The Ellington Century (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520245877)

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.

Author: David Schiff
ISBN-10: 0520245873
ISBN-13: 9780520245877
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 02/21/2012
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/28/2012
Choice 07/01/2012

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.