The Ellington Century - by David Schiff (Hardcover)

About the Book

""The Ellington Century" is a wonderful journey through the world of music and art. If you are already an aficionado of Ellington's music, you will enjoy the author's informative and detailed analysis of the composer's work and musical influences. If you are less familiar, this book puts Ellington's music in perspective with the great 'classical' composers of the twentieth century. David Schiff's remarkable insight into the historical and musical parallels between these composers is a delight to read and his references are vast, from Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" and Stravinsky's "Agon" to television's "Sesame Street." Schiff writes with a sense of humor and an enthusiasm for Ellington's music that comes out on every page."--George Manahan, Music Director, American Composers Orchestra
"David Schiff points us forward, observing that 'Ellington's music asks us to see with our ears and hear with our eyes.' Writing as a composer and scholar, he has a gift for making complex ideas strikingly clear. His insights move across a huge terrain of twentieth-century culture, as he builds bridges in his musical and cultural analysis where many have not seen a connection. Yet each musical work, each artist, is given his or her equal due. In this sense, he has met the spiritual and cultural challenge of Ellington's life work."--Marty Ehrlich, Composer/Instrumentalist, Associate Professor of Improvisation and Contemporary Music, Hampshire College

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

"The Ellington Century is a wonderful journey through the world of music and art. If you are already an aficionado of Ellington's music, you will enjoy the author's informative and detailed analysis of the composer's work and musical influences. If you are less familiar, this book puts Ellington's music in perspective with the great 'classical' composers of the twentieth century. David Schiff's remarkable insight into the historical and musical parallels between these composers is a delight to read and his references are vast, from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Agon to television's Sesame Street. Schiff writes with a sense of humor and an enthusiasm for Ellington's music that comes out on every page."--George Manahan, Music Director, American Composers Orchestra

"David Schiff points us forward, observing that 'Ellington's music asks us to see with our ears and hear with our eyes.' Writing as a composer and scholar, he has a gift for making complex ideas strikingly clear. His insights move across a huge terrain of twentieth-century culture, as he builds bridges in his musical and cultural analysis where many have not seen a connection. Yet each musical work, each artist, is given his or her equal due. In this sense, he has met the spiritual and cultural challenge of Ellington's life work."--Marty Ehrlich, Composer/Instrumentalist, Associate Professor of Improvisation and Contemporary Music, Hampshire College

Review Quotes

"Schiff's ode to Ellington is a joy."-- "Publishers Weekly" (5/28/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"'The Ellington Century' redefines the Duke's place in American music. . . . It's a must-read for music students and enthusiasts."--David Stabler "The Oregonian" (3/24/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"An important milestone in Ellington scholarship, a one-of-a-kind substantive, in-depth study that opens possibilities for better understanding and appreciation of Duke Ellington the composer."--Theodore (Ted) Hudson "Ellingtonia" (5/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"An invaluable contribution to music history . . . [it] opens the door to a new understanding of modernism, one that resists traditional narratives of stratification and embraces history in all its messy complexity."--Caroline Waight "Make Magazine" (5/7/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Schiff is ostensibly addressing classical listeners, but jazz folks will find the book equally fascinating, looking over the fence from the other side, at the harmonic refinements that would enrich jazz. . . . The Ellington Century's expansiveness and shifting frames of reference are typically Ellingtonian. This lively kaleidoscopic narrative evokes Ellington's inclusive spirit."--Kevin Whitehead "Downbeat" (8/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Schiff makes you yearn to be a part of the ongoing flow of all music, not just jazz, or classical, or pop, or anything else. And that is one of the highest compliments I can pay the book."--John Scott G "Music Industry Newswire" (2/23/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"The most stimulating contribution to the Ellington literature I have encountered since Eddie Lambert's Listener's Guide."--Roger Boyes "Dems Bulletin" (1/16/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"This book will be a must read for Ellingtonians and any musician interested in jazz-classical theory."--Lewis J Whittington "All About Jazz" (4/22/2012 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

David Alan Schiff is R.P. Wollenberg Professor of Music at Reed College. He is a composer, journalist whose articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times and the Atlantic, and the author of George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and The Music of Elliot Carter.