Improvising Improvisation – From Out of Philosophy, Music, Dance, and Literature

Gary Peters is chair of philosophy and performance and head of research at York St. John University. He is the author of Irony and Singularity: Aesthetic Education from Kant to Levinas and The Philosophy of Improvisation.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1 I’ve Started, so I’ll Begin: Heidegger’s Other Beginning and the Origin of Improvisation
2 With What Must the Improvisation Begin? Kant and Hegel on Certainty
3 Memoir: Lol Coxhill (In Memoriam)
4 Case Study: The Recedents (Lol Coxhill, Roger Turner, and Mike Cooper)
5 Precision, Decision, and Accuracy: Heidegger and Arendt on Singularity and Solitude
6 Decentered Center/Displaced Periphery: A Deleuzian Perspective
7 Memoir: San Sebastian Jazz Festival, July 20– 25, 1980
8 Case Study: Bernard “Pretty” Purdie
9 Fixing and Unfi xing Idioms and Non- Idioms: Developing Derek Bailey’s Concept of Improvisation
10 A Diff erent Sameness: Borges and Deleuze on Repetition
11 Memoir: Bluegrass in Cheltenham
12 Case Study: The Del McCoury Band
13 Virtuality and Actualization: Deleuze and Bluegrass
14 Deleuzian Improvisation
15 Improvisation and Habit
16 Case Study: Jurij Konjar and Steve Paxton: The Goldberg Variations
17 Habit and Event: Rehearsing, Practising, Improvising
18 Memoir: The Woburn Pop Festival, 1968
19 Case Study: Jimi Hendrix
20 Composition, Improvisation, and Obligation: Schoenberg and Beckett on Duty
21 Bits and Scraps: Derek Bailey and the Improvised Situation
22 Memoir: Miles Davis, Royal Festival Hall, July 1984
23 Case Study: Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time”
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index