of the improvisatory process in jazz as being governed by the principles of retroactivity and intensity. The third and final part extends this idea with regard to the musical interpretation of musical works: Though it is not a subgenre of improvisation, musical interpretation of a musical work is governed by the same temporal logic as musical improvisation.

Abstract

Retroactivity and Intensity. On the Temporality of Jazz Improvisation. The paper aims at a reconstruction of the temporality of jazz improvisation, understood as making explicit a central dimension of what it means for something to be successful artistic articulation in a temporal sense: negotiating the elements of the work in and through the process of establishing them while at the same time negotiating the criteria for their evaluation. The first part of the paper discusses the systematic background of this idea: A critique of essentialist distinctions between the arts as proposed by Lessing. The second part develops the basic idea of the improvisatory process in jazz as being governed by the principles of retroactivity and intensity. The third and final part extends this idea with regard to the musical interpretation of musical works: Though it is not a subgenre of improvisation, musical interpretation of a musical work is governed by the same temporal logic as musical improvisation.

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