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One of the greatest tragedies in the 20 th century can be seen in the debasing of the Jazz genre as a unworthy equal to its predecessor, European Classical music. This can be seen in various statements about Jazz, such as Boris Gibalin commit, The Jazz Mania has taken on the character of a lingering illness and must be cured by means of forceful intervention. 1 This conflict can be traced through out the history of Jazz, as Classical composers have relatively disregarded this new type of music. Before Duke Ellington's Cotton Club performances, Jazz play on the radio was delegated for late night audience only. This sub-culture treatment has led many critics to disregard the Jazz movement as a dance craze, or unsuccessful recreations of Classical pieces.
This slandering of Jazz has not only created a false image of the music, but it has also lead to a full disconnection between the two genres. It is for this reason that I propose in my paper to show the relationship between these two musical categories. My hopes in demonstrating these similarities is to disassemble the schism of ignorance built between the two, and place both Jazz and Classical music on equal footing. Critics of Jazz have always perpetuated this schism by utilizing the reasoning behind Jazz, that of it being a free form interpretation, to question the legitimacy of calling a Jazz leader a composer. For how can one be styled as a proper composer and still remain true to the Traditional Jazz concepts? The classic composer has at their disposal highly skilled musicians who are trained to work within professional bodies, such as a symphony orchestra or string quartet, and who then relies on the efficiency of these professionally trained bodies to interpret his scores as he sees fit.
On the surface this appears to run contradictory to the Jazz composer whom, Has to write for specific combinations which do not exist until he brings them into being, and to rely on highly individual executants whose personal style must be blended together to give expression to his own ideas without losing their individuality. 2 Yet to interpret this blending of highly individualistic sounds as proof of a schism between this and the rigidly structured Classical composer is a false impression. This fallacy can be attributed to overemphasizing the sporadic and improvisational aspects of Jazz and refusing to address the simplistic question of how much room is there for personal interpretation within the context of composed writing? Complete artistic improvisational is only accomplished by the single performer, but Yet the moment a group or a collective improvisational steps in some relatively simple and more or less inflexible convention becomes essential if mere chaos is to be kept at bay. 3 This is why Duke Ellington's Orchestra played such an integrate role in his development of musical scores. It is here that we see the originality of Duke Ellington, for in his tailoring a piece around the performer, he created the impression of pure interpretations within the framework of structure.
As Duke once said, Another theory they hold is that there is such thing as a unadulterated improvisation without any preparation or anticipation. It is my firm belief that there has never been anyone who has blown even two bars worth listening to who didnt have some idea what he was going to play, before he started 4 This is an important aspect to bear in mind for this argument, for the mistake that Classical critics make is this distortion of the improvisational aspect to such extremes that one would believe that no compositional writing takes place. While obviously some improvisation happens in Jazz assembles, it is not that extreme, and in Ellington's case this improvisation of certain musicians was actually written in the piece. Ellington work is centered on the interplay between written and improvised music. 5 As one can see both types of composers utilize their musicians to express theyre given message and while it is through this utilization that subtle differences arise, it is hardly enough to claim this schism. To most people the infusion of African tonality into Duke Ellington's music to create Negro art, questions the connection between European music and Jazz. Here Constant Lambert responds to this.
If anyone doubts the essential element of European sophistication in Jazz, it is a simple matter for his to compare a typical piece of Jazz, such as Duke Ellington Swampy River, first with a lyric by Grieg and then with a record of African music. It must be clear to even the most prejudiced listener that apart from a few rhythmical peculiarities the Ellington piece has far more in common with the music of Grieg 6 One must understand that even when Duke infused the two tonalities of music; he still was obligated to work within guidelines of the European Harmonic tradition. 7 Yet by him keeping with this tradition he is not obligated to write music in the form of previous composers such as Stravinsky, Mozart, or Bach, for to do that would delegate Ellington's music as a duplicate work. Here is the contradiction, for no Classical composer has ever been chastise for creativity in their sound, and yet how do you explain the criticism of Ellington's work? The intentional fusing of African and European tonality is nothing more than a continuation of numerous inventive techniques used by musicians as seen in the changing sounds and techniques of Classical music over time? Thus to criticize Duke for his originality one would also have to condemn original composers such as Debussy, whos use of the whole-tone scale, instead of the traditional scale of Western music, allowed him to achieved a new nuances of mood and expression. Music is a universal aspect in which the inherit purpose of composing is expression.
In Don Giovanni Mozart treats the interplay of social and sexual tensions with keen insight into human character that transcends the comic framework, just as Die Zauberflte (1791) transcends, with its elements of ritual and allegory about human harmony and enlightenment, the world of the Viennese popular theatre from which it springs 8 As one can see this expression of the artist is relevant to Classical music, but can the same be said about Jazz? Some critics explain Jazz is nothing more than entertainment, and yet in this declaration these critics overlook the implication of the music. The purpose of Jazz is to express the conditions of the time, and for a critic to denote that the music cannot do so is not only ridicules but logically incorrect. First of all, who knows more about an artists music than the said artist? We know that Don Giovanni has meaning to it because of the authors intended purpose, thus for Duke Ellington's music to have the same type of meaning he must state it, and for which he does.
Question is always being asked whether Jazz music will ever be accepted seriously. I think so; and it has to be accepted as serious music because it is the only type which describes this again serious music is supposed to be descriptive of a period, then Jazz will...
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Research essay sample on The Similarities Between Classical Music And Ellington Jazz
