The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue

A Phenomenology of Music

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by Bruce Ellis Benson

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published April 2003, 208 pages, paper

ISBN 0521009324

Whereas most books on the philosophy of music focus on the creation and reproduction of music, Benson's concern is the phenomenology of music making as an activity. He offers a radical thesis that improvization is of primary importance at the moment of music making. The book brings together a wide range of musical examples from classical music, jazz, early music and other genres. Incorporating analytic and continental philosophy, musicology and performance-practice issues, it is a study for philosophers of art and musicologists that will also appeal to general readers; especially those who perform.

Contents

1. Between composition and performance; 2. Composing: from Ursprung to Fassung letzter Hand; 3. Performing: the improvisation of preservation; 4. The ergon within energeia; 5. The ethics of musical dialogue.