Ellington

Question 1

Melody

10

Answer 1

-The Head melody (bar 1-12) is based on the chorus of the popular late 19th century ballad ‘The Holy City’, by Stephen Adams. The rhythm is augmented and the tonality is moved from major to minor.
-Saxophone interlude melody is conjunct and employs broken chordal movement.
-Chromaticism, for example at bars 25-26.
-Miley’s first trumpet solo (bars 29-52) is ‘bluesy’ as notes clash with the diatonic Bb major harmony of the 12 bar sequence.
These include: ‘blue’ minor 3rds and sevenths (e.g. bars 33 and 48) and more dissonant clashes of a diminished 5th (F flat) at bar 41.
-Miley’s solo covers a large range of 2 octaves.
-Nanton’s trombone solo is high in range and uses a smaller range of a 10th. It uses ‘blue’ 3rds (in bar 74) and the ‘horse whinny’ effect (in bars 72-73).
-Miley’s second solo features trills, repeated notes and repetitions of small cells, some of which get rhythmically displaced.
-The coda quotes the opening of Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ from Piano Sonata in B flat minor.
-Ornaments such as pitch bends (bar 4), grace notes (bar 22), slides (bar 29), horse whinny (bar 73) and trills (bar 79).
-Trumpet solo has a long sustained note (29-32) which is very virtuosic. Bubber Miley wrote the trumpet part himself so it is specific to his own style of playing.

Question 2

Tonality

4

Answer 2

• Bars 1-12 = Bb minor
• Bars 13-86 = Bb major
• Bars 87-90 = Bb minor
• The saxophone interlude melody is in B flat major, but begins with a passage based around a whole-tone scale (in bars 13-14).

Question 3

Texture

9

Answer 3

• Mainly melody dominated homophony.
• Bass outlines root and 5ths of chord.
• Simple triadic piano accompaniment.
• Jungle style.
• Coda is homophonic.
• Opening and closing sections feature the Trumpet and Trombone playing parallel sixths.
• Sustained chordal accompaniments, low in their register, are provided by the saxophones in the Interlude (bars 13-28), and from 84 to the end.
• Choruses 1, 2, 5 and 6 feature a simple melody dominated homophonic texture, where the accompanying instruments fill in harmonies underneath the soloist.
• The Piano texture in Chorus 4 features the ‘stride bass’ style of accompaniment, used in Harlem piano music and in Ragtime, though it has its roots in the classical tradition (Schumann Kinderszenen, Op. 15, No. 3).

Question 4

Instrumentation

12

Answer 4

• Duke Ellington on piano.
• Bubber Miley and Louis Metcalf on trumpets.
• Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton on trombone.
• Otto Hardwick, Rudy Jackson, and Harry Carney on saxophones.
• Fred Guy on banjo.
• Wellman Braud on bass.
• Sonny Greer on drums.
• Three main sections: Reeds (sax and clarinet); Brass (trumpet and trombone); Rhythms section (piano, banjo, drums and bass).
• ‘Jungle style’, featuring heavy drums, low saxophone textures and the growling sound of Bubber Miley’s plunger-muted Trumpet. This ‘growl’ effect is produced using a combination of straight mute, a ‘gargling’ noise in the throat, and a plunger mute to shape the sound.
• Vibrato and slides on sax.
• Trombone uses plunger mute and small trumpet mute for timbre effects such as ‘wah-wah’ and glissandi.
• Stride bass pattern in piano with wide leaps and decorations.

Question 5

Structure

7

Answer 5

-Head: bars 1-12
-Head with trumpet solo: 29-52
-Piano solo: 52-64
-Head with trombone solo: 65-76
-Head with trumpet solo: 76-86
-Coda: 87-90
The Head is a twelve bar blues (initially in Bb minor in the Introduction), played six times in total.
-Piece concludes with a Coda, again in Bb minor.

Question 6

Rhythm and Metre

9

Answer 6

• Quadruple time throughout (4/4).
• Medium slow ‘Steady Swing’ tempo.
• Constant crotchet accented chords which accompany the Head.
• Triplets (Alto sax solo, bar 13)
• Syncopation (Alto sax, bar 14)
• Swung quavers (Alto sax, bar 17)
• Miley’s solo at bar 29 introduces more complex rhythms still, with triplet crotchets and ‘long’ upbeat dotted crotchets at bars 36, 40 and 42.
• The trumpet solo in Chorus 6 features some repeated rhythmic ideas based around triplet crotchets and semi-quavers.
• The swung rhythm is abandoned for the sombre mood of the Coda.

Question 7

Harmony

10

Answer 7

• Frequent pitch bends creating blues notes e.g. bar 3
• Parallel 6th’s. E.g. Bars 1-12 muted trumpet melody accompanied in
• Head is diatonic apart from a passing D natural.
• Chromatic substitution. Bars 13-28
• Rapid circle of 5ths. Bars 19-21
• Backing simple and triadic. Bars 29-52.
• Occasional 7ths e.g. bars 32-33.
• Secondary dominant chords e.g. Bars 52-64
• Dim 7th chord bar 58.
• Longer circle of 5ths pattern bar 59-63