Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 24 May 2022

Abstract and Keywords

Justin Christensen deals with the bond between improvisation and imagination in artistic experience. Starting with a reassessment in continental philosophy both of how imagination is conceived and can be demonstrated, Christensen observes that the connection between improvisation and imagination has previously had little value in classic aesthetic theories. He then goes on to argue for the value of improvisation as a reflection of perception–action coupling that is central to newer theories that favor embodied approaches to music cognition. In the light of such theories, where perception, action, and imagination are seen as interdependent properties, Christensen proposes a greater recognition of the processes of musicking—including improvisation—to better understand meaning-making and the role of imagination in musical experience.

Keywords: improvisation, perception–action coupling, art, aesthetics, creativity, musicking

Justin Christensen

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Saskatchewan

Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.