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Ellingtonia, Historically Speaking

2013; Oxford University Press; Volume: 96; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/musqtl/gdt010

1741-8399

Jacob Howland,

Diverse Musicological Studies

The contributions to this special double issue of The Musical Quarterly offer a wide range of historical and critical perspectives on the rich musical legacy of Duke Ellington. This issue arrives at the crest of a still-growing wave of new research, publications, and conference papers and panels devoted to Ellington, his music, his long career, and his band. Academic, critical, and amateur scholarly research has been paralleled by the steady stream of Ellington-themed trade publications, journalism, and performances that preceded and followed the 1999 centennial of Duke Ellington's birth, and broad public interest has shown few signs of abating over the last decade-plus. All of this devoted attention to “Ellingtonia”—as enthusiasts and scholars refer to the Ellington legacy—might appear to stand in a discomforting relationship with the bandleader's seeming lack of interest in dwelling on his historical legacy during his lifetime. For instance, on his sixtieth birthday in 1959, when Mercer Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Arthur Logan, and Irving Townsend (Ellington's son, creative partner, doctor, and producer, respectively) presented the composer with twenty-four bound volumes of transcribed music representing thirty years of his band's recordings, Ellington politely acknowledged his guests' generous gift and then openly left the volumes behind. Such incidents have offered writers evidence to suggest that, as John Hasse aptly said, “Ellington was not interested in dwelling on or preserving his past.”1 The immense archive of Ellington's career materials and manuscript scores—including the collected transcription volumes—housed at the Smithsonian Institution's Duke Ellington Collection since 1988 amply illustrates the vital role that Ellington's inner circle of associates and family played in preserving and promoting his artistic and historical legacy. This effort was of course paired with a long-standing public and critical interest in the very same project.