Musical improvisation and complexity

Abstract

The philosophy of complexity, in recent decades, has set up and consolidated an epistemological approach that describes the nature often in terms of case and possibility. This paradigm also calls, especially in the works of Edgar Morin, to overcome the barriers between different disciplines and suggests a fruitful fusion between the study of physics, biology and anthropology and social sciences. On the basis of this approach, this paper investigates the relationship between musical improvisation and complexity, trying to highlight that the aesthetics of the unexpected, which is realized in the performances of improvisational groups, represents a phenomenon in which there are obvious isomorphisms with the systemic organization. Isomorphisms which are characterized by the dialectical relationship chaos-order, the genesic mechanisms of back-action, integration of contingency and the central role of the concept of emergency. For this reason, musical improvisation may be considered as a dynamic adaptive system and like anactivity situated between aesthetics and ontology.