Review of Leslie A. Tilley, Making It Up Together: The Art of Collective Improvisation in Balinese Music and Beyond (The University of Chicago Press, 2019)

Abstract

[1] Improvisation is a ubiquitous component of music the world over. Scholars have detailed some of its multifarious forms and meanings, demonstrating that the practice of improvisation extends far beyond its hypervisibility in jazz.(1) Tilley’s Making It Up Together offers new and compelling perspectives in this expanding field of improvisation studies, as well as in ethnomusicology (Tilley’s home discipline) and music theory. It excavates improvisatory processes in a musical genre thought to be largely composed and offers a unique examination of intraensemble interaction. The book also proposes a new theory of improvisation applicable to practices beyond the book’s specific case studies, and its discussion of “local theory” suggests that we critically expand the theoretical underpinnings of our disciplines.