(Re-)imagining improvisation

What role does the concept of improvisation play in how we imagine ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ in music? How do the verbal discourses around creative practice serve to mark musical boundaries? This chapter considers such questions in the context of Iranian music. Specifically, the chapter explores how the concept of improvisation has been understood, constructed and imagined in Iran, particularly in recent years as musicians have sought to position Iranian music within a global network of ‘improvised’ music through which the music accrues associations such as the idea of ‘improvisation as freedom’ or as a means of invoking cross-cultural universals. The chapter argues that in the context of Iran, the significance of improvisation as a concept lies less in its ability to describe musical process and more in its enabling musicians to position their music around particular understandings of ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’.