ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a question that might sound strange to many who write about artistic improvisation: Can improvisation be an aesthetic category? In order to get a better grip on the question how far background assumptions might influence aesthetic appearances, the author want to quickly recall the debate on the relation between belief and perception in aesthetic experience. Be it in music, cinema or theater, artistic improvisation as artistic freedom was, or at least was intended to be, in solidarity with political emancipation. The vague expression to get a feel for a certain kind of music means nothing else than the appropriation and sedimentation of contextual knowledge into the fabric of perception. The history of composition is full of artworks that were celebrated precisely for displaying such improvisational characters – genres such as the Italian ricercar or the fantasia, as it was coined by C. P. E. Bach with its far-reaching modulation, and unexpected outbursts are only the best-known example.
