Includes bibliographical references and index.

Society. Jazz as political and musical practice / Ingrid Monson -- John Cage and improvisation : an unresolved relationship / Sabine M. Feisst -- When traditional improvisation is prohibited : contemporary Ukrainian funeral laments and burial practices / Natalie Kononenko -- The juncture between creation and re-creation among Indonesian reciters of the Qur'an / Anne K. Rasmussen ; Genius, improvisation, and the narrative of jazz history / Gabriel Solis -- Formulas and improvisation in participatory music / Thomas Turino -- Education. Learning to improvise music, improvising to learn music / Patricia Shehan Campbell -- Improvising Mozart / Robert Levin ; Keyboard improvisation in the baroque period / Charlotte Mattax Moersch -- Beyond the improvisation class : learning to improvise in a university jazz studies program / John P. Murphy -- On learning the radif and improvisation in Iran / Bruno Nettl -- Hindustani sitar and jazz guitar music : a foray into comparative improvology / Stephen Slawek -- Music improvisation in the modern dance class : techniques and approaches in fulfilling a multi-layered role / John Toenjes -- Creation. Representations of music making / Stephen Blum -- Improvisation and related terms in middle-period jazz / Lawrence Gushee -- Opening the museum window : improvisation and its inscribed values in canonic works by Chopin and Schumann / Robert S. Hatten -- Improvisation in Beethoven's creative process / William Kinderman -- Why do they improvise? Reflections on meaning and experience / Ali Jihad Racy -- Preluding at the piano / Nicholas Temperley.