Philosophy of Jazz [Hardcover]

What is jazz? How does it differ from other kinds of music? To what extent is it an important subject for thinking about aesthetic questions?Philosophy of Jazzis among the first book-length philosophical discussions devoted to jazz. Daniel Martin Feige explores the relationship between jazz and European art music, arguing that in jazz central aspects of musical practice are made explicit, aspects that remain implicit in the tradition of European art music but nevertheless inform their practice. He develops the idea that interpretations of works and improvisations share a central common feature: It is the musical performance that clarifies the meaning of the music. A musical performance acquires its identity against the background of a tradition of performances, and as embodied tradition, improvisations as well as interpretations are part of an ongoing musical as well as historical dialogue. Using jazz to expand the vocabulary of art theory, this book reflects on how philosophy should take up objects of cultural and aesthetic concern.Philosophy of Jazz discusses the philosophical relevance of jazz, showing that jazz and European art music have more in common than many assume.

Daniel Martin Feigeis professor of philosophy at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design.

Nathan Rossteaches philosophy at Adelphi University in New York.

Philosophy of Jazzis a compelling and critical introduction to the philosophy of jazz that shows why we need to have such a philosophy in the first place. Lydia Goehr, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University

Focused on jazz and its relations to other kinds of music, Feiges book is an outstanding essay about how to do things with sounds. Martin Seel, Goethe-University, Frankfurtam Main

In this book, one of Germany's foremost young philosophers of art offers the most sophisticated treatment I know in aesthetics of jazz, arguing that it expresses the openlãŸ