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
... performance of a piece of music could blossom in a single moment, and come out whole and satisfying. When I first found myself improvising, I felt with great excitement that I was onto something, a kind of spiritual connectedness that ...
... performance of a piece of music could blossom in a single moment, and come out whole and satisfying. When I first found myself improvising, I felt with great excitement that I was onto something, a kind of spiritual connectedness that ...
Page 6
... performance became progressively split from each other, to the detri- ment of both. Popular and classical forms also became ever more split from each other, again to the detriment of both. The new and the old lost their continuity. We ...
... performance became progressively split from each other, to the detri- ment of both. Popular and classical forms also became ever more split from each other, again to the detriment of both. The new and the old lost their continuity. We ...
Page 7
... performances for the public. Visual art has had its tradition of “autom- atism”; painters such as Wassily Kandinsky, Yves Tan- guy, Joan Miró, and Gordon Onslow-Ford7 approached the canvas with no preconceived theme, but allowed the ...
... performances for the public. Visual art has had its tradition of “autom- atism”; painters such as Wassily Kandinsky, Yves Tan- guy, Joan Miró, and Gordon Onslow-Ford7 approached the canvas with no preconceived theme, but allowed the ...
Page 23
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Page 73
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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