The aria “Che faranno i vecchi miei,” sung by the minstrel character Jake Wallace in Act I Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West, was long thought to have its source in the Stephen Foster tune Old Dog Tray. In fact, the source for the Puccini aria is Carlos Troyer’s arrangement of the Chorus of Virgin Maidens from the Zuni Indian Festive Sun-Dance. The long-standing misconception of this aria’s source arose primarily because the play on which La Fanciulla is based, David Belasco’s The Girl of the Golden West, includes a line that implores Jake Wallace to sing Old Dog Tray; since then, scholars have assumed a direct source-work connection between the songs in the play and the opera. Not only does the tune Belasco included in the play—an ensemble arrangement written by the music director for the play, William Walter Furst—not match Puccini’s aria in either poetic meter or melody, but Belasco’s tune also differs greatly from the music and lyrics of Foster’s song. A look at Puccini’s sketches and letters solves this puzzle: the composer received a book containing the Festive Sun-Dance from Sybil Seligman in 1907. With the exception of phrase repetition, the melody of the opening period in “Che faranno” matches the Zuni Indian tune exactly.

Works: Puccini: La Fanciulla del West (362-92); William Walter Furst: Old Dog Tray (370-76).

Sources: William Walter Furst: Old Dog Tray (370-76); Stephen Foster: Old Dog Tray (373-77); Carlos Troyer: The Festive Sun-Dance (384-87, 391).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

A dynamic or cyclical notion of influence allows for a more sophisticated approach to understanding the relationship between twentieth-century classical music and Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. While numerous scholars have generated a long list of influences to Davis’s album, multiple techniques and sources invite further consideration. There are three categories of art music that serve as sources to Kind of Blue: late-romantic and impressionist music, American classical modernism, and Stravinsky ballets. In the first category, Rachmaninoff’s and Ravel’s works include general harmonic, intervallic (specifically concerning vamp patterns), and tonal elements that can be found in the songs So What and Flamenco Sketches, while Khachaturian’s use of non-diatonic melodies over tonal harmonies can be found across Davis’s entire album. In the second category, widely spaced leaps and upper-register sonorities from Copland’s music of the 1940s can be found in So What. In the final category, Stravinsky's ballets provide a procedure of fragmentary melodic variation that relates to Davis’s own “melodic variation” in his solos on every song. That these particular classical styles influence Kind of Blue on different levels indicates that “modal” jazz is a meaningful term to describe the album's musical language.

Works: Miles Davis: Kind of Blue.

Sources: Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (53-56), String Quartet in F Major (56-57); Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 40 (53-57); Khachaturian: Gayane Suites (57-58); Debussy: Images No. 1 (“Reflets dans l'eau”) (58); Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man (58), Appalachian Spring; Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (59-60), Petrushka (59-60).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Critics of Cecil Taylor’s recordings have incorrectly accused him of abandoning tonality and emphasizing texture in his improvisations. Pitch-class set analysis of Taylor’s improvisations, however, reveals a much closer connection between Taylor and his predecessors than previously acknowledged. Two recordings of Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best’s Bemsha Swing, one by Monk in 1955 and one by Taylor in 1958, demonstrate this close connection. Monk uses only a small collection of pitch-class sets and pitch-class operators for many of his improvisations, all in the context of standard bebop extended tonality. Taylor uses sets that imply traditional jazz scales and derive from Monk’s improvisations. By applying pitch-class operations, particularly multiplication, to these sets, Taylor gradually removes them from a tonal context.

Works: Thelonious Monk and Denzel Best (composers) and Cecil Taylor (performer): Bemsha Swing (219-31).

Sources: Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best (composers) and Thelonious Monk (performer): Bemsha Swing (207-19).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Billie Holiday was quoted as saying that she wanted the “feeling” of Bessie Smith with the “style” of Louis Armstrong. Two Holiday songs, Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do and I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, serve as clear homages respectively to Smith and Armstrong, each of whom recorded the songs well before Holiday. Both the style and feeling are identifiable by three vocal metrics: quality (dynamics/intensity), space (range/range-based timbre), and articulation (enunciation/rhythmic emphasis). Detailed transcriptions of the Smith, Armstrong, and Holiday recordings of these song, including dynamics, bending of pitches, and rhythmic manipulation show not only that Holiday was strongly influenced by her predecessors, but also that elements of vocal quality, space, and articulation that Holiday actively wanted to emulate appear in her performances of these songs.

Works: Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins (composers) and Billie Holiday (performer): Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do; Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler (composers) and Billie Holiday (performer): I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.

Sources: Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins (composers) and Bessie Smith (performer): Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do; Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler (composers) and Louis Armstrong (performer): I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

A jazz performer’s improvisation on a given model can provide insight into that performer’s understanding of the model’s essential elements. What the performer preserves, avoids, and manipulates from the model can indicate not only that performer’s competency, but also their inventiveness. Django Reinhardt’s 1939 recording of Isham Jones’s I’ll See You in My Dreams is one such example. In the context of a rhythmically repetitive structure, Reinhardt creates variety by alternatively highlighting and obscuring phrase boundaries. In cases of the former, Reinhardt includes chromatic turns at midpoints and endings of choruses. In cases of the latter, Reinhardt repeats rhythmic motives across phrases. Additionally, Reinhardt’s use of paraphrase and thematic improvisation demonstrates a deep understanding of the melody from Jones’s model. When paraphrasing, Reinhardt preserves between one and six measures of the melody; longer paraphrases, however, are rare. In thematic improvisations, Reinhardt highlights an important large-scale melodic connection in one of two ways. In the first, he foregrounds the connection as a short melody and plays it repeatedly; in the second, he increases the technical virtuosity of his improvisation while maintaining the melodic outline of the model.

Works: Isham Jones (composer) and Django Reinhardt (performer): I’ll See You in My Dreams (41-58).

Sources: Isham Jones: I’ll See You in My Dreams (41-42).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

The South-Grappelli recordings of Bach's Double Violin Concerto with Django Reinhardt in 1937 were, in addition to an aesthetically adventurous experiment, a socio-political statement based on the diverse musical and cultural backgrounds of the performers. The recordings were organized by Charles Delaunay, who convinced the reluctant violinists to record Bach's score without rehearsal. The first recording corresponds highly to the score: only a handful of ornamentations decorate the violinists' notes, and Grappelli omits some of his part. The second recording involves a much freer interpretation of the Bach original by both violinists, and Reinhardt's accompaniment is highly altered. In both cases, most of Bach's music was omitted so that the recordings could fit on a 78 rpm disc.

Works: Stéphane Grappelli and Eddie South: Interprétation Swing du Première Mouvement du Concerto en Re Mineur de Jean-Sébastien Bach (336-40, 351-54), Improvisation sur le Première Mouvement du Concerto en Re Mineur de Jean-Sébastien Bach (336-40, 351-54).

Sources: Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043 (335-54).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Transcribing jazz improvisations should entail more than note-by-note recording, especially for advanced performance students. Three additional steps reinforce the pedagogical benefits of transcription: an overall description of what occurs in an improvisation, an assessment of the musical parameters that the improvisation highlights, and an application of that assessment to creating improvisations in a similar style. Analyses of three interpretations of Body and Soul by Bill Frisell, Cassandra Wilson, and Keith Jarrett encourage three different approaches to improvisation. From Frisell, an improvisational model includes incorporating looping technology for repeating aleatoric motives. From Wilson, an improvisational model encourages a singer to replace the notes of a song while keeping its lyrics. Finally, from Jarrett, an improvisational model provides a performer with preset motives that can be manipulated with a large-scale formal trajectory in mind.

Works: Johnny Green: Body and Soul as performed by Bill Frisell (64-66), Cassandra Wilson (66-69), and Keith Jarrett (70-75).

Sources: Johnny Green: Body and Soul (61-62).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Billie Holiday's recordings reveal a sophisticated use of tempo rubato, the slowing-down and speeding-up of a melody over a steady accompaniment. While Holiday's version of a tune rarely strays from the pitch material of the original, the rhythmic comparison is considerably more complex. Holiday tends to begin her lines or melodic fragments late relative to the accompaniment, yet she catches up to the accompaniment by the end of the passage. In fact, Holiday takes the given melody at a faster tempo than the original. Transcriptions of Holiday's recordings indicate that the ratio between her tempo and that of the accompaniment is as advanced as 6 to 5 or 7 to 5, a much higher ratio than similar procedures found in African, Afro-Cuban, and African-American music (such as the music of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith).

Works: Cole Porter: What is This Thing Called Love as performed by Billie Holiday (182-92) and Ella Fitzgerald (185-86); Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons (composers) and Billie Holiday (performer): All of Me (192-94).

Sources: Cole Porter: What is This Thing Called Love (182-92); Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons: All of Me (192-94).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Jazz analysts have frequently pointed to Thelonious Monk's Criss Cross as an exemplar of motivic development and coherence in jazz literature. Full transcriptions of Monk's four recordings of Criss Cross, previously unavailable in analytical literature, confirm and elaborate on this claim. Monk's melody is composed entirely of three measure-long motives and variants of those motives. His improvisations incorporate these motives at their respective places in the original melody. In both the main statement and solo sections of two recordings from 1963 and 1971, Monk augments the motives rhythmically, changes the timings of some eighth-note passages, enriches the accompaniment in the left hand, and adjusts the lengths of concluding notes. Monk's solos occasionally deviate from motivic coherence, especially in two recordings from 1951. Deviations most often occur, however, when previous solos by members of Monk's band focus more on harmonic and scalar improvisation than motivic improvisation. Milt Jackson and Sahib Shibab, both on the two 1951 recordings, use a vocabulary that consists of bebop and quotation. In contrast, Charlie Rouse, on the 1963 and 1971 recordings, maintains motivic coherence in his improvisations with Monk's theme.

Works: Thelonious Monk: Criss Cross as recorded in 1951, 1963, and 1971.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

The reception history of Charlie Parker as a thoroughly original artist overlooks the influence of popular music on the altoist's recordings and performances. An exaggerated focus on technique over context in jazz performance pedagogy ignores this crucial historical element of Parker's musical development. Parker's colleagues and bandmates provide anecdotal evidence that he not only knew popular tunes, but played and practiced them frequently. Schenkerian analysis demonstrates that some of Parker's compositions correspond strongly to popular tunes both melodically and harmonically. This applies even to Parker's use of altered and extended harmonies, which can be found in many popular tunes that predate Parker's career.

Works: Sam H. Stept (composer) and Charlie Parker (performer): I'm Painting the Town Red (86); Charlie Parker: Ballade (87), Confirmation (87-89), My Little Suede Shoes (89-91); George Gershwin (composer) and Charlie Parker (performer): Embraceable You (92); Charlie Parker: Koko (93-96).

Sources: Sam H. Stept: I'm Painting the Town Red (86); Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler: As Long as I Live (87); Herb Magidson and Allie Wrubel: (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade is Over (87-89); Henri Giraud: Pedro Gomez (90), Le petit cireur noir (90); Zequinha de Abreu: Tico-Tico (90); George Gershwin: Embraceable You (92); Sam Coslow: A Table in a Corner (92); Ray Noble: Cherokee (93-96).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust did not start out as a slow song, but instead an instrumental piece with a fast tempo. The song shares a number of unusual melodic fragments with Bix Beiderbecke’s interpretation of Singin’ the Blues and Louis Armstrong’s Dardanella. The three-note pickup to the chorus later associated with the words “Sometimes I...” is also found in the choruses to popular songs Poor Butterfly and Rose Room. Carmichael first recorded the piece in 1927. The band Mills’s Merry Makers, led by Irving Mills, recorded the first slow version less than a year later. Carmichael, however, credited the tempo change to Isham Jones’s later recording, on which Carmichael was the pianist. Carmichael wrote lyrics to Stardust even before it was recorded for the first time as an instrumental work, but Mitchell Parish, a staff writer for Mills, wrote the lyrics that Bing Crosby sang in the 1931 release of the first version with voice. Crosby and Louis Armstrong are among a handful of artists who have recorded multiple versions of Stardust, indicating its endurance as a jazz standard.

Works: Hoagy Carmichael: Stardust (151-53); Hoagy Carmichael: Stardust as performed by Mills’s Merry Makers (153-54), Isham Jones (154-55), Bing Crosby (156-57), Louis Armstrong (157-58), and Benny Goodman (159).

Sources: J. Russel Robinson, Con Conrad, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young (composers) and Bix Beiderbecke (performer): Singin’ the Blues (152); Felix Bernard, Johnny S. Black, and Fred Fisher (composers) and Louis Armstrong (performer): Dardanella (152); Raymond Hubbell: Poor Butterfly (152); Art Hickman: Rose Room (152).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz, Popular

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

Ives’s eighteen German songs form an important link between his earlier and later works. The songs demonstrate his wish to conform to prevailing art music trends in Europe while also exhibiting his determination to be original and push inherited musical idioms to the limit. Ives’s German language songs were likely a personal project, influenced by his previous composition of sentimental ballads. His rich harmonic language in these sentimental ballads deviated from the norms of the genre, an approach Ives continued in his German songs by using unorthodox harmonies, forms, and melodies. His German songs may be classified in three categories based on approximate composition date: 1894-1897, 1897-1898, and 1898-1902. Songs from the first group are the most conservative and are most similar to sentimental ballads. Those from the second group use poems that were associated with earlier settings by European composers and thus invite direct comparison with the European masters. Songs from the third group continue the ideas Ives initiated in the second group and use increased dissonance and chromaticism in the service of text expression. A table of all of Ives’s German songs lists reworked and alternate titles, text incipits, authors, and sources.

Works: Ives: Leise zieht (144-47), An Old Flame (149, 155), At Parting (150-55, 158), My Lou Jennine (153-56), Feldeinsamkeit (157-62), Zum Drama “Rosamunde” (159, 163), Du bist wie eine Blume (159-60), Wiegenlied (160), Wie Melodien zieht es mir (160-62), Ich grolle nicht (157-63), Die Lotosblume (160), Mir klingt ein Ton (160-61), Weil’ auf mir (163-64).

Sources: Grieg: Gruß (144-47); Mendelssohn: Gruß (144-47); Robert Franz: Leise zieht durch mein Gemüth (144-46); James Rogers: At Parting (150-53); Schumann: Ich grolle nicht (161); Brahms: Feldeinsamkeit, Op. 86, No. 2 (162-63).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein, Amanda Jensen, Christine Wisch

Analyses of improvised jazz music have focused either on musical-structural or group-interactive elements. For the Art Ensemble of Chicago, an avant-garde jazz collective founded in the late 1960s by Roscoe Mitchell, musical-structural and group-interactive elements are inseparable. Two live recordings demonstrate an interactive framework in which members of the group refer to multiple Art Ensemble compositions to build up to a full-length performance of a single work. Within a single interactive framework, performers freely incorporate bass lines, melodic fragments, timbres, and rhythmic motives associated with these compositions.

Works: Roscoe Mitchell (composer) and The Art Ensemble of Chicago (performers): A Jackson in Your House (60-61); Lester Bowie and Don Moye (composers) and The Art Ensemble of Chicago (performers): Mata Kimasu (61-65).

Sources: Roscoe Mitchell: A Jackson in Your House (60-61), Duffvipels (60), Get in Line (60); Albert Ayler, Bells (61); Lester Bowie and Don Moye: Mata Kimasu (61-65); Roscoe Mitchell: People in Sorrow (63).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein

“Outside” playing in the 1960s was defined as the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic influence of newer movements in jazz on more traditional jazz performance. Two groups in the mid-1960s, the Charles Lloyd Quartet and the Miles Davis Quintet, incorporated avant-garde techniques into their improvisations of standard tunes. The pianists for each group, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock, implemented significant harmonic and metrical disruption during their improvisations. Transcriptions of the final chorus-and-a-half for their respective improvisations on Autumn Leaves illustrate a wide variety of such disruptions. Jarrett combines polymeter, accent shift, and chords in conflict with the original harmonic structure at the end of his third chorus; he uses polyrhythms such as triplets in the beginning of the fourth chorus; and he negates the harmonic scheme of the second half of the chorus by transposing chords down by whole step, where the original tune cycled through the descending circle of fifths. At the end of his fifth chorus, Hancock also uses polymeter and accent shift; however, the chorus ends with dissonant chromatic planing instead of highlighting a consonant chord distant from the original harmonic scheme. At the beginning of his sixth chorus, Hancock eliminates any sense of metric identity by playing chords at seemingly arbitrary attack points. Overall, both Jarrett and Hancock use avant-garde techniques to heighten the intensity of the juncture between the second-to-last and last choruses of their improvisations.

Works: Joseph Kosma: Autumn Leaves as performed by Keith Jarrett (285-90) and Herbie Hancock (290-98).

Sources: Joseph Kosma: Autumn Leaves (281-85).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Nathan Blustein