Improvision: Orphic Art in the Age of Jazz

Hardback

Main Details

Title Improvision: Orphic Art in the Age of Jazz
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Professor Simon Shaw-Miller
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:336
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreArt and design styles - c 1900 to c 1960
20th century and contemporary classical music
Jazz
ISBN/Barcode 9781350203426
ClassificationsDewey:709.04052
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Illustrations 52 bw illus

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Publication Date 5 May 2022
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Central to the development of abstract art, in the early decades of the 20th century was the conception (most famously articulated by Walter Pater) that the most appropriate paradigm for non-figurative art was music. The assumption has always been that this model was most effectively understood as Western art music (classical music). However, the musical form that was abstract art's true twin is jazz, a music that originated with African Americans, but which had a profound impact on European artistic sensibilities. Both art forms share creative techniques of rhythm, groove, gesture and improvisation. This book sets out to theorize affinities and connections between, and across, two seemingly diverse cultural phenomena.

Author Biography

Simon Shaw-Miller is Chair of History of Art, University of Bristol, UK. He is an Honorary Associate and Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.