Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-166).

Diss.--Philosophie--Ann Arbor, Mich.--Univ., 1983. / Bibliogr. p. 152-153.

Thesis (D.M.A.--Music)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Duration of acc. tape: 33:00. Includes bibliographical references.

Th.--Lett.--Paris 1, 1978.

abstract: The craft of improvisation at the organ has survived a long period of dormancy and is experiencing a strong resurgence in the twenty-first century. This project seeks to establish a precedence for the value of notated music as a resource in learning improvisation, and then, through music analysis, provide examples of how that process can develop. The result of the ideas presented here is a pathway whereby any disciplined organist can learn to imitate composed music, assimilate the musical ideas, and innovate through the act of spontaneous improvisation. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

This thesis describes the unique development and execution of a practice of improvisational dance through the lens of non-attachment. The ephemeral nature of dance as discussed by Maxine Sheets-Johnston is compared to a method of engaging the world with acceptance of what is without expectation or judgment as described in writings on various Eastern concepts of non-attachment through mindful practice. Parallels are noted between the aforementioned writings and works on non-attachment by Sahdra, Shaver, and Brown as well as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to demonstrate the capacity of improvisational dance as a mode of practicing non-attachment. The author's experience in exploration through her own improvisational practice is compared with other movement practices stemming from eastern traditions interested in non-attachment as a mind-balancing pursuit. Progress toward non-attachment as a result of this committed practice is quantitatively demonstrated through the use of a Likert-style scaled questionnaire.

Enjoining improvisation as chrysalis for dissertation creation, I draw upon immediate responses, surprise, familiarity, and diverse knowers. Being engaged with improvisation as topic and methodology reveals my assumptions and vitality. What matters is my decision not to primarily describe experience as much as express from experiencing. And I acclaim my readers, valuing others' felt experiencing. Along with shaped expressions of my present-time improvisations, improvisation as variously conceived in education, culture, and other meaning-making is reviewed. Throughout this text, intertwining in my ongoing awareness, are feminist, nonlinear systems, hermeneutic, and postmodern theories. Improvisation—approached intentionally—is not reducible to knowledge acquisition nor learned accomplishment. Shaping expression improvisationally activates unbidden responses, events, and textual artifacts. Generative structures include creative dialogue, impressionistic writing, explication, poetry, and letter-writing, along with spatial design and invitations for participation. Improvisational structures and possibilities invite the protean manifestations of themes. Improvisation calls discipline into play, requires paying attention to what is happening with possibilities. Discipline abides with freedom. Constraints—what's a river without banks?—are associated with shaping expression while freely generating movement, sound, concepts, or concrete forms. Improvisation :? Motions for Living Texts is organized in four sections. The first section considers kinesthetic, or movement, improvisation and related awareness, or felt life. The creative work and pedagogy of Barbara Mettler and Viola Spolin are introduced along with Eugene Gendlin's philosophy of experience. The second section elaborates my transition from moving to writing as an improviser. In the third section, meaning becomes expressly engaged and associated further with Gendlin and with diverse proponents of improvisation. In the final section perspectives on language intersect articulation of “living in situations,” where knowing remains in motion. Overall this improvisational discourse valorizes experience as well as knowledge, participation as well as accomplishment. / Graduate

Performative Pedagogy is a philosophical essay on dance telling of the necessity to reintegrate dance in the curriculum as well as a performative inquiry that recognizes space-moments of learning realized through performance. Dance/tool of exploration/research is the integration of multiple layers of understandings, intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual, in the absence of word and the presence of silence. This text is a creative response to researchers seeking a legitimate space of recognition for our arts-based processes. Writing choreographically is the integration of phenomenology of kinaesthetic consciousness, hermeneutics, and the not yet known in a moment of imagining. Text sometimes linear, sometimes not, inter-danced with personal photographs, autobiographical narratives, poetry, dancing on the page, exploring a space moment of imagining with you. I explore concepts such as "embodied awareness", "thinking in movement", "voice of the soul", "intentional rhythm", and "language" using a methodology of performative inquiry. Writing choreographically a dance space of imagining invites the reader in a historical journey of dance, from Ruth St-Denis, Isadora Duncan and Mary Wigman to post-modernists Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainer, the Grand Union, and Canadian choreographers Francoise Sullivan, Jennifer Mascall, Chick Snipper, and Daniel Soulieres and myself, blurring the boundaries between dancers, choreographers, viewers, as well as between the mediums. This historical movement creates an opportunity for readers to question their own inquiry in dance. Performative Pedagogy: Writing choreographically a dance space of imaginings is an artistic adventure inviting you to re-create meaning within this performative inquiry the same way a spectactor would during a dance performance. Through the explorations of danced moments into the unknown, we may offer pedagogical possibilities. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Jazzimprovisation är ett moment i min övning som jag till och från upplever som omöjligt att behärska. Särskilt svårgreppat kan det kännas då alla lärare jag haft mer eller mindre antytt att konsten att improvisera är ett oändligt uppdrag. Den generella uppfattningen verkar vara att man aldrig blir färdig, helt enkelt. Mitt mål var att i alla fall att höja nivån och min stilkännedom inom grenen genom att noggrant studera något som alltid dyker upp när man diskuterar jazzimprovisation (och all annan musik också för den delen). Nämligen treklanger. Jag har utformat ett övningsschema som består av egna förslag på hur man kan närma sig treklangerna för att skapa en vokabulär som är gångbar inom just jazzen. Jag har också fått med mig en del gitarrteoretiska/tekniska moment som garanterat kommer att gynna mitt spel i framtiden. Exempel på sådana är nya fingersättningar samt en bättre förståelse för melodisk riktning i form av överlagringar och måltoner.

Polymeter has been a relatively unexplored compositional technique of music of the Common Practice Period. Dušan Bogdanović’s Polyrhythmic and Polymetric Studies for Guitar is recognized in the guitar world as not only an important theoretical treatise, but also a benchmark for more advanced levels of improvisation. Currently, his treatise remains the best source for learning polymetric improvisation on the guitar. My personal contribution stems from the idea that multiple interpretations of thought processes and technical approaches are possible when learning to play polymeters on the guitar. The first section focuses on providing an alternative technical approach towards learning to play polymeters on the guitar by simplifying selected exercises in Bogdanović’s treatise from their original presentation, and demonstrating further possibilities as to how the exercises can be applied in a practical manner to improvisation. The second part reveals through analysis of the Concert Studies 1, 2, and 5 both his innovative improvisatory use of polymeter as a stylistic device, and his ties to traditional ideas of structure.