The Life and Music of Duke Ellington:

A Tue Jazz Artist

Mark Ostermeyer

Music History 331

Dr. Platt

April 2, 2015

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Duke Ellington has proved to be one of his most influential jazz composers in the history

of the genre. Ellington demonstrates his compositional skills in a plethora of ways in his music,

being compared to sophisticated composers such as Aaron Copland and Claude Debussy. His

music experiments with a diverse range of musical styles and compositional techniques. This

essay will outline the life and music of Ellington. A detailed biography is used to provide

context for the music he composed as well as supply information about his character. The

biography will focus largely on his most productive compositional periods, such as his time at

the Cotton Club in Harlem from 1927 to 1931, the 1930s, and 1957 to 1967. I will also be

looking at three of Ellington’s pieces in detail: Ko Ko (1939), Diminuendo and Crescendo in

Blue (1937), and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Though not written during his years at the

Cotton Club Ko Ko is a prime example of the “jungle style” that Ellington created while in

residency at the club. Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue is an instance of his exploration with

larger-scale forms during the 1930s. Anatomy of a Murder is an example of a full jazz suite

composed during his period of creativity from 1957 to 1967. The three pieces are each

representative of three of his most prolific compositional periods of his life and demonstrate

Ellington’s masterful treatment of style, orchestration, harmony, melody, instrumentation, and

form. Many famous writers and musicians also regarded Ellington as a master of composition,

helping bridge the gap between early, primitive jazz and music that is considered an art.

In 1899 Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born in Washington D.C. to James and

Daisy Ellington. James Ellington earned a living as a butler for a wealthy doctor, Dr. M. F.

Cuthburt, making enough money that the family could purchase their own home (Collier, p. 11).

With such strong ties to the well-mannered lifestyle of the Cuthburt family, Duke Ellington was

raised with a privileged lifestyle, despite his family’s tight finances (Collier, p. 10). This sense

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of privilege combined with growing up with great love from his parents fostered Ellington’s

confident personality and distinct character that would allow him to succeed in his future music

career (Collier, p. 4).

Ellington was introduced to music at an early age, since both of his parents had a strong

love for music. His mother taught him piano as a young boy and his father could reportedly play

music by ear with great skill (Collier, p. 18). Ellington began taking piano lessons at age seven,

though he soon grew dissatisfied with music, stepping away from playing piano until later when

he reached high school (Ulanov, p. 6-7). Through high school he began to renew his interest in

music, developing a passion for ragtime music (Ulanov, p. 9). Ragtime was a popular piano

genre that emerged in the late nineteenth century, defined by an abundance of syncopation

(Collier, p. 15). Ellington began frequenting bars and parties, where he would hear some of the

best ragtime pianists in the area play, allowing him to develop his own unique playing styles

(Ulanov, p. 14). In one instance when Ellington was eighteen he was attending a bar when the

pianist was knocked out from intoxication, allowing Ellington to seize the moment and jump up

to play in his place. Ellington then performed his original composition Soda Fountain Rag that

he had written at the age of fifteen as a “one-step, two-step, waltz, and as a “fox-trot, slow,

middle-tempo and up,” amazing the audience members in attendance (Ulanov, p. 16). In 1916 he

had his first musical debut, forming his first musical group after leaving high school early,

playing in Room 10 of the True Reformers center in Washington (Collier, p. 25). The band

became known as Duke Ellington’s Serenades (Williams, p. 225). Though not well off

financially, Ellington married Edna Thompson in July, 1918. The two had known each other

since high school and Edna played a role in teaching him music and was also very involved his

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social life (Ulanov, p. 19). Their son Mercer Kennedy Ellington was born the following year,

along with another child who died in infancy (Ulanov, p. 19).

In 1923 Ellington received an extended invitation through his drummer Sonny Greer to

travel to New York to play in a band led by bandleader and ragtime clarinetist, Wilbur Sweatman

(Ulanov, p. 25). The band had adopted the name the Washingtonians and was made up of Sonny

Greer on drums, Otto Hardwick playing saxophone, Elmer Snowden playing banjo, and Artie

Whetsol on trumpet (Hodeir). The group had little success once in the big city, only playing in a

few theatres, causing them to leave Sweatman’s leadership and try to find jobs playing as a

group but ultimately suffered from financial failure (Ulanov, p. 27). Later that year a popular

pianist, Thomas “Fats” Waller recommended that Ellington and his band, led at the time by

Snowden, fill in for his group at a local club (Ulanov, p. 30). This opportunity gave the group

renewed vigor and hope for their careers in New York, with the band’s second attempt in New

York being much more successful than the first. From 1923 to 1927 the Washingtonians played

at clubs all around Broadway, gaining popularity and attracting more musicians to join the band

(Hodeir). The group grew to ten musicians with the additions of Bubber Miley on trumpet,

“Tricky” Sam Nanton on trombone, Harry Carney playing baritone saxophone, Rudy Jackson

palying clarinet and tenor saxophone, and Wellman Braud on double bass (Hodeir). At this point

in his career Ellington had begun to write and arrange songs for the Washingtonians to play

(Collier, p. 49). In 1924 Ellington was made the leader of the Washingtonians by Greer after the

group grew tired of the Snowden hoarding the group’s income (Collier, p. 50-51).

From 1927 to 1931 Ellington began to move into the national scope as one of the leading

figures of jazz. In the fall of 1927 Ellington and his group auditioned at a prominent club in

Harlem called the Cotton Club, led by Harry Block (Collier, p. 79). The Cotton Club was known

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as a “black and tan” venue which were known for their racial segregation, with African

American musicians and dancers performing for a white audience (Williams, p. 225). The

Cotton Club was “patronized by wealthy whites, and staffed by blacks . . . put[ing] on high-

powered music revues featuring sultry chorus girls, sensual choreography, exotic production

numbers, and plenty of hot jazz” (Williams, p. 225). While at the Cotton Club Ellington

developed what would come to be known as his “jungle style.” The jungle style was

characterized by driving rhythms on the tom-toms of the drum set (emulating the sound of

African drums), growling trumpets, and leaping saxophone melodies (Williams, p. 226). The

creation of Ellington’s jungle style was largely impacted by the two recent additions to the band,

trumpeter Bubber Miley, who played aggressively with a plunger mute, and trombonist Tricky

Sam Nanto, who could manipulate his trombone to sound like the human voice. The two

musicians together created an extremely primitive and raw sound that influenced Ellington’s

compositional style at the time (Rattenbury, p. 104). This jungle style was created by Ellington

to create irony with the expectations of the white audience members of the club, who expected to

listen to exotic jazz (Williams, p. 226). An exemplary illustration of his jungle style is

Ellington’s piece Ko Ko, written in 1939.

While in residence at the Cotton Club in Harlem, the group recorded some 200 pieces

that brought them a great deal of fame, notably Mood Indigo in 1930 (Hodeir). Many of these

recordings were pieces written in the jungle style. During this period the group also was

renamed from the Washingtonians to Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and grew to twelve members

with the additions of Barney Bigard on clarinet, Johnny Hodges on saxophone, and Cootie

Williams playing trumpet (Hodeir). Two reasons that led to the change in band name were the

national attention that Ellington brought to the group and the fact that he had become its sole

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composer (Williams, p. 225). At the Cotton Club Ellington began to develop the compositional

skills that would forever set him apart in history as one of the great jazz composers. One specific

skill he developed was his ability to compose music using the orchestra as his “instrument,”

creating a unique ensemble sounds based on his extensive knowledge of the individual players’

timbres, abilities, and tonal effects (Hodeir). This technique is present in all of Ellington’s late

compositions and is later termed the “Ellington effect” by Billy Strayhorn (Hodeir). His

orchestration skills also grew. He became able to skillfully design the entrances to solos to

create interesting effects as well as create tasteful orchestral accompaniments to support the

improvisation of soloists and add additional color to the music (Hodeir). In 1931 Ellington left

residency at the Cotton Club, due to increased traveling, a desire to tour internationally, and a

lust to compose more large-scale pieces of music (Collier, p. 124-125).

The period from 1932 to 1942 after Ellington left the Cotton Club been labeled as his

most creative compositional because he was then able to tour with his band and compose larger

works such as Reminiscing in Tempo (1935) and Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (1937) with

significantly more sophistication and expression than his previous works. During this time the

band toured through many cities in America and also completed two tours of Europe in both1933

and 1939. After returning from the second European tour the group added Jimmy Blanton on

double bass, Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, and Billy Strayhorn as an arranger and composer

for the group (Hodeir). Strayhorn over time would prove his worth as a key component of the

Duke Ellington Orchestra, composing many future pieces in collaboration with Ellington.

During their tours of Europe Ellington gained a great respect not only as a musician and

bandleader but as a talented composer (Williams, p. 228). While in Europe Ellington also

impressed many important jazz critics and writers such as Constant Lambert and Spike Hughes,

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with Lambert labeled Ellington as “a real composer, the first jazz composer of distinction, and

the first Negro composer of distinction” (Williams, p. 229). However, this period of success for

Ellington began to decline in the mid-1940s due to a lot of changes in the band’s membership.

Since the success of Ellington’s music was so largely dependent on his knowledge and use of the

abilities of individual players in the group, the amount of change in the personnel of the group

led to a decline in the quality of his compositions (Hodeir).

From 1957 to 1967 Ellington began another very creative compositional period (Domek,

p. 75). During this time the Duke Ellington Orchestra was at the pinnacle of its fame,

completing frequent international tours. Ellington was also composing in very large forms,

creating entire suites such as the score to the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder (Hodeir). During

the 1960s Ellington was presented with an array of awards, honors, degrees, keys to cities,

Grammy Awards, and more (Collier, p. 274). Among these honors received by Ellington, the

most notable were the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1969, being made a member of the

National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1970, becoming the first jazz musician ever to be named

a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 1971, and receiving fifteen

honorary degrees from establishments such as Howard University and Yale University (Hodeir).

In the last decade of his life Ellington composed mostly liturgical works (Hodeir). In 1974

Ellington was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently lost his life to pneumonia on May 24,

1974 (Collier, p. 301). Upon Ellington’s death his son Mercer took over leading the Duke

Ellington Orchestra to carry on his legacy (Hodeir).

One of Ellington’s greatest contributions to the jazz world was his piece Ko Ko, which

was written in a very clear jungle style that demands the listener’s ear through it’s raw power and

unique style. Ko Ko was compose in 1939 from the unfinished score of Ellington’s attempt to

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compose the opera, Boola. The opera was meant to illustrate the struggles of the African

American people at the time of its composition, so in turn these ideas are reflected in Ko Ko

(Rattenbury, p. 104). Ko Ko was recorded on March 6, 1940 (Collier, 225). Ellington described

the piece as being a description of Congo Square in New Orleans, where he believed that “jazz

was born” (Collier, p. 225). Congo Square was “an open place situated about where Louis

Armstrong Park is now, where, in the nineteenth century, blacks held Sunday dances to drum

music that is presumed to have been close to African tribal music” (Collier, p. 225). The piece

was written upon Ellington’s return from his second European tour in the late 1930s, during

which he composed some of his most popular works (Collier, p. 193). Ko Ko is composed in

Ellington’s “jungle style” that was a product of his time spent at the Cotton Club in Harlem

(Rattenbury, p. 104).

Ko Ko uses a traditional 12-bar blues repeated seven times, enclosed by an introduction

and a coda (Rattenbury, p. 105). Though extremely chaotic and intense, the piece maintains

continuity by staying in E-flat minor and by predominantly using a single repeated motive

throughout the entire piece. This motive is simply three eighth notes followed by a note of

significantly longer duration, such as a half-note or whole-note (Rattenbury, p. 105). The

motive’s rhythmic nature parallel’s that of the main motive of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5,

demonstrating Ellington’s knowledge of past genres of composition (Rattenbury, p. 106). This

motive is introduced immediately at the start of the piece by Sonny Greer on the drum set’s tom-

toms (Rattenbury, p. 107). The use of the tom-toms to play this rhythmic ostinato motive creates

the image of primitive African drumming, insinuating the jungle style immediately at the start of

the piece. Harry Carney then plays the main motive in the baritone saxophone’s low register

soon after, creating an aggressive sound to parallel the jungle style. The remainder of the piece

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continues building upon this motive, creating a continually thickening texture and giving an

identifiable bit of music for the audience to latch on to.

There are two solos performed during Ko Ko, two choruses of the 12-bar blues form by

Nanton on trombone and one chorus played by Ellington himself on piano (Rattenbury, p. 105).

Nanton’s solo is improvised over the full band with the exception of the first trumpet and third

trombone (Rattenbury, p. 112). The brass players make the texture sound chaotic through the

use of playing with alternating open and closed plunger mutes (Rattenbury, p. 112). Nanton

plays his entire solo in the upper portion of his register, using the vocalization techniques with

his plunger that he was renowned for (Rattenbury, p. 116). Nanton only used the five notes E-

flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, and D-flat throughout his entire solo, making up a pentatonic scale

(Rattenbury, p. 122). However, with the addition of “many bends, smears, and glissandi in the

recorded performance impart a microtonal chromaticism not accommodated by the twelve-tone

system, much less the pentatonic scale” (Rattenbury, p. 122). This convoluted sense of harmony

further adds to the chaotic nature of the jungle style. Ellington’s solo then proceeds over the

continually thickening texture created by the band in the background. Ellington utilizes a

number of percussive staccato chords and scalar flourishes up the keyboard to act color to the

texture. The piece then continues to build until it comes to a conclusion with a powerful bitonal

harmony played by the entire band that sounds every note of the E-flat minor scale

simultaneously (Rattenbury, p. 136). This final chord can also be viewed as either superimposed

major and minor thirds or a tower of stacked fifths (Rattenbury, p. 140).

Despite being based around a traditional 12-bar blues, the harmonies used by Ellington

throughout Ko Ko are incredibly inventive and unique to jazz at the time. Ko Ko makes use of

harmonies formed over a pedal, a single note that is present nearly at all times (Collier, p. 226).

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The term pedal point derives from the historical practice of organists sustaining a single note as

they shift through various harmonies. The first five of the seven choruses as well as the

introduction utilize pedal tones. The introduction and first chorus utilize an E-flat pedal tone, the

next two choruses share an A-flat pedal tone, the fourth uses a B-flat pedal, and the fifth uses an

F pedal tone (Collier, p. 226). Though the piece makes use of pedal tones they are not used in

the traditional sense by being continuously sustained, but rather the tone is constantly reiterated,

sometimes in different colors. The principal motive of three eighth notes and a note of longer

duration is the main tool for achieving this goal. An example occurs at the very beginning of the

piece, with the baritone saxophone introducing the main motive on the E-flat pedal tone that is

used throughout the introduction (Rattenbury, p. 107). These tones are largely responsible for

making the piece sound as dissonant as it does, simply because of the nature of pedal tones.

When harmonies are shifting over a sustained note clashing intervals are inevitable. However,

another look at the pedal tones used illustrates specifically how the piece gets progressively more

dissonant as it goes on. The piece is in the key of E-flat throughout, fitting to the standard 12-bar

blues harmonic structure. Therefore, the E-flat pedal used in the introduction and chorus

coincides well with the tonic key. The next two pedal tones used, A-flat and B-flat, each fit well

within the key of E-flat, being the subdominant and dominant of the tonic key. However these

still pedals still add tension and dissonance to the blues progression because at times they create

friction with the changing chords of the blues pattern. After the B-flat pedal the harmonies then

get significantly more dissonant with the introduction of the F pedal by the trumpets in the fifth

chorus, which is a whole step above the tonic and therefore dissonant (Collier, p. 226). Though

the blues form is still discernable over this harmonic tension, extreme dissonances ensue,

building until the powerful bitonal chord at the end of the piece. “There is no pedal point in [the

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sixth] chorus or in the seventh. But here the chords are so dissonant that a pedal would hardly

have been noticed” (Collier, p. 226-227). These innovative harmonies not only create the type of

dissonances associated with Ellington’s jungle style, but also prove his great compositional skill.

A close look at how Ko Ko is designed structurally also goes a long way to prove

Ellington’s superiority as a composer. The principal structural technique used throughout the

piece is the constant layering of melodic ideas (Collier, p. 226). The number of voices playing

simultaneously continually increases as the piece goes on, drawing on material that was played

earlier in the piece (Collier, p. 226). The main three eighth notes and a longer note motive is the

idea that is most frequently used for this layering effect. Towards the beginning of the piece this

idea is presented once at a time, starting with the baritone saxophone and then transferring to the

trombone, both in E-flat. As the piece goes on this idea is played by more voices, often

simultaneously and at different pitch levels, creating additional dissonance and chaos

characteristic of the jungle style. The sophisticated manner that Ellington goes about using

layering to structure Ko Ko, as well as his mastery in handling the main motive of the piece

provides yet another example of Ellington’s proficiency as a composer.

Ellington’s compositional output was made up largely by small-scale pieces, writing only

a handful of pieces of larger stature throughout his life. Most of these larger-scale works were

written after leaving the Cotton Club in 1931. One of these works is Diminuendo and Crescendo

in Blue, which was written in 1937 with serious performance environments as well as the

traditional jazz setting in mind (Williams, p. 230). This piece can be used to demonstrate how

Ellington’s music played a part in transforming the jazz genre. Diminuendo and Crescendo in

Blue was composed in two halves to be recorded on opposing sides of a 78 rpm record. The first

half of the piece is “Diminuendo in Blue,” which begins with a fortissimo opening and

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complicated texture, that soon reveals the underlying 12-bar blues pattern used throughout the

piece as the busyness of the texture subsides (Collier, p. 187). The remainder of “Diminuendo in

Blue” is just that, a diminuendo, in which the group lowers the dynamic and pitch levels until

they reach an interlude that is composed of syncopated rhythms played by the piano and rhythm

section. The interlude continues to decline in dynamic level until the sound has faded away

completely, creating a silence in which the 78 rpm record is meant to be turned over to play the

remainder of piece (Williams, p. 232). The piece then proceeds with the last half, “Crescendo in

Blue,” beginning softly with low clarinet part and slowly adding additional instruments in. The

group then crescendos through to the end of the piece (Williams, p. 232).

Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue was originally written by Ellington in 1937, but was

not played by the group often (Collier, p. 262). The group recorded the piece three times:

initially in 1937, once in 1953, and finally in 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival. The Newport

recording is regarded as the most popular recording of the piece, largely because of the extensive

tenor saxophone solo performed by Paul Gonsalves, spanning 27 full choruses of the 12-bar

blues form, one of the longest saxophone solos ever recorded (Williams, p. 241). The reaction

from the audience of the solo was extremely positive, with listeners dancing and cheering as

Gonsalves played through the solo (Collier, p. 263).

Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue is an example of a work by Ellington that

demonstrates his transition into the swing era of the 1940s. Between 1937 and 1939 Ellington

wrote pieces that moved toward this more energetic swing style (Gammond, p. 91). Swing style

was of American creation during the 1930s and 1940s, intended for dancing. The melodic

content for these pieces are short motives over a repeated harmonic patter, such as the 12-bar

blues used in Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. The music also places less emphasis on the

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use of improvisation, which had always been one of the biggest backbones of the jazz genre.

(Williams, p. 230). The standard instrumentation of the swing band was made up of the

traditional rhythm section and two or three players on saxophone, trumpet, and trombone each.

(Williams, p. 231).

There are a couple of interesting connections that can be made to Ellington’s life through

a closer look at Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. The first half of the piece, “Diminuendo in

Blue,” begins with a loud motive in the saxophones over powerful chords held by the brass

(Example 1) (Williams, p. 231).

Example 1: Ellington, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, 0:15-0:19 (Hob42) (Williams, p. 232).

Despite being notated in 4/4 time and the drummer also creating a rhythmic feel based in 4/4

time, the winds are playing notes in groups of three beats, create a rhythmic displacement that

helps to create the chaotic sound that Ellington strives for at the beginning of this piece to mask

the 12-bar blues form. This kind of rhythmic displacement is commonly associated with ragtime

music, a large influence to Ellington’s style, drawing a connection to his early life (Williams,

231). In traditional music phrasing, crescendos normally precede diminuendos, building tension

and then resolving down to a softer dynamic. However, Ellington was unique with this piece by

doing just the opposite, starting loud, growing soft, and then ending loud (Collier, p. 187). This

reflects his innovation as a composer, by toying with the concepts of classical music.

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Ellington also demonstrates how he did not follow the typical conventions of jazz

improvisation in Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. Though a majority of Diminuendo and

Crescendo in Blue is not improvised, the piece is still considered jazz because it uses the typical

jazz style (Williams, p. 238). A technique that Ellington used to assist his band members in

improvisation would be to write out a rough sketch of the solo in the score, making it sound like

improvisation when being played. This technique later became known as “simulated

improvisation” (Williams, p. 235). An example of simulated improvisation in Diminuendo and

Crescendo in Blue can be discovered by analyzing the baritone saxophone solo played by Harry

Carney toward the end of “Diminuendo in Blue” on the three recordings the band made

(Example 2).

1937

1953

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1956

Example 2: Ellington, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, 2:05-2:18 (Hob42) (Williams, p. 236-238).

All three solos over the span of nearly 20 years use the same basic rhythmic ideas and melodic

direction, suggesting the use of scripted solos written by Ellington. Another possible reason that

these solos are so similar could be attributed to the fact that the Ellington Orchestra toured so

much at the time, causing the same ideas to be engrained in the heads night after night of

performing and leading to fixed solos such as Carney’s (Williams, p. 236). A third reason for

this fixation of solo materials could be due to the expectations of audience members, who

anticipate solos similar to how they are played on the recordings (Williams, p. 238). Simulated

improvisation, touring, and audience expectations could all be factors that solidified the sound of

the Ellington Orchestra, making the music less improvisatory by nature, while still maintaining

the traditional jazz style.

The solidification of improvised material in the three recordings of Diminuendo and

Crescendo in Blue demonstrates how Ellington’s music was leading toward a new era of jazz,

creating new large-scale jazz works that are more accessible to a wider audience and appropriate

for larger venues than those used for traditional jazz performance (Williams, p. 243). Ellington’s

brand of composition became revered by prominent British writers such as Constant Lambert

and Spike Hughes during the 1930s, with Lambert comparing Ellington to composers such as

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Gershwin and Liszt (Arvidsson, p. 254). Spike Hughes, a popular jazz critic and composer,

constantly wrote about Ellington in his journal, Melody Maker. Hughes would often hold

Ellington in high esteem compared to other jazz composers of the time and express admiration

for his abilities as a composer (Arvidsson, p. 263). Hughes and Lambert both attempted to

elevate jazz from the image of exotic primitivism associated with jazz at the time to a more

sophisticated position in society (Arvidsson, p. 266). Both writers promoted the image of jazz by

distinguishing talented jazz composers such as Ellington and pointing out that jazz contained

qualities that even sophisticated “art music” at the time did not possess (Arvidsson, p.267). The

comparison of jazz to “art music” at the time allowed Ellington’s music to “transcend cultural

boundaries and reinforce the elevation of jazz from a street music to a concert art form”

(Williams, p. 243).

The decade around 1957 to 1967 was recognized as one of Ellington’s greatest creative

periods compositionally (Domek, p. 75). During this time he composed one of his most serious

large-scale works, the sound track to the 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder (Collier, pg. 278).

The movie Anatomy of a Murder was based on the 1958 novel of the same title. The book was

written by John Voelker, a courtroom attorney writing under the pen name Robert Traver. The

book was based on the actual circumstances of a murder trial in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

(Domek, p. 76). Ellington was asked to write the soundtrack to the film by the producer-director

Otto Preminger and accepted the job after reading the script (Domek, p. 76). Ellington also

received a cameo in the movie, playing “Pie-Eye,” a pianist and leader of a local combo (Domek,

p. 77). Ellington wrote thirteen full tracks to accompany the film, forming a full sweet of jazz

pieces (Domek, p. 98).

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One distinct quality of Anatomy of a Murder was that it was written by Ellington in a

close collaboration with Billy Strayhorn, an American jazz composer who was well known for

his collaboration with Ellington during the latter part of Ellington’s career. When asked about

the thematic material in the soundtrack for Anatomy of a Murder Ellington stated that the two

main themes used throughout the work are the “Flirtibird” and “Polly” theme. These two themes

make up a large amount of the music on the soundtrack. However, the “Polly” theme was

actually composed by Strayhorn, illustrating the large role that Strayhorn played in the

composition process (Domek, p. 78). By the time they began working on the soundtrack for

Anatomy of a Murder, Strayhorn and Ellington had been composing together for nearly two

decades. The two composers would compose completely separately from one another and

communicate their ideas frequently via telephone, since they would often be apart when

Ellington would go on tours. Though separated geographically they still would achieve their

compositional goals, “sometimes conferring about more general concepts and sometimes

discussing, listening, even singing over the phone the way things would actually sound” (Domek,

p. 95). This process they developed of joint composition led to the creation of some of the

greatest works in the Ellington repertoire (Domek, p. 94). The partnership is seen at its best in

Anatomy of a Murder, due to the fact that they were to remain on set during the filming process

of the movie and could compose in the same place for a change (Domek, p. 76). This amazing

cooperation between Ellington and Strayhorn can be directly observed through a close analysis

of the two principal themes used in the soundtrack, the “Flirtibird” theme written by Ellington

and the “Polly” theme written by Strayhorn (Example 3).

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Example 3: Ellington-Strayhorn, Anatomy of a Murder (Domek, p. 87).

The “Flirtibird” theme (line 1 of Example 3) and the “Polly” theme (line 2 of Example 3), both

use extremely similar melodic shaping, rhythmic figures, are similar in length, and share a

similar harmonic progression. Additionally, both themes utilize a nearly identical sentence

structure, also demonstrated in Example 3 (Domek, p. 86). The amount of similarities between

the two themes is a testament to the importance and significance of collaboration between

Ellington in Strayhorn in the composition of Anatomy of a Murder.

Anatomy of a Murder also demonstrates many compositional qualities of Ellington’s

music that set him apart from other jazz composers of the time and illustrates his significance in

shaping jazz to become considered an art form. These qualities include the unification of a

larger work with connected themes, complex harmonies that do not conform to traditional jazz

composition standards, and unique techniques used to score parts in his ensemble. One of the

most notable qualities of the soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder is its use of interconnected

themes throughout the different tracks (Domek, p. 78). The most common themes found

throughout the work are the “Flirtibird” (appearing in four of the thirteen tracks) and “Happy

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Anatomy” (appearing in three of the thirteen tracks) themes composed by Ellington and the

“Polly” theme composed by Strayhorn (appearing in five of the thirteen tracks) (Domek, p. 97-

98). This unification of thematic material created a greater overall sense of continuity for the

entire soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder and is a large reason that the work has become revered

as a full jazz “suite” (Domek, 117-118). Ellington also demonstrates his ability to write complex

harmonies throughout the work. An example of these complexities can be found in the

introduction to Almost Cried, the eighth track on the soundtrack (Example 4).

Example 4: Ellington, Anatomy of a Murder, introduction to Almost Cried (Domek, p. 105).

The introduction, in which the saxophones play in homorhythmic five-part harmonies, is hard to

analyze using traditional tonal analysis. These harmonies are simpler to analyze if they are

instead looked at as containing a shared harmonic tone (in this case, C, with all chords being

stemmed from arpeggiations of a C7 chord) can be looked at in a similar light the pedal

harmonies of Debussy (Domek, p. 104). This use of pedal point is similar to the treatment of

harmonies in Ko Ko. A further look at the music reveals that all of the harmonies in this

introduction are built off of the three different octatonic scales, labeled in Example 4. The first

beat of measure two in this introduction also contains a “trademark” harmony that is found in a

lot of Ellington’s music. The chord is known as the “double diminished octave chord” and is

Ostermeyer 20

made up the intervals of a minor third, diminished fifth, and diminished octave about the lowest

note of the chord (Domek, p. 105) (Example 5).

Example 5: Ellington, “double diminished octave chord,” (Domek, p. 106).

A unique feature of the “double diminished octave chord” is that rather than the root note of the

harmony (in this case B), the top note is the pitch responsible for its harmonic function (Domek,

p. 105). The chord creates the tense sound typical of a diminished triad, yet the diminished

octave adds a brighter tone color to the sonority and creates a greater sense of direction. The

chord is used so frequently that it has become associated with the band’s overall sound, being

first heard as early as 1935 in pieces such as Reminiscing in Tempo (Domek, p. 107). Finally, in

Almost Cried from Anatomy of a Murder’s soundtrack Ellington uses another interesting

compositional technique in which he occasionally scores the baritone saxophone part higher in

pitch than the tenor saxophone. Ellington chose to do this, knowing the specific sounds of the

players, with Harry Carney on the baritone saxophone and Paul Gonsalves on the tenor

saxophone. When switching the roles of the two players in the sound of the music, the overall

sound of the band became significantly less bright (Domek, p. 107). The method of placing

Carney’s part higher than Gonsalves’ is found in past Ellington pieces as well. In Ko Ko this

technique is found during Ellington’s improvisatory piano section (Rattenbury, p. 126). This

technique demonstrates Ellington’s ability to compose based on the knowledge of the individual

players in his ensemble. This knowledge of individual timbres allowed Ellington to create a

sound that distinguishes the Ellington Orchestra from other jazz groups at the time. The use of

Ostermeyer 21

connected themes, complex harmonies such as the use of the octatonic scales and “double

diminished octave chord”, and unique scoring techniques used in Anatomy of a Murder display

Ellington’s sophistication and artfulness as a composer.

In conclusion, Duke Ellington’s skill as a composer and bandleader has had a lasting

effect on the jazz genre. Throughout his career he composed works that are to this day still

regarded as works of art, making use of a variety of styles, orchestration methods, harmonic and

melodic compositional techniques, and form creation. Ko Ko is an example a piece written

during in his early “jungle style” created when he was composing at the Cotton Club in the late

1920s. The piece is an example of the exotic nature and raw feel of his jungle style, his

treatment of motivic ideas to create continuity throughout music, use of pedal point in

harmonies, and the implementation of layering effects. Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue

demonstrates his experimentation with larger-scale forms during the 1930s, his use of form in

jazz compositions, and his treatment of improvisation that did not conform to traditional jazz

practice. Anatomy of a Murder is Ellington’s largest piece composed, written during his final

productive period. The piece demonstrates his collaboration with Billy Strayhorn, his

sophisticated harmonies, and his orchestration skills. These pieces demonstrate how skillful of a

composer Ellington was, helping to establish jazz as a much more sophisticated genre than it had

been previously. Duke Ellington’s has been come immortalized by his music and his works will

continue to be performed and studied for many years to come.

Word Count: 6065

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