Free Play: Improvisation in Life and ArtFree Play is about the inner sources of spontaneous creation. It is about why we create and what we learn when we do. It is about the flow of unhindered creative energy: the joy of making art in all its varied forms. An international bestseller and beloved classic, Free Play is an inspiring and provocative book, directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It reveals how inspiration arises within us, how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed or obscured, and how finally it can be liberated—how we can be liberated—to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play, with our own authentic voice. Stephen Nachmanovitch, a pioneer in free improvisation, integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity, drawing on unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors. The whole enterprise of improvisation in life and art, of recovering free play and awakening creativity, is about being true to ourselves and our visions. Free Play brings us into direct, active contact with boundless creative energies that we may not even know we had. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... activity? How do we as witnesses of artwork decode or release that passion when the artist is gone and we have only the artwork itself before us, to see and listen to, to remember and accept? How does it feel to fall in love with an in ...
... activity? How do we as witnesses of artwork decode or release that passion when the artist is gone and we have only the artwork itself before us, to see and listen to, to remember and accept? How does it feel to fall in love with an in ...
Page 8
... activity. Any action can be practiced as an art, as a craft, or as drudgery. How does one learn improvisation? Or any kind of art, for that matter? Or anything at all? It is a contradic- tion, an oxymoron. Here is the elementary double ...
... activity. Any action can be practiced as an art, as a craft, or as drudgery. How does one learn improvisation? Or any kind of art, for that matter? Or anything at all? It is a contradic- tion, an oxymoron. Here is the elementary double ...
Page 15
... activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us. Then we think improvisation , we tend to think first of improvised music or theater or dance ; but be- yond their own delights , such art forms are doors into an experience that ...
... activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us. Then we think improvisation , we tend to think first of improvised music or theater or dance ; but be- yond their own delights , such art forms are doors into an experience that ...
Page 16
Improvisation in Life and Art Stephen Nachmanovitch. The activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us as breathing . Whether we are creating high art or a meal , we im- provise when we move with the flow of time and with our ...
Improvisation in Life and Art Stephen Nachmanovitch. The activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us as breathing . Whether we are creating high art or a meal , we im- provise when we move with the flow of time and with our ...
Page 17
... activity of daily life. We then begin to experience creativity and the free play of improvisation as one with our ... activities of daily life the qualities of luminosity, depth, and simplicity- within- complexity that we associate with ...
... activity of daily life. We then begin to experience creativity and the free play of improvisation as one with our ... activities of daily life the qualities of luminosity, depth, and simplicity- within- complexity that we associate with ...
Contents
15 | |
The Vehicle | 24 |
The Stream | 31 |
The Muse | 37 |
Mind at Play | 44 |
Disappearing | 55 |
Sex and Violins | 63 |
Practice | 72 |
Vicious Circles | 141 |
The Judging Spectre | 149 |
Surrender | 158 |
Patience | 166 |
Ripening | 172 |
Eros and Creation | 185 |
Quality | 193 |
Art for Lifes Sake | 205 |
The Power of Limits | 85 |
The Power of Mistakes | 97 |
Playing Together | 104 |
Form Unfolding | 113 |
Childhoods End | 127 |
Heartbreakthrough | 216 |
Afterword | 225 |
Illustrations | 235 |
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Common terms and phrases
activity addiction art forms artist artwork audience Bach beauty become Beethoven blocks Blue Cliff Record body breakthrough bricolage child comes consciousness create creation creative process dance deeper e. e. cummings emotional emptiness energy everything experience exploration express fear feel flow flute free improvisation free play Galumphing Gregory Bateson hand ideas Igor Stravinsky imagination improvisation inner inspiration instrument intuition judging spectre kind koan learning lîla limits listen living look material matter means meditation ment mind muse musician mysterious Nachmanovitch nature ourselves P. D. Q. Bach painting pattern performance person piece player poetry practice resonance rhythm ripen samadhi sense sound spiritual spontaneous Stéphane Grappelli string structure surprises surrender T. S. Eliot technique temenos theater things tion tune unconscious violin voice whole William Blake words writing Yehudi Menuhin