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The Ellington Century
Breaking down walls between genres that are usually discussed separately--classical, jazz, and popular--this highly engaging book offers a compelling new integrated view of twentieth-century music. Placing Duke Ellington (1899-1974) at the center of the story, David Schiff explores music written during the composer's lifetime in terms of broad ideas such as rhythm, melody, and harmony. He shows how composers and performers across genres shared the common pursuit of representing the rapidly changing conditions of modern life. The Ellington Century demonstrates how Duke Ellington's music is as vital to musical modernism as anything by Stravinsky, more influential than anything by Schoenberg, and has had a lasting impact on jazz and pop that reaches from Gershwin to contemporary R&B.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
29 people want to read
About the author
David Schiff
31 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 13, 2013
This book could easily fall into the wrong hands. Or not fall into the right ones.
Professor Schiff is not attempting to argue that the 20th Century belongs, musically, to Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. He has not written biography or a book on jazz. Nor, most definitely, has he written for the musical newcomer, oh, my, no.
Mining this work for all its gold would require one to follow the dictum of Ezra Pound, that one should give to reading a book as much as the writer gave in writing it (loosely quoted). Certainly my musical limits were quickly reached in many technical passages, and even though I possess an extensive collection of Ellington recordings as well as hundreds of 'classical' works, I still spent time looking for musical clips on the web---mostly unsuccessfully, I admit. This book wants more of you than merely reading 280 odd pages. It wants listening.
What Schiff has done is compare and contrast Ellington's body of work (and I must mention Billy Strayhorn here as part and parcel of the Ellington 'sound' being discussed) with Debussy, Berg, Copland, Parker, Brian Wilson, and on and on. Phrase by phrase, sometimes note by note (having some of the scores wold have been very helpful), Schiff dissects various pieces, directs us to 'borrowings', influences, and meanings.
If one needs to understand every word one reads, and lacks an extensive grounding in music: stay away. If you have the needed musical background, you may well revel in the musical ideas expounded here. And if you fall in between, and want to understand what you are hearing a bit better, this book will confound, ignite, illuminate and educate. Be prepared to find some of the music and listen to it, even if you have worn out a recording or two of the pieces already.
Recommended, with caveats.
Professor Schiff is not attempting to argue that the 20th Century belongs, musically, to Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. He has not written biography or a book on jazz. Nor, most definitely, has he written for the musical newcomer, oh, my, no.
Mining this work for all its gold would require one to follow the dictum of Ezra Pound, that one should give to reading a book as much as the writer gave in writing it (loosely quoted). Certainly my musical limits were quickly reached in many technical passages, and even though I possess an extensive collection of Ellington recordings as well as hundreds of 'classical' works, I still spent time looking for musical clips on the web---mostly unsuccessfully, I admit. This book wants more of you than merely reading 280 odd pages. It wants listening.
What Schiff has done is compare and contrast Ellington's body of work (and I must mention Billy Strayhorn here as part and parcel of the Ellington 'sound' being discussed) with Debussy, Berg, Copland, Parker, Brian Wilson, and on and on. Phrase by phrase, sometimes note by note (having some of the scores wold have been very helpful), Schiff dissects various pieces, directs us to 'borrowings', influences, and meanings.
If one needs to understand every word one reads, and lacks an extensive grounding in music: stay away. If you have the needed musical background, you may well revel in the musical ideas expounded here. And if you fall in between, and want to understand what you are hearing a bit better, this book will confound, ignite, illuminate and educate. Be prepared to find some of the music and listen to it, even if you have worn out a recording or two of the pieces already.
Recommended, with caveats.
Displaying 1 of 1 review