ABSTRACT
Introduction As observers of historical musicology and performance practice will have noticed, improvisation has become a timely subject.1 Not only are scholars in recent years unearthing a world of improvisatory practices that have until now gone unnoticed (or at least under-noticed) in our traditional histories of music, but also many instrumentalists and singers of early music have begun to incorporate these improvisatory practices into their own performances (although who is doing the leading and who is doing the following may not always be clear). Never before has improvisation been more actively studied in both musical scholarship and practice covering so many differing historical periods, genres, and styles. If the etymological meaning of improvisation is “that which is not foreseen”, we might say that the present “improvisatory moment” could not have been foreseen by scholars and musicians just a few decades ago. There have been truly remarkable changes, many of which are reflected in the present book.
