An Introduction to America’s Music

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slow in tempo, rich in harmony, delicately blended in timbre, and meditative in

atmosphere, of which “Mood Indigo” (1930) is the most famous.

These are only a few of the more than 1,100 pieces that Ellington composed

and copyrighted in the course of his long career. In about 20 percent of those

work s, he sha red aut horsh ip w it h mu sicia n s who played w it h h i m, a nd he col lab-

orated with others on the rest. Even when Ellington received the sole composer

credit, collaboration lay at the heart of his music making. For as well as imag-

ining fresh combinations of timbre and pitch, Ellington composed by working

with his musicians so that their tonal personalities—their particular sound, way

of playing, and inventiveness—actually helped to create the music. W hen trum-

peter Fred Stone spent a few months with Ellington in 1970, he refl ected that

the band was the only outfi t he knew “where you are not required to match the

sound of the previous member. You must function as an individual.”

The 1920s were a time of relative prosperity. One aspect of the decade’s optimis-

tic outlook was a thirst for novelty that encouraged musicians to experiment and

innovate. That encouragement bore fruit in spheres of musical activity as differ-

ent as ultramodernism and jazz. With the stock market crash of October 1929,

however, musicians of all stripes faced new challenges: how to remain creative

and productive while making a living under the straitened circumstances of the

Great Depression.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW

1. What are the characteristics of modernist music? Who were the leading
   ultramodernists, and what distinguishes their music from more traditional
   compositions?


2. Listen again to Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (LG 7.1). How does the final
   strain of that march resemble the collective improvisation heard in Dipper-
   mouth Blues (LG 12.2) and Black Bottom Stomp (LG 12.3)?


3. Compare Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington in terms
   of two musical polarities: improvisation versus composition, and solo play-
   ing versus ensemble playing.


4. Several pieces discussed in this chapter rely on blues music, but the result is
   somewhat different in each case. How would you characterize these various
   treatments of the blues?


5. A musician active in a genre that many people associated with disreputable
   lifestyles and illegal activities, Bix Beiderbecke led a short life marked by sub-
   stance abuse and early death. What later figures in popular culture does this
   profile bring to mind? W hat are some similarities and differences?

FURTHER READING

Broyles, Michael, and Denise Von Glahn. Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

Crawford, Richard. The American Musical Landscape. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University

of California Press, 1993. Chapter 6.

CHAPTER 12 | FURTHER READING

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